In the 80s, countless pop bands arose, both in Spain and in Europe and the United States, which delighted a youth avid for new sounds. One of the most outstanding was, without a doubt, Wham!, the duet formed by Andrew Ridgeley and Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, who would later become one of the biggest British stars: George Michael. Taking advantage of the phenomenon of nostalgia that is so successful, Netflix has given a winning blow by releasing the film ‘Wham!’, a documentary that tells the story of the group that, with only four years of life, managed to become an icon of adolescence and catchy music.

“The reception of the film has been much greater and more positive than I imagined. It seems that it has reached an audience of all ages, which was partly the purpose: to make Wham’s legacy known!”, comments Andrew Ridgeley in conversation with La Vanguardia. 40 years have passed since the group was formed, which is why not only this documentary has been released, but also a review of their successes, compiled in ‘WHAM! THE SINGLES: Echoes From The Edge Of Heaven’ (Sony Music), as well as an extensive marketing campaign on social networks that includes the sale of all kinds of merchandising products. The ‘Whamania’ in the digital age.

“Young people today would have a much harder time than us simply because of how many people are doing the same thing. The iPad or mobile allow you to easily record ideas, but how do you get them to listen to you? Building an audience is very complicated. I’ve heard that 1,000,000 songs are released every week. Nobody can listen to that much music!” she muses, recalling how Wham! started. And it is that his is the story of a couple of school friends who all they wanted was to make songs and have a good time: “We did not want to be famous. We wrote songs to sing and record them one day. That was the beginning and the end of everything.”

However, fame came and made that pair of boys under 20 years of age become two mega stars both in the United Kingdom and outside its borders. Although they both continued to have a good time, the film reveals some of the ghosts that his partner had to deal with, including his insecurities. “For George, the fame and adoration aspect was an affirmation of his abilities. It was something he needed more than me. He needed her, he wanted her, and he liked her, on the one hand, but on the other, he also cared about the consequences he might have. For me there was no distinction as long as we kept doing the same thing: reaching our goals, making music, acting…”, reveals Ridgeley while making a nonchalant gesture when pronouncing the word “fame”.

And it is that since the end of Wham! in 1986, and with the consequent solo success of George Michael, Andrew Ridgeley has had to bear the label of being “the other of Wham!”, as if the triumph of one had been built on the failure of the other. Nothing to do with reality. The documentary honestly shows how he assumed that the end of the band was the best so that his colleague, who already stood out not only as a singer but also as a composer and producer, could fully develop. An act of generosity that Ridgeley does not boast of, but rather denies, taking away all kinds of merit and framing the end of the group, of his dream, within the lifetime of any formation. “Of course I realized that George had the capacity to grow beyond the Wham! It was a natural evolution, and as his best friend, what he wanted was what was best for him. I bet most would have done the same”, he insists without wanting to admit that he had a lot to do with the birth of the great superstar that George Michael was, blurting out “let’s not kid ourselves: he had more talent than me”.

The film does not overlook one of the aspects that affected George Michael, both personally and professionally: his homosexuality. Although the artist was already aware of it in the recording of the video clip for ‘Club Tropicana’ (Ibiza, year 1983), he decided to hide it from both his family and the media for fear of being misunderstood: “On the one hand, he felt that there was no reasons for which people would not understand, but for the other reason he also thought that he had no obligation to declare anything, that it was nobody’s business who he was with. I think he automatically came to the conclusion that it could affect the success of Wham! ”. Would George Michael have been as successful if it had been revealed that he was gay? “Personally, I think there would have been no difference, at least in the United Kingdom where Boy George was already there, who was homosexual; Elton [John], although he hadn’t said it outright at the time; Freddie [Mercury] or David Bowie. It may have been different in the United States, but I think not in the UK, ”Andrew reflects before remembering how difficult it was for his partner to manage that part of his private life.

“All of his close people knew about his lifestyle in London, even at that time. But the pressure grew and as a consequence he was cornered, especially in the United States, where the massive success of ‘Faith’ and the subsequent albums, in addition to the portrayal of the heterosexual George Michael surrounded by women, made it more difficult for him”, he recalls making emphasize that his friend never stopped being who he was, despite the fact that the image that was sold of him was different.

In addition to rejoicing in the fan phenomenon that broke out, the documentary about Wham! shows images of the two artists long before the formation of the duet, with an Andrew who welcomed the newcomer Yog, as he called him, and whom he protected even when he reached adulthood. With him he fulfilled his great dream of making hit songs, songs like ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ or ‘Last Christmas’ that will never go out of style. “What I miss the most about him is his company. He was very funny, very close and generous. Yes, it was full of contradictions but it was fun. He was aware of his ego and also of those contradictions (of some of them, hahaha). Having a drink, laughing non-stop at any nonsense … I miss what you miss in a friend ”, says Ridgeley, who kept her friendship with George Michael intact until his death on Christmas Day 2016.