Original subtitles

Well, what a wonderful joyride.

Wham! really was as joyous as it sounded.

And at number one for the second week...

Still at number one, Wham!

"Club Tropicana," Wham!

It was a golden chapter in our lives.

What an amazing adventure.

What do you think of Wham!?

1984 was when Wham! were achieving

everything George had planned.

Things could hardly have gone any better for us that year.

I thought it would be great to finish it off with a Christmas song.

It would be impossible to consider yourself the biggest success ever

without having a number one at Christmas.

Suddenly this melody came into my head.

"Andy, Andy, you got to come listen to this."

It's such an iconic song.

The message is universal.

So intelligently, timelessly classic.

George insisted that he play

everything himself on that record.

Talk to me about "Last Christmas."

Heartbreaker.

We were convinced that Christmas number one,

that crowning glory, would be ours.

Everything was ready.

So tell me about the video for "Last Christmas."

The video is cinematic in the extreme, I'd say.

We wanted to do a video basically

to take that idea from, like, say,

The Four Seasons or The Big Chill,

of all those people meeting once a year

and place a romance in that situation.

The video really did convey a sense of Christmas

together with friends,

and they were good friends

before we went away to Saas-Fee 40 years ago

and have remained such ever since.

Coming back here 40 years after making the video

is something rather more like a pilgrimage.

It's you!

Hello, stranger.

Wham! was about life and living and fun.

And this group of friends is very much about that.

Group hug!

Coming back the second time with most of the guys

that were in the video has made it so special.

Almost everybody that was on that shoot was a friend.

So that's why it looks so genuinely

like a real Christmas.

Because we were friends.

You can see that the people know each other.

All of us have come together,

and it just feels like we saw each other last week.

So it's really nice to be here with them.

Peps, do you think something's missing?

- There is something missing. - What?

- My shades. - Your ski goggles.

My ski goggles.

Well...

- No! - Yeah, well...

You didn't. My gosh!

- Ooh! - Wait till she puts them on.

As I recall, I tripped on that in 1984.

There is an incompleteness to it,

being here without George,

but the essence of these friendships remains unchanged.

The thing with George is he really loved his friends.

That's why so many of us were around him all the time

in all the videos and working with him.

Hearing we were coming back here,

it was quite surreal.

It's like, how can we relive that extraordinary moment?

But we are.

Yes, we did this ride 40 years ago.

I don't remember going up.

You had to go up, Peps.

Whoo!

Do you really want to go faster?

Doesn't it make you feel like James Bond?

I've always felt like James Bond.

The funniest times we had were when we were younger

because life gets serious as you get older.

So I know that we always

look back at the Wham! years as the fun time.

Our life was going to clubs with friends,

dancing, hanging out.

The music was the story of our time.

So it was just opening up the diary of our lives

and "it" being called Wham!

Now, you're... Which is George and which is Andrew?

I'm George. That's Andrew.

Where did you two meet first?

- School. - School, yeah,

when we were about 12 years old.

I was introduced as a second-year student

into Bushey Meads comprehensive,

and Andrew was appointed to take care of me.

He explained that his name was Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou.

I shortened it to "Yoghurt," which he didn't like very much,

but then it was an easy step to "Yog,"

which he didn't mind too much.

And he was--

He was "Yog" thenceforth.

I was a year above the boys,

and I remember this curly-haired boy, glasses,

walking, brushing past me to rush

'cause they couldn't wait to get in the music room.

A few years later,

when I bump into Andrew, I think we're about 17,

and then he says, "you should come and meet Yog."

And I was going, "Who's Yog?"

And he opens the front door,

and he's the boy with the curly hair and glasses.

He had grown up. He's all smiley.

And we ran straight into George's house,

run upstairs to his bedroom.

And we all sat on the bed,

he had posters around his bedroom wall,

and talked about music.

That was our instant connection.

We just loved each other from then.

I remember George and I

going to the Beat Route nightclub before Wham!

and him nudging me, going, "Spandau Ballet are there,"

and grabbing hold of me and saying,

"Let's do our dance in front of them,"

'cause he wanted to get their attention.

The first time I ever saw Shirlie was,

she was doing "Top of the Pops" with "Young Guns."

And I was at home with my mum and dad,

and I remember sitting on the floor

with my back up against the arm of the sofa.

I was completely taken in

by the young blonde girl in a white dress.

First date we had at Camden Palace.

Shirlie had to bring along a wingman,

and the wingman was George, wasn't he?

- Yog. Yog. - Yeah, Yog.

And he came along,

and I spent all night trying to get rid of him.

I don't know why I was doing that.

I was bought into this special friendship

of Shirlie, Andrew, and George,

getting a phone call one day saying,

"Would you like to come along and audition for a band?"

and then realizing it was, like,

one of the biggest bands, you know?

And it was like, "Who? What? Wham!?

Really? Wham!? Really?"

I was the new bug

welcomed into the fold of Wham!, you know?

- Can I just say... - Yeah.

...we were a bit worried because we thought

Pepsi was a professional.

And we was kind of staring at her,

thinking, "Is she gonna be okay with us?

"'Cause we're just making this up."

I've never taken it for granted.

I feel really grateful to be part of this incredible bond

that the three of them have.

The most incredible thing about Wham!

and those short four years was the travel that we all did.

- Yeah. - I mean, we went everywhere.

In the '80s, though,

we only liked the sunny places and beaches,

and suntans had to be topped up.

I mean, he wasn't a natural outdoorsman, was he?

But he would have loved this.

He looked good in the snow.

Good memories, good memories.

George really was the instigator, I think,

of having his friends around him.

I think he had the insight

that it's quite a lonely business and you travel a lot,

so he wanted all the people he knew really well around him.

Who hasn't got one?

Here we go.

Just you two and me.

There'd be a core of the friends

that would have been our friends for some time.

Pat and Cheryl would be there as a rule,

and Johnny and Dave,

who I met at college when I was 16.

And, well, we've knocked about ever since together.

Pat Fernandes, gorgeous, vibrant thing.

Johnny Fowler, incredibly funny.

Cheryl, well, hysterical.

Dave Ridler, you can't ignore him.

They would arrive and it was like, "no, here we go.

"Okay. Here's trouble."

Certainly by the time Yog and I

got there on the first evening,

they were nearly all drunk as lords.

So, yeah, I think it was a fairly swift realization

that this was gonna be good fun.

I can remember just laughing and laughing and laughing.

- Yeah. - But they were trouble.

- I set out-- - They were trouble?

They were... Mostly.

Like the holy trinity?

- Unholy. - Yes. The unholy--

We were enjoying it.

- You lot had been here most of the day, hadn't you? - We had, yeah.

And we went... Do you remember we went--

In the bar. It was skinny dipping.

There was no swimming about it.

- It was frolicking. - No, it was absolutely swimming.

There was splashing and...

And Cheryl swam right into a load of vomit,

- I can tell you. - Disgusting.

I thought it was a lily pad.

I thought, "what a beautiful thing."

We did "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,"

and Cheryl and Pat were in that.

I first met George and Andrew through Shirlie.

We all used to go out dancing together.

She may have been about 16 or 17.

She worked in a hairdresser

where one of my old school friends worked.

So I actually asked her if she wanted to be in Wham!

I said, "no, I'm doing my apprenticeship in hairdressing.

It's really important."

I don't know if she regrets that.

Damn.

Back in the day,

I used to hang around with Boy George,

who lived just down the road from me, and I drove.

So, I would drive,

and he'd get me into all the clubs.

And that was it. That was how I met Yog.

So, yeah, I think she got talking to George,

and then, next minute, she's in our gang of friends

because George is... was, more the merrier.

He was always, "The more friends we've got with us, the better."

It was a golden chapter in our lives, Wham!,

and our friendship was just that, as well.

Yog and Andrew were never big superstars.

To us, it was kind of, "Well, they're just our friends."

They were just two guys from Bushey.

I first encountered Wham! right at the beginning, in 1982.

I was employed by Smash Hits magazine,

and I reviewed the singles.

There was something about the Wham! thing

that was very true to where George had come from.

To me, that's being a serious artist.

And then they became huge.

After a year of sellout concerts and hit records,

not to mention the undying hero worship

of their predominantly young fans,

Wham! may not be altogether

too surprised to be receiving

this Best British Group award tonight.

1984 was really the moment

when Wham! were achieving

everything George had planned. It was taking off.

They're on a par with the other great groups.

Everyone looked at Wham! and Spandau

and Culture Club and ABC.

These were the top groups.

And in my mind, 'cause I was their manager,

and in George's mind, 'cause he was George,

Wham! were the top of those four.

George and Andrew were in America doing a concert tour.

What do you think of Wham!?

I love them!

Wham! mania appears to be at fever pitch in Reagan land.

It was absolutely essential that they broke America.

I want to get Andrew's autograph so bad.

I think... God. He is God.

That's my song right there.

It was, like, early '80s.

MTV was a big deal.

That video was coming on every second.

We was dancing around. You know, we were kids,

so it made us happy.

I was blown away at how beautiful this man was.

He was so beautiful.

Each song was enlarging the audience

to build a bigger and bigger fan base all the time.

Things could hardly

have gone any better for us that year.

Although I didn't actually expect it to be as big as it was,

I thought it would be great to finish it off with a Christmas song.

It would be impossible to consider yourself

the biggest success ever in the music business

without having a number one at Christmas.

Every major artist always seemed to have got that number one.

It became obsessively important with people

to have a number one at Christmas.

It was a dull, boring Sunday in 1984.

We were just passing time.

I remember Andrew was watching the football,

and I'd just got one of those 4-tracks that you could have at home.

And suddenly, this melody came into my head,

and I thought, "God, that would be great for Christmas."

So I went upstairs.

Yog just disappeared.

He recorded the skeleton of "Last Christmas,"

the keyboard rhythm, the basic drum track,

and the chorus.

Came back around about an hour later

in a state of high excitement and said,

"Andy, Andy, you've got to come and listen to this."

"I've written a Christmas song.

"It will perfectly round off the year."

And I went and I played it to him.

My God. That's it.

He knew he'd absolutely nailed it.

Bafflingly brilliant, stroke of genius.

Where would you like me?

My name is Chris Porter.

I was the engineer on "Last Christmas."

I first met Wham! on their very first studio recording,

a song called "Wham Rap!"

About four or five hours into the first session, start of the recording,

two boys walked in, in shorts,

literally wearing shorts

full of fun, full of laughter. And I thought,

"These are our artists? Really?"

That was the beginning.

Well, Andy's guitar is on 10, really,

and Hugh's is on 11.

Just Hugh's wasn't loud enough then.

Yog had a very clear idea

of how he wanted "Last Christmas" to sound.

It was very much defined by how he had recorded the demo.

The best way to do that was to record it himself.

I don't think he wanted anyone else involved in it.

I don't think he wanted any musicianship

or any interference between his idea and its execution.

He recorded it as he had it in his mind's eye,

acutely in his mind's eye.

I was an interface between his creativity,

his natural creativity,

and the equipment that we needed to use

to make these things happen.

So, we would have started off,

Literally the first thing that would have happened on the session,

after we'd set up the Christmas lights,

- and we'd settle down... - Unwrap me present.

...would be the LinnDrum,

program the LinnDrum.

George insisted that he play everything himself on that record.

It was something which he'd said he was gonna do.

So we imported... We hired in the equipment,

and he sat down at the beginning of the day,

programmed the LinnDrum, and we set off from there.

Haven't seen one of these for years.

I mean, it's almost violent, isn't it?

Yeah. Well, that is the LinnDrum, isn't it?

- I mean, it's very New Order. - Yeah.

So, you've got...

kick drum, snare, hi-hat, shaker.

And the hi-hat is really, really low.

And this is the bed.

The bass was actually the last thing to go on,

but although it's very transparent in what it does,

it's very important.

Just pulsing through.

You know, he had great rhythm, as we all know.

But he could play. He had great feel and...

Yeah. A bit of variation here.

You've got the sleigh bells coming in.

This is instant Christmas, of course.

Now, keyboards, really interesting

in that we start off with just one keyboard.

George wasn't a great keyboard player by any means,

so the part is very simple.

It's a four-finger part, literally these two fingers

on each hand playing those notes.

George would not have played it like a pianist 'cause he isn't a pianist.

So I would probably play it one-handed...

...like that.

But he would probably do it like two and two, alright?

And keep the pinkies out of the way

as much as possible, like this.

He'd do...

But you've got the same chord.

And...

And...

Yeah. Happy, joyous.

It's great to hear this again after so many years.

The genius is...

it is so much more than the sum of its parts.

- Yeah. - The... The...

It evokes Christmas

like virtually nothing else.

It's got a reverb on it and a delayed reverb,

mostly a delayed reverb which repeats and bounces.

- Yeah. - So it's giving you even more

- of this sleigh bell rhythm. - Yeah.

- Even without the sleigh bells... - Yeah.

- ...it has that sense of locomotion. - Yeah.

That's just such a simple backdrop.

Again, very few instruments.

And it's just a platform for the voice,

which performs so much of the work

that might be done by instruments.

He wanted his voice to be the lead instrument,

the important instrument in the track,

so nothing to detract from that.

Hi. Hi.

George's songwriting has been a huge inspiration for me,

and especially as I'm getting older,

I think, with my singing,

sometimes you don't have to say too many things.

Sometimes three words with your voice is enough.

And, for me, George's songwriting

was so intelligently, timelessly classic.

They were universal and timeless lyrically.

I'm hearing one of the greatest singers of all time. That's what I'm hearing.

I've been listening more and more to this, and he sounds so young.

And his voice is so pure.

"Happy Christmas."

You don't have to work too hard.

You don't have to give it too much expression.

You can lay back.

You can draw the listener in by not shouting at them.

Singing is the most personal thing in the world.

It's like standing naked in front of people.

You can tell he's baring his soul.

It's like... It's like a diary entry.

It's like hearing someone's private moments when he sings.

He means every single note that he sings.

I always loved the way he'd go "Me," and it's so...

It's properly "Me." You've been breathy

up until then, and he goes, "Me."

It didn't feel like he was trying to outsmart you with his lyrics,

and I think that's such a fine balance to be relatable as a songwriter

and write songs that everyone can relate to,

but also be deeply honest.

You know, there's a self-confidence

in George's voice. He knows who he is.

He just flies when he sings.

My goodness.

To hold a note that smoothly for that long,

it's just... it's incredible It's an incredible thing.

That particular verse,

as I said, you get the feeling

of the party being over, you know?

It's the end of a Christmas night,

and there he is with his disappointed,

you know, his disappointment in love.

He makes you feel it through his lyrics just by being honest.

He lets you know... He lets you in.

He lets you in and... You know?

For me, I love a miserable Christmas song.

Um--

I don't love happy Christmas songs, if I'm honest,

'cause I find Christmas is beautiful,

but there's a melancholy at Christmas

that I can't help but lean into.

Because I've had such a lucky life

and such beautiful family Christmases

that I always spend my Christmases thinking about,

you know, all the people out there who don't have that.

Not all Christmas songs are sad, but "Last Christmas" is sad.

"Last Christmas I gave you my heart,

and the very next day you gave it away."

I mean, damn.

The message is universal.

Um... heartbreak is everywhere.

It's a growing-up song and it's a love song

and it's a loss song.

And it's all those things, but most of all,

it's got a fantastically singable melody.

It just seemed to have arrived, fully formed from somewhere.

You can't believe someone else hadn't written it.

There's something kind of organic about it.

I think my thoughts when he played it to me

was, "Damn this guy. He gets it right every time.

"Can't he just slip up one day?"

But, no, George gets it right and does it right.

And then I said, "What are you gonna do for a video?"

and he had that all worked out.

George, he said, "We're going to go to the Swiss mountains

and we're gonna have a gang of people

and there's gonna be a dinner party."

You know, as always happened with videos,

he wasn't directing it,

but there was a huge amount of him going into the direction.

I'm Andy Morahan.

I directed the "Last Christmas" video back in 1984.

One of the managers called me and said,

"George wants to do a video set in a Christmas kind of location

for this new Christmas single" that was coming out.

It was kind of early September, October.

It was almost impossible to find snow at that time of the year.

I literally was batting around Europe

and got a call from one of my location scouts saying,

"I think it's gonna snow in Saas-Fee."

We went to a place called Saas-Fee,

which was one of those lovely towns

where they don't allow cars so the snow is all crisp and...

It was unbelievable.

I remember opening the curtains

and seeing the same view of the mountains

that you see at the beginning of the video and just thinking,

"My God." It was amazing.

It was essentially those of our friends

that were free to come and shoot for a few days.

Andrew said, "You get paid," so we were on the flight.

You know, it was as simple as that.

I don't think I ever got a call.

I think it was just assumed that, like,

"Come on, we're off."

And I was like, "No. Snow.

Cold. No." You know? Caribbean girl. No, no.

I'd never, ever experienced snow like it.

There we are.

- I do believe that is-- - Is this it?

- That's it. - Wow.

- The trees-- - No way.

Look how big the trees are. Hold on.

Go, go!

Go!

Well done!

- You did it! - Whoo, whoo, whoo!

I carried the logs.

Shirl and Peps put snow on my shoulders.

- Now... - And then I--

- See? Get that? - And then I put--

I put one on his head, actually.

- Hold on. - Same wobble.

- Yeah. - Hasn't changed

- in 40 years. - This is what I did.

Yeah, but I got the votes on it.

No!

Shirl! No!

Do you know why Yog had his hat on when he came over the fence?

Someone threw a snowball at him and ruined his blow-dry.

We gathered a load of snowballs up

and built, like, a cannon stack of snowballs

and then started slinging them.

When we were down there, I threw a snowball at you

- and it hit you right in the eye. - Yes, you did.

- God. - She was very specific...

- I did. - ...it was you.

Yeah.

I think being back there in Saas-Fee,

it's in some ways an homage in itself to the song.

I feel quite blessed being here.

We fall right back into that thing of friendship.

By involving their friends,

it made it relaxed, it made it fun.

All the kids who want to have fun get on a coach

and go to the back of the coach and have fun.

And this literally was like that.

George is fighting his bad hair day there.

The memories are flooding back, as they say.

The way we filmed it was letting the cameras roll

and letting them, you know,

pretty much kind of ad-lib the whole thing.

Whilst the majority of the cast

were played by our friends,

the love interest was played by model Kathy Hill.

I'm Kathy Hill.

I'm the girl that broke George Michael's heart.

Not nice.

My favorite scene is coming down the hill with him

'cause he just kept falling every single time,

so we'd have to walk up again,

and in the end,

we just fell on the floor and he sat on me and we just laughed.

And I've still got the scarf, which I will never part with.

That's a treasured possession.

I love it.

Kathy was just...

We were just in awe. She was just so beautiful

and so poised and so professional

and everything we weren't.

It was very different to any other job I'd done

because everybody was just having a laugh.

They all knew each other, on holiday.

Yeah, it was very different. Yes.

I think it may have been slightly daunting for Kathy

because we were quite a close group of friends.

But whilst we were close, we weren't closed.

So I think Kathy soon felt comfortable with us all.

- Hello. - Kathy!

Nice to see you!

My gosh!

My gosh, look. How fabulous are you?

We've got the star of the video.

The story of the video is pretty simple.

So, "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart," you know?

So that implies he had a relationship with that girl

who now is in a relationship with Andrew, who never knew.

So there's a kind of triangle going on there.

The Christmas dinner scene is the first point

where the viewer is led to understand

that something has gone on

between the character Kathy plays

and the character that George plays.

We wanted to have this device of something that kind of

connected the triangle of the relationship.

That is done by the use of a brooch,

a diamante brooch, which happened to be my grandmother's.

The brooch was, I think, just something

I'd worn for some promo shots.

And I think it was just a pretty easy spot for Andy

to work as the love token that George

would have given to Kathy the previous year.

It was all going swimmingly well

until between the first and second day shoot.

The brooch happened to go missing.

I had everything with me,

and it was still pinned to the shirt.

And everybody was looking for it.

But the shirt was in my bag, and I thought everything had gone back.

Everyone was panicking a little bit.

I don't know if Andrew

was even aware it had gone missing,

but from the production side, it was a significant moment.

Everybody was searching frantically,

and they kept asking me. I said, "No, no, I've given it back."

And then there it was in the bottom of my bag.

Thank God.

There we go. Yeah! Ooh!

Oy! What's going on there?

Johnny, you were supposed to be my boyfriend.

It looked like he was going in for the kiss there.

Shirlie's flirting.

The production team, in their wisdom,

had chosen to provide us with real wine,

right to the brim.

And then the assistant director

came and said, "No, no, no,

"it's got to look like you're halfway through the meal,

not just starting it."

So we had to have half-empty every single glass,

and there were dozens of them.

So, yeah, it got things off to a flying start.

So, what's suddenly come back to me

is that all these scenes had a kind of shelf life

in terms of timing.

You know, you'd start off and they'd relax and they get going.

You had a great middle period

when you're picking up good stuff.

Normally descended into mayhem and chaos.

The scenes around the table didn't have to be acted

because we were having great fun.

I think at one point I put some clown's nose on.

There were loads of different props

and sort of silly Christmas party hats.

And it had all the flavor and atmosphere

of a Christmas party.

And it did have casualties, of which I was one.

Unfortunately, we were being served real wine.

Andrew and his two mates were absolutely rat-assed

down the other end of the table.

Actually, he is... He is plastered.

He is, totally. Totally.

I don't think that many of us

were that sober during most of it, really.

You don't give young people booze

and expect them not to drink it. - I know.

We'd been laughing so much

that my eyes had puffed up a wee bit

and I didn't really look

like I could take part in the further filming.

So it was suggested that I sit it out.

The last scene is where the house party

is lying around in the living room area

and winding down for the evening

reflectively and satedly, except for me.

I was like, "Don't touch my hair!"

If you think about it, in those days, you know,

to do a totally narrative video for a pop band

that didn't have any performance in it

in terms of singing the song,

it was pretty extraordinary.

It feels like, you know, an old favorite movie.

It'd been great fun,

and we knew that we had the last piece of the jigsaw

with the video to go with our prospective number-one track.

And then Band Aid sprouted from nowhere.

The Ethiopian famine appeal

will be boosted by sales of a special pop record.

Over 25 stars sang for nothing at today's recording session in London,

and all the proceeds will go to famine relief.

To me, it didn't matter what it was.

To me, it was simply a device.

We could have all just counted up to 100,

so long as we were all there.

"Play that. That's fine." You know?

When Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats

saw the TV pictures from Ethiopia,

he decided he had to do something.

And he found his rock music friends felt the same way.

So George Michael of Wham!,

Sting of The Police,

Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet,

Bananarama, and a score of other stars

gathered to record a Christmas song with a message

from which all the profits will go to Ethiopia.

The "Last Christmas" video shoot was very close to Band Aid.

We all flew back to London together.

We literally touched down in Heathrow,

and George went straight to that recording.

Yog realized once he got to the studio

and was in the company of major artists

of the recording industry

that our hopes and aspirations of a Christmas number one

were disappearing in front of his eyes.

He came straight back from making sure

his record would be number one

to doing something to make sure it wouldn't be.

That actual line itself, the...

is hard for me to sing powerfully.

If you wanted to kind of change the notation a little bit

so it started off a bit higher or something.

I could do that if you want.

I always get really shy when there's loads and loads of other pop stars about.

I just tend to clam up a bit.

But it's been good.

The song's really catchy.

It's a major threat to our fourth number one.

- Or our possibilities. - Your fourth number--

What's your next single?

It's called "Last Christmas." It's a Christmas single.

Is it very Christmassy? - Very.

Well, I can't ask you to sing a bit.

You'll get mortified.

You can't ask me to sing a little bit? - Yeah.

- I'll sing you a little bit. - Alright.

- It goes-- - Right.

And that's it. I'm not giving you any more than that.

We genuinely were convinced that 1984,

that Christmas single, that crowning glory would be ours.

It was whisked away

from in front of our noses.

That was what was so ironic about the Band Aid

"Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Everyone else was just thinking, "How fantastic it is.

"It's gonna be great. It's gonna be number one."

It's gonna be this, that.

And I had all those same feelings about it,

but I just had this little bastard ego thing

that I just had to keep squashing that was going,

"Shit, shit, shit, shit! Shit!"

He knew he'd just done his fabulous song,

and he was prepared to knock that on the head,

prepared to give it up for this other thing.

It definitely would have been number one had it not been for

"Do They Know It's Christmas."

Not only did he give it up, but it was number two,

and he gave us all his cash.

Some good news this morning from Wham!

Even though they're at number two

and they haven't made number one for Christmas,

they are donating all the royalties

of their record worldwide to the Ethiopia Fund.

So, that's numbers one and two,

totally in aid of the Ethiopia Famine Fund.

He gave all his royalties from "Last Christmas" to Band Aid.

That's amazing.

Whilst we'd been stymied in our quest

for a Christmas number one,

George's ambitions remained undiminished.

Both he and I understood that his future would lie as a solo artist.

Tonight at Wembley Stadium,

George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley

take the stage for the last time ever as Wham!

When it came to an end,

it was simply because I was no longer...

Well, neither of us were teenagers anymore.

And the image had to be two young guys,

you know, having a good laugh, having a good time.

There were lots of reasons for us splitting,

but none of them were to do with our relationship,

which was what was... It was the best part of it.

I went abroad shortly after Wham!

But we saw each other

as much as sort of circumstances would allow.

His life had changed a lot, as well.

There really were very few

that had the global success that he did.

The opportunity for him to spend time with his friends

was reduced naturally as a consequence,

but he made sure that he did at Christmas.

So we all would see each other,

you know, pretty much as an annual event.

Christmas was an amazing time for us.

You know, the generosity of George.

He would get us together. He would buy us gifts.

He would want to sit around the Christmas tree.

George loved Christmas.

I mean, George was obsessively Christmas,

I mean, laughably Christmasy.

I mean, you really could tease George about Christmas.

His house was always beautifully decorated,

and whenever he met you at the door,

the first thing he would say to me is, "Come and see my tree."

He was like a child about his Christmas tree.

And he would always have a party Christmas Eve.

That was the highlight of Christmas,

to be honest with you.

One of my strongest memories of Christmas

is us all being together on Christmas Eve

and thinking, "Yeah, let's go carol-singing."

We had, like, the... We had a beatbox

with, like, Christmas songs

with a tin, you know, raising money.

It would have surprised people had they recognized

the assembled cast,

but I think Yog used to slightly disguise himself.

I think George liked that,

you know, going to somebody's house

and them not knowing who the strange man was

- in the long brown wig. - Yeah.

And then the penny would drop, and they'd be like...

And then we'd move on very, very quickly

when they realized it was George and Andrew.

It was a nice thing. It was kind of a yearly thing.

It was our thing.

- But Yog was Mr. Christmas. - Yeah.

He liked taking everybody on the carol singing.

sending around those huge hampers.

Come on, sing for me.

"Happy Christmas."

- Come on. - When I look back,

what Yog did was incredible really

because he knew we had a tight group of friends.

And he worked really hard on keeping those friends together.

Hello! Happy Christmas!

And he knew that if he wasn't there

and doing those things, like having the Christmas parties,

the friendship group would dissipate.

I'll have one of those.

First time you ever see George serving.

At last.

Here's yours, Santa. Here's your present.

Hey, Santa!

I went and bought it myself.

And it shows as soon as he left us

and passed on that it did dissipate and it did go.

Having the news that he passed away at Christmas

was one of the worst experiences of my life.

That is really hard to talk about, though.

You know, to... To lose...

To lose such a close friend,

someone that, you know, you care for an awful lot,

that you have a particular, um...

Particular friendship with and a particular bond,

it was a truly desperate moment.

He was essentially my other half.

I never conceived of a future without him.

Receiving that phone call on Christmas Day was just extraordinary.

I mean, I howled like a wolf.

I fell to my knees, and I howled like a wolf.

Took me a long... Well, quite a few years

to even not stop dreading Christmas.

But I think when someone passes away,

you know that they wouldn't want you

to not enjoy that time that they loved.

So, with that spirit,

you eventually realize you've got to enjoy this time

'cause that was his time

and he wouldn't have wanted to ruin it.

Last year, Princess Catherine put on a lovely carol concert

at Westminster Abbey,

and my son Roman wrote a lovely speech about George.

And Jacob Collier sang "Last Christmas."

George was a man of great kindness and compassion,

giving so much to those in need.

George was also my godfather.

He was there from the day I was born.

He helped inspire not only myself,

but so many others.

His past Christmas and my children's Christmas, as well.

That's what's amazing. And it will be for their children.

The song lives on.

That song embodies Christmas for people in this country and worldwide.

That's a song you hear every single Christmas, all the time.

And even though the lyric is sad,

I can imagine so many joyful moments

have been shared to that song.

You know, I've been in pubs at Christmastime in the UK

and that song comes on and everyone's kissing each other

and dancing and smiling and having an amazing time.

Yeah. Special.

There's a growing sense of "Last Christmas"

establishing itself more broadly

as a piece of Christmas, as a part of Christmas.

And it's been extraordinary to see how many

major artists have covered the song year after year.

That song is so huge.

I was so happy to record it.

I mean, I jumped at the chance because that's one of my favorite Christmas songs.

The thing about George Michael's voice, I can feel it, you know?

He really means what he's saying, you know?

I'm kind of similar in my own music.

I'm honest with my emotions.

When I sing a lyric, I mean it, you know?

I really mean what I say.

And so we we we were bound to connect someway, somehow.

There is something about this song

which transcends everything.

It's your own feelings, your own thoughts.

And I think that's another reason why it stays so current.

You see an enormous number of people

making versions of "Last Christmas" around Christmastime...

...almost as if it was part of their lives.

In the year after Yog's death,

there was a fan initiative across the social media channel

to get "Last Christmas" to number one.

But whilst it didn't happen for us that year,

our fans didn't give up.

The fans and the people have the power

to download your record over and over and over and over again.

So, yeah, I mean, it's a blessing to have streaming

'cause, streaming, people have the power.

For the first-ever time in the history of this song,

Wham! and "Last Christmas" is your official Christmas number one today.

"Last Christmas" is number one!

It only took 39 years

for this Christmas classic to top the charts.

Thirty-nine years, but Wham! finally have their Christmas number one.

Andrew Ridgeley from the band joining us right now.

How do you feel, first time at Christmas being number one?

Does it feel like a relief in any way?

Does it feel like a big moment?

It is a big moment, and it's a big moment for me

and for everyone involved with Wham! and George Michael.

You know, when Yog wrote this track,

he wrote it with number one in mind. That was the goal.

Everyone wanted that number-one status.

And 2023 was that year.

This year's Christmas number one was streamed

a record-breaking 13.3 million times.

It's also made history, going into the record books

for the longest-ever journey of a song

to make it to Christmas number one.

All those millions of times, millions of people make a decision to stream it

because the public were thinking about George Michael.

It makes it more special, doesn't it, that the people chose it?

It's sad that he's not here to see that.

But how amazing, you know? And how amazing for his family and everyone around

to be able to celebrate that.

We all know George and how he talk and how he spoke

and what he would have said.

And he would have been really pleased,

quite cool about it,

and would have probably just said, "Told you so."

Yeah, maybe it was a song whose time eventually came.

Forty years ago, I was just the driver

for the group Wham!

Today I'm the mayor, mayor of Saas-Fee.

And I'm 40 years older.

And I still like Saas-Fee.

And I still like their music. That's all.

Forty years ago, a film company brought Wham! to our village

to film their "Last Christmas" music video.

Today we celebrate "Last Christmas,"

them, and Saas-Fee.

- Andrew... - Thank you.

...Pepsi and Shirlie back to Saas-Fee.

I think he would have loved to have been here

at this point in our lives.

It is a delight to be back here in Saas-Fee.

We are only missing our dear friend George,

who would have been absolutely thrilled to have been here with us

to have joined in a celebration

of his wonderful song.

It makes me feel very grateful and thankful for

that which Wham! meant to people.

It just really leaves me

to dedicate this wonderful sculpture

to my dear friend George,

our much-missed and beloved friend.

So, if you will allow me and the ladies...

I hold it.

There have been a few little things

that have gone wrong while we've been here,

you know, like de-robing the statue.

That was George.

I mean, he would find that so hysterical.

He would have loved all of that.

It was so crazy, but not, so simple and lovely.

There was an essence of him there.

He was there.

When you've loved someone and they've loved you,

that doesn't disappear.

And here we are honoring a song that he wrote

that was so amazing.

What year was it? What year--

- Hang on. - What year did we shoot--

- 1984. Shirlie. - 1984?

Yeah, 'cause it's 40 years...

There's been a lot of reminiscing,

but lots of fresh jokes.

And it's really special, very, very special.

What a beautiful thing.

Well, I think the thing that has really been missing,

and it is really sad, is that Yog isn't here.

- Yes. - But I know he would absolutely love this

and he'd be loving all the banter between you guys.

Well, last year I saw a medium.

And she said, "He will be with you in the mountains."

- This was in November last year. - Wow.

And I had no idea what she was talking about.

Like, "With me in the mountains?"

And, yeah, look.

- I'm here in the mountains... - In the mountains.

...re-filming "Last Christmas."

So, let's-- Yeah, let's have a toast to George.

Andrew, do you want to lead the way on the toast?

- Yes. To our beloved chum. - Our lovely Yog.

- Yeah. - To Yog.

- Cheers, Yog! - To Yog!

- Cheers, Yog. - Cin cin, mate.

Cheers, mate.

Always with us, especially at Christmas.

He's here.

I feel him very deeply.

I just... I don't know. It's that thing.

You've just got to be really open and positive

when you've lost someone that they are around you

'cause even if-- If it helps you cope,

it's what you should do.

But I think he was around us in the mountains,

and that's why when we were up the mountain,

he threw all the Christmas trees over.

Fair to say, though, they didn't get the required--

He's here.

He had... He had to stay on.

Cheers!

Here's to Yog! We love you!

- We love you, Yog. - Cheers, darling.

Cheers. Cheers, everyone.

His music was his children.

It was his purpose.

So the fact that we're still here honoring it

and generations, younger generations

are gonna know the song, I think he would love that.

Cheese!

One more!

That Wham! and "Last Christmas" has reached so far

and touched so deeply so many people is remarkable.

His music still vibrates through the universe.

Amazing to write a song

that you know it's gonna be around for every Christmas.

He was a genius.