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Make It Big: The Year Wham! Conquered Two Continents
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
In 1984, Wham! scored a transatlantic number one with 'Make It Big', wrote an immortal Christmas classic, and became the first Western pop act to perform in China. This is the chapter where George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley stopped being chart favourites and became history.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
By the end of nineteen eighty-four, Wham! weren't just a pop act anymore. They were a phenomenon.
"Last Christmas" arrived in December nineteen eighty-four. On the surface it looked like a seasonal single, a smart commercial move to close out the year.
The album "Make It Big" came out in October nineteen eighty-four and it confirmed what the singles had been building toward. It hit number one in both the United Kingdom and the United States, a double achievement that relatively few British acts had managed so directly.
The MTV context can't be separated from what nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-five meant for Wham!. The channel had transformed how pop music reached its audience.
In April nineteen eighty-five, Wham! did something no Western pop act had done before. They performed in China.
By mid-nineteen eighty-five, the decision had effectively been made. Wham! would end.
The final Wham! concert took place at Wembley Stadium on June twenty-eighth, nineteen eighty-six. Seventy-two thousand people.
The legacy question is one that took years to settle properly. In the immediate aftermath, critical opinion was still catching up with what the audience already knew.
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