Ten years after George Michael died on Christmas Day 2016 at age 53, the VMAs turned Sunday night into a singalong in his honor. Orville Peck introduced the tribute, and then the songs came one voice at a time. Sombr opened with “Faith” and slid into “Father Figure,” RAYE took on “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” and Teddy Swims delivered “Careless Whisper,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Then came the surprise. Adam Lambert, unannounced, closed the segment with “Freedom! ’90,” joined by MNEK and Saint Harison, and the room came to its feet. Billboard notes the tribute also marked 30 years of “Older,” the 1996 album George Michael considered his most personal work.
George Michael’s Songs Have Not Aged A Day
The staging said something true about him. No single performer tried to be George Michael, because nobody can, so four of them shared the load. It was a fitting salute on MTV’s own stage, a network whose story we revisited when its music channels shut down and marked the end of an era.
A decade on, the catalog still does what it always did. It fills a room and then breaks your heart on the way out.