Editing Wham! (section)

==History==
Michael and Ridgeley met at [[Bushey Meads School]] in [[Bushey]] near the town of [[Watford]] in Hertfordshire. The two at first performed in a short-lived [[ska]] band called the Executive, alongside former school friends David Mortimer (later known as [[David Austin (singer)|David Austin]]), Andrew Leaver, Tony Bywaters, Jamie Gould and Paul Ridgeley.<ref>{{cite tweet|user=ajridgeley|author=Andrew Ridgeley|number=815239959309414400|date=31 December 2016|title=No 'Harry Tadayon' in The Executive GM, AJR, David Austin, Andrew Leaver & Paul Ridgeley Jamie Gould & Tony Bywaters joined us at 1 point 2}}</ref> When this group split, Michael and Ridgeley eventually formed Wham!. Ridgeley explained that the name originated from a need for "something that captured the essence of what set us apart—our energy and our friendship—and then it came to us: Wham! Wham! was snappy, immediate, fun and boisterous too."<ref name="Ridgeley 2019 p. 90">{{cite book |last=Ridgeley |first=Andrew |title=Wham! George & Me: The Sunday Times Bestseller |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-241-38583-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sk6MDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT90 |page=90}}</ref> British graphic design studio [[Stylorouge]] was credited with adding the exclamation mark to the name of the band.<ref>{{cite news |first=Gavin |last=Lucas |url=https://www.creativereview.co.uk/dream-in-colour-the-art-of-stylorouge/ |title=Dream In Colour: The Art of Stylorouge |newspaper=Creative Review |date=10 January 2012}}</ref>

Ridgeley and Michael worked persistently to get a foot in the door with recording executives. Ridgeley would frequently run into Mark Dean from [[Innervision Records]] at the Three Crowns Public House in Bushey Heath [[Hertfordshire]], and hand him the band's demo tape.<ref name="The Three Crowns – Traditional Pub Located in Bushey Heath, UK">{{cite web |title=Wham! – The Three Crowns |website=The Three Crowns – Traditional Pub Located in Bushey Heath, UK |url=http://www.three-crowns.com/about/history |access-date=21 June 2020}}</ref> In February 1982, Dean met with Michael and Ridgeley and offered them a recording deal. "I'm going to offer Wham! a deal with my new label Innervision," Dean said. "It's not a huge thing, I'm taking a punt. I'd like you to have a crack at recording a single or two and we'll see what happens from there."<ref name="Ridgeley 2019 p. 142">{{cite book |last=Ridgeley |first=Andrew |title=Wham! George & Me: The Sunday Times Bestseller |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-241-38583-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sk6MDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT90 |page=142}}</ref>

Initially the pair wrote songs such as "[[Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)]]" and "[[Club Tropicana]]" together, but part way through the recording of their debut album ''[[Fantastic (Wham! album)|Fantastic]]'', the pair agreed that Michael was the stronger songwriter, and would take creative control.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ridgeley |first1=Andrew |title=Wham! George & Me |date=2019 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780241385807 |pages=17, 184 |edition=First}}</ref> Still teenagers, they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters, proud to live a carefree life without work or commitment. This was reflected in their earliest singles which, part-parody, part-social comment, briefly earned Wham! a reputation as a dance protest group. The debut record to be released by the band was "Wham Rap!" in June 1982. The song charted at only No. 105.<ref name="Jovanovic 2015 p. 36">{{cite book |last=Jovanovic |first=Rob |title=George Michael: The Biography |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-349-41124-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GiZRCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT35 |page=35}}</ref> In September 1982, "[[Young Guns (Go for It)]]" was issued. Initially, it also stalled outside the UK Top 40 but the band got lucky when the BBC programme ''[[Top of the Pops]]'' scheduled them after another act unexpectedly pulled out of the show.<ref name="Beaumont 2016">{{cite web |last=Beaumont |first=Mark |title=George Michael Obituary: 1963–2016 |website=NME |date=26 December 2016 |url=https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/george-michael-obituary-1924150 |access-date=16 June 2019}}</ref>

===Increasing success===
Wham!'s first manager was [[Bryan Morrison]].<ref name="Herbert 2017 p. 24">{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Emily |title=George Michael – The Life: 1963–2016: The Man, The Legend, The Music |publisher=John Blake Publishing |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-78606-471-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vf-DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT24 |page=24}}</ref> The effect of Wham! on the public was felt from the moment they finished their debut performance of "Young Guns (Go for It)" on ''Top of the Pops''. Michael and Ridgley wore white espadrilles sockless, an open suede jacket and polo shirt, and rolled-up denim jeans.<ref name="Herbert 2017 p. 27">{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Emily |title=George Michael – The Life: 1963–2016: The Man, The Legend, The Music |publisher=John Blake Publishing |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-78606-471-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vf-DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT27 |page=27}}</ref> Ridgeley stood behind him, flanked by backing singers [[Dee C. Lee]] and [[Shirlie Holliman]]. Afterwards, the song shot into the Top 40 at No. 24 and peaked at No. 3 in December. The following year, Dee C. Lee began her work with [[Paul Weller]] in [[the Style Council]], and was replaced by [[Helen DeMacque|Helen 'Pepsi' DeMacque]]. Holliman and DeMacque would later record as [[Pepsi & Shirlie]]. Wham! followed up "Young Guns (Go for It)" with a reissue of "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)", "[[Bad Boys (Wham! song)|Bad Boys]]" and "[[Club Tropicana]]". By the end of 1983, Wham! were competing against pop rivals [[Culture Club]] and [[Duran Duran]] as one of Britain's biggest pop acts. Their debut album ''[[Fantastic (Wham! album)|Fantastic]]'' spent two weeks at No. 1 in the UK album charts in 1983, but the album achieved only modest success in the US.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/wham!/ |title=WHAM! &#124; Artist |publisher=Official Charts |access-date=29 December 2012}}</ref>

===Legal disputes with Innervision===
Soon after this, Ridgeley became conscious of legal problems with their initial contract at Innervision. While the legal battle raged, Innervision released a medley of non-single album tracks from ''Fantastic'', entitled "[[Club Fantastic Megamix]]". Wham! publicly denounced the release.<ref name="Davis 2012 p. 264">{{cite book |last=Davis |first=Sharon |title=80s Chart-Toppers: Every Chart-Topper Tells a Story |publisher=Mainstream Publishing |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-78057-411-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v_IyT35pJCgC&pg=PT264 |page=264}}</ref> After all the legal wrangling, Innervision settled out of court.<ref name="Fricke Fricke 1986">{{cite magazine |last=Fricke |first=David |title=The Second Coming of George Michael |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=20 November 1986 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-second-coming-of-george-michael-103627/ |access-date=17 June 2019}}</ref>

===Switch to Epic and continued success===
After the settlement, Innervision's distributor, [[Sony Music Entertainment|CBS Records]], took over Wham!'s contract, placing them on the [[Columbia Records|Columbia]] label in the U.S. and on [[Epic Records|Epic]] worldwide. Wham! returned in 1984 with a new album and an updated pop image. These changes helped to propel Wham!'s next single, "[[Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go]]", into the top ten of several countries around the world. It became their first U.S. and UK No. 1 single, accompanied by a video of the duo with Pepsi and Shirlie, all wearing [[Katharine Hamnett]] T-shirts with the slogans "CHOOSE LIFE" and "GO GO".<ref name="Sibbles 2009">{{cite web |last=Sibbles |first=Emma |title=Get it off your chest: The slogan T-shirt has a noble history |website=The Guardian |date=18 June 2009 |url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/19/slogan-t-shirts-hamnett |access-date=17 June 2019}}</ref>

The next single was "[[Careless Whisper]]", featuring only Michael in the music video. In certain markets, including the U.S., the single was promoted as "Wham! featuring George Michael", while most other markets it was credited to Michael as a solo act despite being written by both Michael and Ridgeley. The song was a ballad, marking a departure from previous releases. It reached No. 1, selling over 1.3 million copies in the UK.<ref name="everyhit.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.everyhit.com/bestsellingsingles.html |title=Best Selling Singles Of All Time |website=EveryHit.com |access-date=29 December 2012}}</ref> 

"Careless Whisper" marked a new phase in Michael's career, as his labels began to somewhat distance him from the group Wham!'s playboy image. The next single was "[[Freedom (Wham! song)|Freedom]]" and was simply promoted as a Wham! single. Wham! used a video edited together from footage of their tour in China for "Freedom{{"'}}s single release in the US, which was in July 1985. Their second album, ''[[Make It Big]]'', climbed to No. 1 on the album charts and the band set off on an arena tour at the end of 1984.<ref name="tours.yogsbackyard.co.uk">{{cite web |url=http://www.tours.yogsbackyard.co.uk/home.php |title=Tours Menu |publisher=Tours.yogsbackyard.co.uk |access-date=29 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120912030459/http://www.tours.yogsbackyard.co.uk/home.php |archive-date=12 September 2012}}</ref>

The double A-side single "[[Last Christmas]]" / "[[Everything She Wants]]" became the highest-selling single ever to peak at No. 2 in the UK charts. It stayed at No. 2 for five weeks and, as of February 2020, was the 10th best-selling single of all time in the United Kingdom, selling over 1.9 million copies in the UK.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-best-selling-singles-of-all-time-on-the-official-uk-chart__21298/|title=The best-selling singles of all time on the Official UK Chart|website=Officialcharts.com|access-date=24 June 2020}}</ref> Wham! donated all their royalties from the single to the Ethiopian famine appeal to coincide with the fund-raising intentions of Band Aid's "[[Do They Know It's Christmas?]]" the song which kept them out of the top spot. Nevertheless, Band Aid's success meant that Michael had achieved No. 1 status in the UK within three separate entities in 1984—as a solo artist, as one half of a duo, and as part of a charity ensemble.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pure80spop.co.uk/1984.htm |title=The complete list of the UK No.1 songs of the 80s :1984 |website=Pure80spop.co.uk |access-date=29 December 2012}}</ref> At the end of 1985, the US [[Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1985|''Billboard'' charts]] listed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" as the No. 3 song and "Careless Whisper" as the No. 1 song of the year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1985 |title=Billboard Top 100 Songs of 1985 – Year End Charts |website=Bobborst.com |access-date=29 December 2012}}</ref>

===China (1985)===
In March 1985, Wham! took a break from recording to embark on a lengthy world tour, including a ground-breaking 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group.<ref name="McCarty 2010"/> The China excursion was a publicity scheme devised by [[Simon Napier-Bell]] (one of their two managers; [[Jazz Summers]] being the other). It began with a concert at the Peoples' Gymnasium in Beijing in front of 12,000 people. They also played a concert in front of 5,000 in Canton. The two concerts were played without compensation.<ref name="Neville"/> Wham!'s visit to China attracted huge media attention across the world. Napier-Bell later admitted that he used cunning tactics to sabotage the efforts of rock band [[Queen (band)|Queen]] to be the first to play in China: he made two brochures for the Chinese authorities; one featuring Wham! fans as pleasant middle-class youngsters and one portraying Queen lead singer [[Freddie Mercury]] in typically flamboyant poses. The Chinese opted for Wham!.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4379399.stm |title=How Wham! brought the West to China |work=BBC News |date=24 March 2005 }}</ref>

British director [[Lindsay Anderson]] was engaged to accompany Wham! to China and make a documentary film about the visit. Anderson called his one-hour and 18 minute film ''If You Were There''. In the final stages of editing, Anderson was dismissed<ref>{{cite web|url-status=dead|url=http://lindsayandersonfilms.comxa.com/wham.html|title=Wham in China – Foreign Skies (1986) AKA Lindsay Anderson's If You Were There|access-date=11 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305014018/http://lindsayandersonfilms.comxa.com/wham.html |archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> by Wham!'s management, the editing team quit, and the film was re-edited, renamed and released as ''[[Wham! in China: Foreign Skies]]''. According to a 2006 interview with ''The Independent'',<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/how-wham-made-lindsay-anderson-see-red-in-china-358347.html|title=How Wham! made Lindsay Anderson see red in China|last=Kelbie|first=Paul|date=17 August 2012|work=The Independent|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> Andy Stephens, manager for Michael, said that the film [Anderson's version] was simply not good enough to be shown in public: "It's a dreadful film&nbsp;... It's 20 years old and it's rubbish. Why on earth should we allow it to be shown?" However, after viewing it in 2008, critic and journalist [[John Harris (critic)|John Harris]] described it as "a rich, poetic, panoramic portrait of China's strangeness to the eyes of outsiders".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/sep/19/drama |title=Sentenced to a lifetime of stress |last=Harris |first=John |author-link=John Harris (critic) |date=19 September 2008 |website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |access-date=11 January 2017}}</ref>

===Live Aid (1985)===
Sporting a beard, Michael appeared with Ridgeley onstage at [[Live Aid]] on 13 July 1985 (although they did not perform as Wham!). Michael sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with [[Elton John]], while Ridgeley joined [[Kiki Dee]] in the row of backing singers. In November, Wham! released the single "[[I'm Your Man (Wham! song)|I'm Your Man]]" which went to No. 1 in the UK charts.

Around this time, Ridgeley began a relationship with [[Keren Woodward]] of [[Bananarama]], and also took up the hobby of rally driving. "[[Last Christmas]]" was re-issued for the festive season and again made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 6, while Michael took up offers he was starting to receive to add his voice to other artists' songs. He performed backing vocals for [[David Cassidy]] ("The Last Kiss"), and also for Elton John on his successful singles "[[Nikita (song)|Nikita]]" (UK No. 3) and "[[Wrap Her Up]]" (UK No. 12), on which he sang co-lead vocals.

===Break-up (1986)===
Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience, and therefore, he and Ridgeley officially announced the break-up of Wham! in the spring of 1986. Before going their separate ways, a farewell single "[[The Edge of Heaven]]", and a greatest hits double album titled ''[[The Final (album)|The Final]]'' would be forthcoming, along with a farewell concert at London's [[Wembley Stadium]] also entitled [[The Final (concert)|The Final]]. Announcing the break-up, Michael said: "I think it should be the most amicable split in pop history."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.george.michael.szm.com/Esection/E1986sh.html|title=Press 1986 – Smash Hits|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref>

The farewell single reached No. 1 in June 1986. "[[Where Did Your Heart Go?]]" was the group's final single in the United States. The song was a cover of a [[Was (Not Was)]] song. 

While ''The Final'' was the duo's last album release, it was not released in North America, Instead, Columbia released a pared down album called ''[[Music from the Edge of Heaven]]'' with some alternate tracks from The Final.

At Wembley Stadium on 28 June 1986, Wham! bid goodbye to their fans and each other with an emotional embrace at the end of its final concert. 72,000 people attended the eight-hour event,<ref name="tours.yogsbackyard.co.uk"/> which included support artists, on a scorching hot day in London. The duo had been together for five years, selling over 28 million records and 15 million singles. ''Foreign Skies'', the documentary of their tour of China, received its world premiere as part of the festivities.

===Post-Wham! and Michael's death===
In January 1991, Ridgeley joined Michael on stage for a few songs at the [[encore]] of his performance at the [[Rock in Rio]] event at the [[Estádio do Maracanã|Maracanã Stadium]] in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.<ref name="tours.yogsbackyard.co.uk"/> 

[[Sony Music]], the owners of CBS Records, released a greatest hits compilation in 1997 called ''[[The Best of Wham!: If You Were There...]]''. Sony released another compilation in 2023 called ''[[The Singles: Echoes from the Edge of Heaven]]''.

On 21 November 2009, there was a Wham!-themed night on television's ''[[The X Factor (UK)|The X Factor]]'' in the UK. Michael later appeared on the show's final episode, performing a duet of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with finalist and eventual winner [[Joe McElderry]]. 

In 2012, Michael said that there was no truth in speculation that he and Ridgeley were set for a Wham! reunion to mark the 30th anniversary of the group's first album.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.itv.com/news/2012-06-20/wham-reunion-rumoured-after-george-michael-announces-new-single/ |title=Wham! reunion rumours quashed by George Michael|publisher=[[ITV News]] |date=20 June 2012 |access-date=29 December 2012}}</ref>

Michael died from heart and liver disease at his home in [[Goring-on-Thames|Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire]] on Christmas Day 2016, at the age of 53. Upon hearing of Michael's death, Ridgeley paid his respects on Twitter, saying, "Heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend Yog."<ref>{{cite tweet|user=ajridgeley|author=Andrew Ridgeley|number=813176997174280192|date=26 December 2016|title=Heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend Yog. Me, his loved ones, his friends, the world of music, the world at...}}</ref> Michael was posthumously inducted into the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] as a solo artist in November 2023, with Ridgeley as the induction presenter.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Monroe |first1=Jazz |last2=Lindert |first2=Hattie |title=Miguel, Adam Levine, and Carrie Underwood Perform at George Michael's Rock Hall 2023 Induction |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/miguel-adam-levine-and-carrie-underwood-perform-at-george-michaels-rock-hall-2023-induction/ |website=Pitchfork |access-date=4 November 2023 |date=4 November 2023}}</ref>