You know as well as I do how reporting of the death of George Michael will go after today. Late last night, Christmas Night, news reached us about the death of George Michael, yet another star who will no longer shine. A glittering superstar who provided us with some of the best pop music of the 1980s. But George was far more than just another pop superstar: he changed the world. He made it okay to tell the world you were gay.
His image was one of ladies man in the Wham! years, appearing in videos with beautiful young women. Sexuality, you may find this hard to believe, mattered in those days. Few people had the courage, which was needed, to come out. When George Michael did come out, I felt he was the bravest man in the world.
The usual suspects, the tawdry, tacky tabloids picked all over his private life, a backward-looking media of old men who acted as if homosexuality was an illness, trying to satisfy the prejudices of its readers, as papers do. Now that George has died, the next step will undoubtedly take us back in time, if we let it.
The Paul Dacres of this world, the merchants of sleaze and hate, will doubtless rake over the ashes, first desperately trying to establish the cause of George’s death, then pontificating about his lifestyle and, of course, his sexuality. Judging from social networks this morning, there was little speculation, just feelings of sadness and, yes, loss. These evil – yes, evil – newspapers like the Mail, Express and Sun have no form of conscience, no principles and few morals. Don’t encourage them: don’t buy them.
I confess, I did not care much for George’s post-Wham! musical years, but that’s not to say it wasn’t any good, just different. But Wham!, they were just something else. We know that Wham! was just George with his modestly talented best mate Andrew Ridgley, but somehow the collective sum of their union was greater, in my view, than what followed.
I wish that just for once we could allow someone, a superstar like George Michael, to genuinely rest in peace, to preserve what remains of his privacy and if we have the will we can allow that to happen. If we choose not to buy the filthy, lying red tops, how will they make their money and money is not just the bottom line, it’s every single line.
George Michael’s great music gave many people hope. It’s up to us to ensure that hope triumphs over hate.
