GEORGE MICHAEL'S FREEDOM '90

Certainly not – the track has nothing in common except the name with the worldwide hit "Freedom" from 1984, back in the time when George Michael was still a member of Wham!.

Why he wrote the song

“Freedom ‘90” can be seen as a musical coup. George Michael strikes back at the media and his record label, whom he has to thank for his commercially constructed image as clueless member of a boy group and sex symbol. The music video is metaphorical. It was developed by the Hollywood director David Fincher, master of the genre (Madonna – Vogue – Sting, Englishman in New York – The Rolling Stones, Love is Strong – etc.)

The meaning of the song

The superstar himself is hardly to be seen in the music video, contrary to the original promotion idea. Instead, supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz were recruited for pop-posing and lip-synching. The artist couldn’t have coquetted more with his inner conflict about a world where superficial appearances are more important than substance. The video shows a multitude of articles that are exemplary for George Michael’s former self: his leather jacket, electric guitar and a jukebox – all of these symbols burn up or explode. A paper airplane glides through the action with symbolic lightness. “Freedom ‘90” is the re-birth of a artist who long felt like a marionette. The clip reveals his true sophisticated identity piece by piece.