somebody tell me why i work so hard for you george michael

“Of course five years is a long time to be away. It always felt like a special song and an appropriate one to come back with. “But it was only a year ago when I wrote ‘Jesus to a Child’ that I got back confidence in my own ability. “I have always kept writing songs throughout the last five years. And they have done it on a regular basis the past few years as the singer fought a long and bitter legal battle to free himself from Sony, his record company, which he claimed treated him like a piece of faulty software.īut during George’s long period of enforced exile (which saw a slump in earnings from £15.8 million in 1988 to under £800,000 last year), even some of his closest supporters have sometimes wondered if he still had his old passion to make music.Īt times, even he wondered whether he’d lost it. They did it when he was with Wham! They did it when he went solo. For the longest time, there was always someone ready to write him off.

But also about hope.”Īnd hope has been important to the singer in recent years. “Yes, it’s a sad song but I hope it has a positive message too – I didn’t want it to be all ‘woe is me, woe is me’. The single is a tribute to a close Brazilian friend, Anselmo Feleppa, who died suddenly from brain haemorrhage two years ago. It was recorded over five days but written in just a couple of hours.”

It was one of those songs that just felt like it was handed to me. His first single off it, ‘Jesus to a Child’ is, he says, the best thing he’s ever done. The last time he released a record, Mrs Thatcher was still Prime Minister, Saddam Hussein was on the warpath and New Kids on the Block topped the charts.īut six months ago, he returned to a London recording studio to complete his first album in more than five years.

The years in the wilderness for the British star are over. George Michael is back and he is better than ever.

Somebody tell me why i work so hard for you george michael