George Michael in China: how singer made it over the bamboo curtain with more of a whisper than a wham
Secret police, banquets for 140 officials and ‘the hardest performance of Michael’s life’: how Wham! became the first Western band to perform in China
Despite the buzz worldwide in 1985 about Wham! being the first Western band to perform in China as the country began to open up after the Cultural Revolution, the hour-long concert was not an especially good one.
“It was the hardest performance I’ve ever given in my life,” said George Michael, then 21, a few hours after the April 7 show, according to a Chicago Tribune article written at the time.
“I couldn’t believe how quiet the crowd were at first.”
To make matters worse, the audience of 15,000 at Workers’ Stadium in Beijing mistook the cameras and lights of film crews intending to record their reactions for those of the government’s secret police, so they sat rigidly in their seats, recalled the group’s manager, Simon Napier-Bell, in an interview with the BBC in 2005.
Michael and fellow band member Andrew Ridgeley had adapted their performances for China, removing sexual scenes in the music videos accompanying their songs and reducing the volume of their music by half to avoid scaring audiences.
Watch: how Wham! became the first Western band to perform in China