This upsurge in "George Michael Awareness" has me listening to his past CD’s. Faith. Older. Listen Without Prejudice. With a new appreciation and middle-age ears, I am hearing the jazz influences in some of his tunes and noticing how much pain and emotion fill all of them. Well, the exception being some of his more pop, WHAM-ish songs.

And then there’s his performance of "Somebody to Love" with the band Queen. It is one of the greatest, more powerful vocal performances I’ve ever seen. How many other performers do you know who could pull off singing a Freddie Mercury song with Queen during a Freddie Mercury tribute concert and make it work? Well, George Michael not only made it work. He raised it up to another level and brought the audience along with him.

He also gave me one of the greatest teaching tools ever when he was being interviewed on Oprah several years
ago. She asked him if he was afraid if by coming out as a gay man he
would lose fans. He answered, "No. I mean, why would I want the
approval of people who don’t approve of me?"

That answer makes me smile. It’s simple yet brilliant. Because as
performers, as singers, we too often get our panties in a twist because
we so want EVERYONE in our audience to like us. To approve of us. To become our fans. We think if we are good enough, if we can really impress people, then they will like us.

But I’ve found that people either like you or they don’t. Certain people in your audience, no matter how amazing you are, just won’t like what you do. There’s nothing wrong with this. It just means they aren’t your audience. It’s not a good match.

And why, as George Michael so wisely says, would you want to be liked by people who don’t like what you do, or don’t like who you are? It makes no sense. Yet, most performance anxiety and stage fright is bound up in this need to liked, to be found worthy.

So, thank you, George Michael, for such a liberating answer. I hope you still feel that way.

I would love to see him in concert. I bet it’s an amazing show. He’s coming to San Jose, but when I checked for tickets they were situated too far away. I hate seeing concerts by looking at the artist blown up on a ginormous TV screen. I want to be close enough to see him sweat.

By the way, Ellen Degeneres is giving away tickets to George Michael’s concerts. You can sign up to win at her website.

I also found this great review of George Michael’s new CD.

Enjoy!

Yes, he’s been around for a long time. But as he’s aged, or as I’ve aged, he’s become irresistible to me. I’ve bought up all his Cd’s. I have a Pandora station dedicated to him. And I just bought tickets, very expensive tickets to see him live when he comes to Sonoma in May for the Memorial Day Sonomajazz concert.

Maybe it’s because his vocal history resembles my own, if I may be so
bold. As I listen to him, his earlier recordings he sounds like an
Italian operetta singer, classical bel canto in his production and
style. But as he  moved into jazz by working with some truly great jazz
musicians, his style became jazz-ish. He swings, and his sound starts
to develop a uniqueness, identifiable, distinct.

And in his later years, yes, he can still belt ‘em out, and his voice
has some rough edges that actually improve his sound, his effect and
make him all the more irresistible. To me.

Ah, Tony, will I ever meet you? I pray I will. Maybe when you come to Sonoma in May. We’ll bump into each other in the Plaza. Look for me. I’ll look for you.