George Michael bids goodbye
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George Michael who sang on two of the most famous Christmas songs ‘Do They Know Its Christmas’ and ‘Last Christmas’ sadly passed away on Christmas Day 2016 at his home in Oxfordshire aged 53. Michael whose real name was Georgios Panayiotou shot to fame in 1984 as a member of the pop duo Wham. He was one of the pin up stars for teenagers of the time together with Andrew Ridgley, as they took the music world by storm is what is considered by and large the best era for pop music. ‘Club Tropicana’ laid the ground work for Wham and before long the dance floors most enticing track ‘Wake Me Up’ was upon us. What followed was ‘Freedom’ from the huge album ‘Make It Big’.
A shower of hit songs such as ‘Everything She Wants’, ‘Last Christmas’, ‘I‘m Your Man’, Edge Of Heaven’ and ‘Where Did Your Heart Go’. Wham heeded Ethiopia’s desperate famine call of 1984 singing on Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know Its’ Christmas’ and ‘Last Christmas’, their initiative for the Ethiopian famine fund. Wham was the first Western pop band permitted to perform in China. Michael’s solo career took off while Wham was together with the globally appealing hit song ‘Careless Whisper’ followed by ‘Different Corner’. His debut album ‘Faith’ was perhaps his best solo effort as was underlined by the title track and the singles ‘I Want Your Sex’ and ‘One More Try’.
For this writer the stand out track was ‘Kissing A Fool’. The pressure was on for Michael to follow up with an equally good album. As the hits became sparse there were exceptional tracks nevertheless, such as ‘Jesus To A Child and ‘Fastlove’, both chart toppers in the UK. He was a winner of many awards among them BRITS, Grammys’ Ivor Novello and much, much more. George Michael’s live performance at the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert with Queen was transformed to hit duet ‘Somebody To Love’ which topped the UK chart in 1993. His collaborated with artist from various genres. First with the ‘queen of soul’ Aretha Franklin ‘I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)’ in 1987, a release that topped both in the US and the UK. Also with Elton John on one of Elton’s most recognised tracks ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, again a chart topper on both sides of the Atlantic and with Whitney Houston in 2000. He release seven albums as a solo artist and sold over 100 million worldwide. Sadly 2016 bid goodbye to another talented giant of the music industry.
The band Status Quo lost their guitarist Rick Parfitt on 24th December after the 68 year old died at a hospital in Spain following complications to a shoulder injury. He had suffered a heart attack a few months earlier. He was awarded the OBE in 2012 together band mate Francis Rossi.
Liam Payne of One Direction fame lived up to the spirit of Christmas as he took time to visit the hospital where he was born 23 year ago. He visited the children’s ward at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton and distributed gifts to children between the ages 8 to 10. The gifts were opened on Christmas Day.
The band Clean Bandit took the Christmas No: 1 song as their ‘Rockabye’ held firmly to the top spot for a seventh consecutive week. The song out performed its competitors for the prestigious Christmas No:1 song and now has a combined sale of 589,000 copies. Taking the runner up spot is the song ‘Human’ by Rag ‘N’ Bone Man which climbed from 5 to No: 2. The 31 year old singer Rag is the recent winner of the BRITs Critics Choice prize.
The new single ‘Touch’ by Little Mix took a big leap on the singles chart from 23 to land on the top 10 at No: 4.Its the second release from their album ‘Glory Days’ and follow to huge No: 1 ‘Shout Out To My Ex’.      Â
| UK TOP 10 TW LW 1 1 Rockabye – Clean Bandit ft: Anne-Marie& Sean Paul. |