This past Christmas, the world lost George Michael, which capped off the list of great musicians who left this Earth in 2016. This past year has been tough. I saw a lot people say that it was ironic that Michael died on Christmas considering he wrote and sang one of my favorite Christmas songs “Last Christmas,” which I had listened to earlier that day. When I first learned of Michael’s death I was scrolling my Twitter feed and saw the devastating news on BBC Breaking News. I was in shock, because I hadn’t heard that anything was wrong with him, and I was also in denial. I wanted to hear it from more news sources and once those sources flooded in, I became sad.

As a kid, I grew up listening to George Michael because my father is a fan of him. I heard “Father Figure,” “One More Try” and “Praying For Time” a lot over the years. This death hit me hard like Prince’s death, because Prince was another artist that I heard a lot in my house because my mother is a huge fan. Over the next few days after hearing of Michael’s death, I went back to my favorite songs of his, and my father introduced me to some of his songs that I didn’t know, like “Cowboys and Angels” and “Kissing a Fool.” The Internet also introduced me to some other songs like Michael’s cover of Bonnie Raitt’s hit “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” I wasn’t born when Wham! was at its peak or for Faith mania, but I understand its impact and appreciate the music.

I know that Michael had his share of personal issues, but I don’t want to focus on that. I want to focus on his music and how it made me feel. “One More Try” is so emotional, and you can really hear Michael’s vocals. Another one of my favorites is Michael’s duet with Elton John, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.” Two underrated songs that I like are duets that Michael did with Whitney Houston (“If I Told You That”) and Mary J.Blige (“As”)

In these times, let’s just remember that George Michael told us to always have “Faith”. What is your favorite George Michael or Wham! song? Let us know in the comments below.

~Kayla

Kayla works at Squirrel Hill as a Clerk, so when you come up to the customer services desk you might see her face! When she’s not at the library she enjoys reading, watching TV & listening to music. You might also find her at your local Starbucks, because she loves her Frappuccinos.