George Michael is set to release a special version of his 1991 album Listen Without Prejudice: Volume 1, alongside a new documentary and his MTV Unplugged set.
In celebration of the album’s reissue, Channel 4, BBC Worldwide and Sony Music have commissioned Freedom: George Michael , a new film, narrated by George.
The documentary features appearances by Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Mark Ronson, Mary J Blige, Tony Bennett, Liam Gallagher, James Corden, Ricky Gervais, the Freedom! ’90’ video supermodels, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz and Linda Evangelista.
A remastered version of George’s 1996 MTV Unplugged performance will also be available as an album for the very first time as part of the Deluxe box set and 2CD Edition.
The MTV concert took place at the Three Mills Island Studios in East London on Friday 11 October, 1996 and featured George playing ten of his finest songs from his time in Wham! alongside tunes from his Faith, Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 and Older albums.
George Michael released three albums as the lead singer of Wham! His first solo record ‘Careless Whisper’ was featured on the bands second album, and he recorded more solo hits before the band broke up in 1986. Michael’s first solo album ‘Faith’ sold millions of copies around the world and spawned seven singles.
In 1990 when the singer released his second solo album, and made a conscious decision to move away from his teenybopper fans and release a more adult album. The singer didn’t have his image on the album’s cover and enlisted a troupe of supermodels to appear in the promotional videos.
The new album saw Michael singing about the pressures of celebrity on ‘Freedom ’90’ and addressing social issues on ‘Praying for Time’. The album sold over 7 million copies around the world, but some viewed it as a commercial disappointment as it did not match the sales of Faith.
The second volume of the album was never released, some of the tracks that were planned for that record ended up on a charity compilation Red, Hot and Dance.
The re-release and new documentary will be George Michael’s first project since he released the Symphonica album back in 2014. The singer’s last album of new material was Patience, way back in 2004.
OIP Staff
