George Michael remembered as gay trailblazer who pushed pop boundaries

By Luke Royes

George Michael not only pushed the boundaries of British pop music, but also challenged the way gay celebrities expressed their sexuality in public.

The pop superstar, who fronted 1980s pop group Wham! before forging a successful solo career, was found dead of suspected heart failure on Christmas Day.

Australian singer-songwriter Brendan Maclean said Michael will be remembered as more than just a pop icon, but also a rebel, a trailblazer and, by him, as a performer who gave other artists the confidence to be who they are.

“For me, I’m a queer musician, George Michael knocked down walls. He made my career possible,” he said.

“I don’t know if I would have been as brave or outspoken as I was. I think we are deeply indebted.

“He forced people to think about what they thought was OK for gay people and why what they didn’t think was OK for gay people was not.”

Michael did not publicly acknowledge is homosexuality through the early parts of his career, when much of his public persona and success was based on his following among young female fans.

That changed in 1998, when he was caught by a male undercover police officer in a Los Angeles public toilet and charged with lewd conduct.

A year later he spoke openly about his homosexuality in an interview with The Advocate, saying he had had relationships with women but “then I fell in love with a man, and realised that none of those things had been love”.

He acknowledged his arrest by mocking it in the video for his song Outside.

Michael told The Guardian in a 2005 interview: “Gay people in the media are doing what makes straight people comfortable, and automatically my response to that is to say I’m a dirty filthy f***er and if you can’t deal with it, you can’t deal with it.”

Since his death, the quote has been widely shared on social media.

Maclean said the bold response to his arrest and discussion of his sexuality was an example of how he fought prejudice against the gay community.

“You look at the discrimination put against him when he got caught cruising, he put his finger up and dressed as a hot cop for Outside,” he said.

“He was fighting his whole life.

“If people don’t think Freedom and Outsider were political at all, they are kidding themselves … he was always making statements.”

The 53-year-old, who featured in the original Live Aid charity recording in 1985 raising money for starving communities in Africa, also went on to raise money for children’s and cancer charities.

Michael, whose Brazilian dress designer partner Anselmo Feleppa died of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage in 1993, was also one of 24 patrons of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

“I have lost a beloved friend — the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist,” John posted on Instagram with a photo of him with Michael.

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to Michael as “an exceptional artist and a strong supporter of LGBT and workers’ rights”.

‘Bowie, Prince would be honoured to have him in their company’

Music commentator Daniel Smith said Michael’s ability to fuse pop-rock melodies with soul and R&B with his unmistakable voice placed him among pop royalty.

“He was a force, and able to collect the best of all music genres and put them together,” he said.

“He took the best of all genres and put them in a blender and added his own personal style, that was legendary.

“He was a force, and able to collect the best of all music genres and put them together.”

Maclean said Michael’s oeuvre and the confidence with which he explored new and emerging sounds served as an inspiration to many artists.

“He was pretty on the ball, if you think of Freeek, it was a production masterpiece in the dance world, he was always, even in his later tracks, he was still evolving,” Maclean said.

“It’s not just for queer artists, but artists in general … He was a rebel.

“He produced well-written British pop. It was theatrical, it was big. He is in the company of [David] Bowie and Prince, and Bowie and Prince would be honoured to have him in their company.”

This post originally appeared on ABC News.