It took 18 months of negotiation between Simon Napier-Bell, the agent of the Wham! 1985 concert of singer George Michael in Beijing, and the Chinese government. When the deal was finalized, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, his music partner, made history by being the first western pop act to perform in the communist state.
A Cultural Activity
Held at the Worker’s Gymnasium in April 1985, the Wham! Concert attracted 15,000 people. Those who attended the event recalled the calm and restraint of the Chinese audience who were exposed to live western music and foreign visitors who jumped up and down with the music, CNN reported. One of the locals who watched the concert, Mao Danqing, who was a Peking University student in 1985, considered the concert like a cultural activity.
Now in Japan, Mao noted that prior to the concert of George Michael – who died on Christmas Day at age 53 – Chinese stage performance was so fake and not natural. It was his first time to watch a concert which made Mao wonder then the manner the music, sound and people perform.
Wham’s concert happened, along with the introduction of foreign music, novels and films as China opened its iron door to the world. However, he pointed out, these western cultural influence were introduced to Chinese with the people not prepared for its influx.
New Lifestyle
Mao said the symbol of George Michael’s concert in China goes beyond music but widened to a lifestyle that represented freedom, enthusiasm and unrestrained and natural passion. He added because that lifestyle represented enlightenment in China during that time, it was what every Chinese youth was trying to mimic in college.
According to Michael Lippman, the longtime manager of George Michael, the singer died of heart failure. Although results of the autopsy has not yet been released, Lippman said there was no foul play involved. George Michael was found in his bed, lying peacefully, US Magazine reported.