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Watch Andrew Ridgeley’s tribute to George Michael at the 2017 Brit Awards

Andrew Ridgeley made a rare public appearance last night at the 2017 Brit Awards, to pay tribute to his friend and former bandmate George Michael.

With Wham!‘s backing singers, Pepsi and Shirlie, by his side, Ridgeley spoke movingly about of how a “supernova in a firmament of shining stars had been extinguished” when his “beloved friend” died on Christmas Day last year. Recalling the very early, days he spoke of how the pair of them “monkeyed around recording sketches and jingles in George’s bedroom” and “larked around and laughed a lot”.

Andrew finished by saying that George’s legacy is one of “unquestionable brilliance” and one that will continue to “shine and resonate for generations to come”. Watch the full tribute below.

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23 Comments

23 thoughts on “Watch Andrew Ridgeley’s tribute to George Michael at the 2017 Brit Awards”

  1. So touching and sincere the words of Andrew, Pepsi and Shirley were….so bad was Chris Martin’s performance with his eeky voice, totally out tune a few times….gosh, I didn’t think I could hate him more….but he managed to do so… hehehehe ;-)
    Totally confused why they didn’t pick a good singer from George’s generation…..like Simon Le Bon?

  2. Well I watched this until chris martin appeared on stage. No idea what he’s got to do with George Michael. They should have got someone with an actual history. How about Boy George? Elton? Have no interest in watching the rest but Pepsi & Shirley & Andrew were great. For once, someone who was close were doing the speech. Thank you.

    1. Boy George, really? He was absolutely vile to George for 25 years, in print in both volumes of his autobiography and in interviews with the press.
      Boy George is now peddling the ‘I’m spiritual’ lines again and claiming that they were both rivals and their egos wouldn’t allow them to be friends. That is rubbish. George Michael was massively more successful than Boy George and for much longer. Boy George was consumed with bitterness and envy over GM’s career.

  3. I’d rather prefer Chris’ interpretation than Adele’s one. She chose a fast song turning it into a slow one with a pletora of fantastic George’s ballads….

    1. @ MINO = Absolutely can’t stand Chris Martin or any of his material. Sincerely cringe worthy every time, no matter what. IMHO Adele’s take on “Fast Love” was a totally appropriate, fitting tribute and if you know anything about George’s personal life, he would have been sobbing uncontrollably as a witness to her performance during the “I Miss My Baby” section. She struck the chord right there.
      On that note, I really can’t stand Adele’s own material. Completely bland, repetitive… and depressing! This statement is coming from a Nick Drake and Joy Division fanatic.

  5. I think the tribute, although meant well, failed to adequately describe the true nature of George’s influence. In reality he got far more interesting as an artist after he stopped working with these three so perhaps not a surprise. It made him sound sexless and apolitical, when, in reality, they were core to his work. It is the classic heteronormative re-interpretation of dead gay stars and happened with Freddie Mercury too. They mentioned Princess Diana, but not that it was George who helped her take on AIDS as one of her causes and no mention of the struggles with Sony (there is, I understand, an extraordinary and shameful back story to that episode that has yet to be told and makes GM seems much more reasonable in his actions). Rest of the show pretty darn awful; a tad bored of Coldplay doing that same old glitter drop routine and Robbie just doing tracks from his worst-selling album yet seems incredibly self-indulgent when he was winning an award to celebrate his career. As for the throwaway International awards…

  6. I’m kind of saddened that so many of the people who have left comments above my own have felt so compelled to cast such a critical eye at what must have been a pretty tough performance for Chris Martin. I’ll take a few off-target notes, over sterile/lip-synched perfection, any day.

  7. George and Chris’s voices blend really well, but the beginning of the song (Chris solo) isn’t as strong, mainly because the original is so familiar, and George was able to sing it so well–not just technically, but with this real sense of emotion. He rang every bit of feeling out of every single word in that song–I don’t know if anyone can sing it like he did.

    We tend to get so obsessed with technical perfection in singing in the modern marketplace–vocal runs, whistle registers, complex phrasings–that I think we forget the amazing feeling and beauty that can come from someone simply emoting the song–giving it the real feeling and interpretation it warrants. George was one of the extremely rare cases of someone who could sing both technically well and really sell the spirit of the song. I’d take that any day over a Celine Dion of a Christina Aguilera showing off the tricks they can do with their voices but not putting an ounce of emotion into the song.

  8. I know that these days most people rubbish these televised tributes, but i think both of the George tributes, Brits and Grammy’s were really well done.

  10. That was a really beautiful and heartfelt tribute to George by his friends and former band mates. I hadn’t really thought that Andrew would take to the stage with Shirlie and Pepsi but of course it makes sense by taking us back to the very beginning.
    I still can’t believe George is gone, it’s just so sad.

  13. I didn’t like the show at all and stopped watching after a bit but this was very moving. Thanks for sharing it, it was very moving and a beautiful tribute.

  14. saw the Brits.
    no mention of a former Mrs Paul Weller?
    …Dee C Lee was Shirlie’s original partner in Wham! circa 82/83 & appeared in those early music videos & TOTP before leaving to join The Style Council and a solo U.K. Top 3 single in 1985 with “See The Day”.

    1. Yeah . I thought they’d ask her as well to make an appearance as well. It was actually her that rapped on Young Guns and not Shirlie (as seen in the video).

      1. From what I remember, Dee got rather negative about Wham! after she joined the ‘cool’ Style Council. I recall her saying things in interviews like ‘With Wham! I was just making them look glam.’

        Pepsi was there at Wham!’s peak from 84’s ‘Make It Big’ to ‘The Final’ at Wembley.

  15. I was really moved by the three of them sharing their history with George, as well as a bit surprised that they were allowed to speak so long. I wasn’t a fan of Chris’s delivery of “A Different Corner,” but the moment George started singing, the tears started flowing. I wish we’d seen more music over his lifetime, but I’m grateful for the strong body of work he leaves behind.

  16. Wow, thank you SO much for posting this. What an absolutely beautiful tribute. Chris Martin was brave to take this on. During the duet, George Michael seemed to effortlessly sing it live, Chris not so much but brave nonetheless. Really nice tribute. What an incredible loss of talent, kindness and generosity.

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