Wham!

In the early 1980s, American fans of pop music found themselves in the midst of the Second British Invasion. British pop and new wave groups such as Culture Club, Duran Duran, the Police, Depeche Mode, Human League, and A Flock of Seagulls stormed American radio, the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and MTV. Among these groups was a duo made up of two former school chums, Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael. The duo called itself Wham! and became one of the biggest Britpop bands of the decade, racking up seven top 10 hits in the United States. By the time the group disbanded in 1986, Wham! had made history as the first Western pop band to tour China and had set the stage for Michael’s solo career as a pop superstar.

From boyhood friendship to band formation

Georgios Panayiotou and Andrew Ridgeley met when they were both about 12 years old after Panayiotou and his family moved from London to Radlett, a town about 20 miles northwest of the city. They quickly became close friends, sharing a love of music and bonding over their similar “outsider” backgrounds. Panayiotou’s father was of Greek heritage and had immigrated to England from Cyprus. Ridgeley’s father was of Egyptian, Italian, and Yemeni heritage and had immigrated to England from Egypt during the Suez Crisis. However, whereas Ridgeley was confident and rebellious, Panayiotou was shy and insecure and was belittled by his father for his musical dreams. Nevertheless, within a few years Panayiotou and Ridgeley formed a ska band with other friends called the Executive, but it was short-lived.

In 1981 Panayiotou and Ridgeley formed Wham!, taking the name from a short rap lyric improvised by Ridgeley while the two friends were out clubbing one night. The lyric also became the refrain of their first single, “Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)”: “Wham, bam! / I am a man / Job or no job, you can’t tell me that I’m not.” Featuring Panayiotou on vocals and a spunky disco beat, the song was a cheeky response to the high rate of youth unemployment in the United Kingdom. It was also a rebuke of the bourgeois aspirations of the duo’s parents. The single was released in 1982 shortly after the band landed a record deal with the Innervision label. About this time, Panayiotou adopted the performing name George Michael.

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George Michael: Career with Wham!

Later in 1982 Wham! had its first hit with “Young Guns (Go for It!),” another song of youthful rebellion, which was boosted by an appearance on the British television show Top of the Pops. Wham! followed up with the singles “Bad Boys” and “Club Tropicana,” the latter of which became a kind of blueprint for the band’s effortlessly pure pop sound.

Although officially a duo, Wham! had recruited two backup singers: Shirlie Holliman (Ridgeley’s girlfriend at the time) and soul singer Dee C. Lee. After Lee left to pursue a solo career in 1983, she was replaced by Pepsi DeMacque, just in time for the group’s meteoric rise. That year the band’s debut album, Fantastic, went to number one in Britain.

Making it big in the U.S. and beyond

In 1984 Wham! broke through in the United States. The band’s sophomore effort, Make It Big, reached number one on the Billboard album chart and spawned a world tour. Its first single, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” was supported by a music video that showcased the band’s youthful energy, good looks, and colorful style, all of which seemed tailor-made for the burgeoning MTV era. Michael and Ridgeley became teen idols.

For both Ridgeley and Michael, success came with drawbacks. Ridgeley earned the nickname “Randy Andy” in the tabloids for his hard partying, while Michael’s sexuality was also the subject of gossip in the media. Michael neither hid the fact that he was gay nor made public pronouncements about his sexuality. However, the media’s presentation of him as heterosexual contributed to his growing struggles with depression.

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Meanwhile, Michael had emerged as the more ambitious and musically gifted member of the band. He had a supple and soulful voice that could be powerfully emotive on ballads such as “Careless Whisper,” a sultry song of infidelity with an indelible lyrical hook (“Guilty feet have got no rhythm”) that shot to number one and became a pop classic. By this point, Michael was writing most of the band’s songs and assumed more creative control of its output. For “Careless Whisper,” which he and Ridgeley first composed in 1981, the perfectionist-minded Michael insisted on several rounds of production over three years before the song was completed to his satisfaction. When it was released in 1985, it was billed as a solo single in some countries and credited to “Wham! Featuring George Michael” in others. Either way, it was an indication of Michael’s rising star.

China tour and Live Aid

In 1985 Wham! toured China, where Michael and Ridgeley were presented as representatives of Western youth. Footage of the tour featured in the video for the hit song “Freedom” and formed the basis of the documentary Wham! in China: Foreign Skies (1986). Wham! also had hits in 1985 with the jubilant “I’m Your Man” and the rueful “Everything She Wants,” which became its third single to reach number one. That summer Michael performed a duet with Elton John at the Live Aid benefit concert for Ethiopian famine relief, while Ridgeley sang backup.

Band breakup and death of George Michael

Yet, in terms of the band’s future, the writing was on the wall. In 1986 Wham! announced that it was breaking up and released a final album, Music from the Edge of Heaven, which includes the now-classic holiday song “Last Christmas” and “A Different Corner,” another ballad that was billed as a solo single for Michael. Determined to go out on its own terms (and convey that Michael and Ridgeley remained friends), Wham! performed a farewell concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in June 1986. Michael released a statement to fans that said, “Whatever else, [this concert] will represent the end of four years of something most people don’t believe in. A dream come true. It’s a cliché, but I can’t think of a better way to describe what has happened to Andrew and me since the beginning of 1982.” He added, “Something’s telling me that whatever lies ahead, nothing will mean as much to me as this group has.”

Both Ridgeley and Michael followed up with solo albums, but Michael’s career far eclipsed Ridgeley’s. Michael died in 2016 at age 53, but not before establishing himself as transformative pop star and an important trailblazer for LGBTQ+ recording artists.

Legacy

After Michael’s death, numerous films and biographies were released reassessing the legacy of Wham! as well as of Michael’s career. Notable among these is a memoir by Ridgeley, Wham!, George Michael and Me (2019), and the Netflix documentary Wham! (2023). That same year Michael was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In an emotional induction speech during the ceremony, Ridgeley stated:

George and I grew up together in an exceptional friendship. It was everlast. Our youth was lived in each other’s pockets as good as brothers. And along the way from schoolboys to adults, we achieved as Wham! our burning boyhood ambition. Wham! was the realization of everything I had ever aspired to and the realization for George that stretching before him along a gilded and infinite path lay his destiny.