# George Michael, Reconsidered

> When Wham! became the first Western pop band to play China, the press missed the moment. A new documentary doesn’t.

By Nick Mattiske · 9 November 2026 · Reviews / Film

Canonical: https://insights.uca.org.au/articles/george-michael-reconsidered/

### **Review: Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael, Sathnam Sanghera, Picador**

### **Wham! 10 Days in China, Mike Christie (dir.), Sony**

The nineteen-eighties: they were the best of times, they were the worst of times, to borrow from Charles Dickens. For George Michael, the success of Wham! made him a global superstar. Yet fame came at a price – Wham! was widely derided by the media, who also hounded Michael because of his closeted sexuality, and at the height of his fame Michael was miserable. His story is the classic one of no longer wanting what you wanted once you get it.

Sathnam Sanghera wonders at one point in his book about Michael whether his enthusiasm for Michael’s music will undercut his reputation as a serious historian. He needn’t worry. While the early lite rap numbers haven’t dated so well, other songs such as *Careless Whisper, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go* and *Last Christmas* have become more than classic pop hits; they are cultural icons. As with other eighties phenomena, a hint of cringe has dissipated in favour of fondness and even admiration. This is beside the fact that Sanghera’s is a deep analysis of Michael’s songs, stardom and personality.

It’s a strange thing perhaps that Wham! received so much critical ire. They were treated like a boy band, and they played up the cheesiness, but take the time to listen to Michael’s songs and one notices not just the gift of Michael’s voice, characterised by Sanghera as one of the smoothest in pop history, but also the maturity of the songwriting. *Club Tropicana* may be frivolous, but the sentiments in *Careless Whisper, Freedom* and *Everything She Wants* suggest a songwriter twice Michael’s age. *Freedom* shows a masterly understanding of Motown’s genius. This is before we even get to Michael’s solo career.

The bad relationship between Wham! and the British press makes the newly released documentary film *Wham! 10 Days in China* all the more intriguing. In fact, it’s a key component of it. The film rescues footage shot for a documentary made at the time, when, in 1985, Wham! were the first Western pop band to play China, a coup concocted by their ambitious manager Simon Napier-Bell, with the ultimate goal of boosting publicity for the band in the US. That the band seemed the epitome of harmless pop fun may have helped them get across the line and adds to the curiosity of the occasion.

The original director had, absurdly, no interest in the band, so when the film was finally shown to the band, they disowned it, and it was never released. This new documentary puts the band back, literally and metaphorically, on centre stage.

The British press tagged along, creating something of a fishbowl atmosphere, and instead of meditating on the admittedly surreal but momentous cultural experience, they seemed obsessed with destroying Wham!’s credibility. Michael’s response was to disappear intermittently; Andrew Ridgeley, left to face the hostile press, did an admirable job, for a 22-year-old. The film makes up for the press in its depiction of the historical occasion; recent interviews with Ridgeley and Chinese musicians inspired by the visit shed further light on the context. Sanghera writes that, for a band that was famous for hedonism, they had quite sensible things to say about politics, alternately pragmatic and principled when appropriate.

The documentary brings out the two sides of Michael: the ambition and the shyness. Sanghera suggests Michael had the sometimes ‘contradictory’, insecure personality of the famous – vain but critical of himself, introverted and a control freak – traits that may seem contradictory but explain each other. Sanghera says Michael was no saint, but he donated tens of millions to charity, often anonymously.

Sanghera makes much of the fact that Michael was a perfectionist, which explains not only the brilliance of his songs but also, compared to the likes of Prince, why Michael wasn’t exactly prolific. Michael could enter a recording booth and sing a flawless vocal in one take, but he could also labour painfully on a song for days, recording bar by bar. It’s a well-known story that Michael went through numerous saxophone players looking for the right tone in the famous riff gracing *Careless Whisper*.

Michael refused to release concert footage that wasn’t of the highest quality and took charge of all aspects of recording and performing, drilling musicians endlessly. He played all the instruments on many songs, even if he downplayed his ability on them. Sanghera points to stubbornness, insecurity, vision and making up for a bad deal when they were first signed for Wham!’s first album. His stubbornness extended to hiding from the media that he was gay, though, says Sanghera, who could blame him, considering the toxicity of the media environment at the time, which now seems somewhat unbelievable.

Another side of Michael’s insecurity was his status as the son of an immigrant, something with which Sanghera, a historian of empire and similarly a son of immigrants, can identify. Although later Wham! literally became poster-boys for the success of British immigration, it made Michael self-conscious and keen to change his name to make him more English.

What this meant for Michael as a performer, says Sanghera, is that, despite hungering for mainstream success, he had a sensitivity to outsiders and was attracted to African American music, whether it be rap or soul. Here we get into the waters of cultural appropriation, of which Michael was accused, but the verdict is mixed – R&B is now a global success and categories are more fluid than they were in Michael’s time; Michael might even be able to take some credit for R&B being accepted by white audiences. ‘Kissing a Fool’ shows how insanely suited to jazz Michael’s voice was; Sanghera says Michael was more attracted to dance and felt becoming a crooner was at odds with his desire to remain fresh (something, ultimately, he wasn’t completely successful at).

The book opens with a list of Michael’s achievements, but Sanghera suggests that the ‘jury is out’ on Michael’s place in popular culture, mainly because his life often overshadowed the music. There was the constant attention on his private life, and then there were the drugs, which might have been an escape from the scrutiny, and might also explain the sense of drift in the later part of Michael’s short life. Ridiculously, there’s this lingering sense that despite Michael’s lofty achievements, if things had been otherwise, he might have achieved more.

Filed under: George Michael, Wham! 10 Days in China, documentary, book review, review, pop music, fame, immigration, LGBTQ+