Wham! Wham! Wham! were an English pop duo consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, formed in London in 1981. Influenced by funk and soul music and presenting themselves as disaffected youth, Wham's 1983 debut album "Fantastic" addressed the United Kingdom's unemployment problem for young people and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album "Make It Big" in 1984 was a worldwide pop smash hit, charting number one in both the UK and the United States. The singles from the album — "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Everything She Wants" and "Careless Whisper" — all topped the Billboard Hot
Wham! journalist John Harris described it as "a rich, poetic, panoramic portrait of China's strangeness to the eyes of outsiders". Sporting a beard, Michael appeared with Ridgeley onstage at Live Aid on 13 July 1985 (although they did not perform as Wham). Michael sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with Elton John, while Ridgeley joined Kiki Dee in the row of backing singers. In September, Wham released the single "I'm Your Man" which went to No. 1 in the UK charts. Around this time, Ridgeley began a relationship with Keren Woodward of Bananarama. Ridgeley also took up the