This is Biography The group WHAM! was a Pop music band, created in the United Kingdom in 1981 by Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael.George and Andrew met at Bushet Meeds School, a school located in Watford, England.
From that very moment they both tried to set up a group together, creating a Ska music group, called “The Executive”, which did not come together, and forming months later the WHAM! duo, with which they immediately recorded for the company Innervision Records.
The soul of the group was George, who adapted the lyrics, composed, played occasionally and put the voice, but Andrew was the image, and convinced George that the image of the group should be a little more youthful.
So it was that after some adjustments in their wardrobe and in the techniques of adaptation of their music towards pop, they released, in 1983, their first album, called “Fantastic”, which had a considerable success in the United Kingdom, reaching the first place for several weeks, as well as the 5th in Australia. It was also in the top 100 in the United States.
This album included his single “Wham Rap!”, a subject that provoked much controversy and was censored by British audiovisual channels. However, the group managed to get a year later, in 1983, Channel 4’s “The Tube” channel to broadcast it in full and without censorship.
From that very moment, all the specialized musical press in the country began to agree that the WHAM! group was a phenomenon in progress.In 1984, they composed their second album, “Make it Big”, with which they were already consecrated worldwide, and which was number one in sales in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia.
Included in this album is the single “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go”, a song that sounded very good and had a very catchy chorus.In the video for this single, the group made T-shirts fashionable with titles and short phrases, which were soon adopted by the youth of the time.With this album, the group makes a world tour to promote it even more.
The tour is a real success, and the group managed to fill each of the auditoriums where they performed.In the same year, George Michael released several singles during the Christmas season, donating them to the group so that the proceeds would be donated in their entirety to the fight against famine in Ethiopia.
In 1985, the group decided to take a short break and not publish an album, but they did a tour of China, which was accompanied by a lot of publicity.
In the same year, Michael was linked to Chinese model Kathy Yeung, while Andrew was sentimentally linked to Banannarama singer Karen Woodward.In 1986, the band decided to separate, although it was a fact that had long been an open secret, as Michael and Andrew often had very opposite positions, due to the character of both.
For this same year, and as a culmination of a lustrum working together, they released the album “The Final”, a double LP, with all their great hits extended.This album was another bestseller, both in the United States and the United Kingdom, and remained for a large number of weeks at the top of both countries’ music charts.
To round off and close the group, WHAM! performed an 8-hour concert at Wembley Stadium on June 28, 1986, where more than 73,000 fans and supporters of the group gathered.WHAM! sold in its 5 years of existence more than 20 million albums and almost 15 million of its singles.
Discography
Make It Big (1984)
The Final (1986)
Music from the Edge of Heaven ( 1986)
