![]() ![]() We were used to people who stood still when they performed."Īt one point, while singing "Club Tropicana," Michael attempted the tried-and-true rock tradition of getting fans to clap along, only to have the confused audience respond with polite applause. "The singers were all moving a lot and it was very loud. "No one had ever seen anything like that before," remembered the show’s host, Kan Lijun. The crowd then watched in near silence as Michael and Ridgeley bounded onto the stage in their big-shouldered suits, backed by an 11-piece band and dancers, and launched into their greatest hits. Shortly afterward, a voice blasting from the public address system warned everyone that dancing was not allowed. Underscoring the challenges facing the Western performers, a warm-up act was sent out to entertain the crowd with breakdancing. Those who paid $1.75 per ticket – or got them for free through government ministries – received a cassette featuring Wham!'s songs on one side and the Chinese versions delivered by singer Cheng Fangyuan on the other. Their first performance, held April 7, brought in a reported 12,000 to 15,000 curious fans to the People's Gymnasium in Beijing. Photo: Kent Gavin/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty ImagesĬoncert goers were told not to dance and were confused when Michael prompted them to clap alongįollowing two shows in the more modernized outpost of Hong Kong, Wham! arrived in mainland China with reporters from the British tabloids and a documentary film crew in tow to capture the duo being tourists while being gawked at by locals. George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in front of The Forbidden Palace in Tiananmen Square on April 9, 1985. Wham! got the gig, and Napier-Bell quickly booked the performances before anyone in the Chinese government had a change of heart. The other showed Queen's frontman, Freddie Mercury, doing his usual flamboyant poses. ![]() One displayed Michael and Ridgeley, two fine-looking lads with winning smiles, in wholesome shots. With British rockers Queen also pushing perform first, Napier-Bell helped his cause by preparing brochures of the competing groups. As he told the BBC in 2005, his pitch came down to a language all cultures understand: By welcoming a successful group known for hits like “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” and “Everything She Wants,” China was also signaling its openness to foreign investment after the closed-doors years of the Cultural Revolution. Wham!'s groundbreaking presence in the Middle Kingdom came through the efforts of co-manager Simon Napier-Bell, who spent 18 months wining and dining Chinese officials to get his boys through the door. It took Wham!'s manager 18 months to convince Chinese officials One of those transformative moments happened in April 1985, when the British chart-topping duo of Wham!, consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, became the first Western popular music act to perform in China. The past half-century has brought a handful of those remarkable moments when the barriers that separate cultures evaporate in a way for all the world to see.
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