George Michael: Sony releases trailer for Freedom Uncut
George Michael’s music video for Freedom ‘90 is one of the most iconic videos of the decade, yet the legendary star doesn’t even feature in it.
Instead, George called on the services of five of the top supermodels of the day – Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington – to create a glossy and stylish clip to promote the single.
It was even directed by David Fincher, who would go on to direct films such as Seven and Fight Club, but back then was best known for his work on stylish music videos such as Express Yourself for Madonna and Englishman in New York for Sting.
However, the sheen on the surface belies the serious and deep nature of the song which gives an indication for George’s no show and the reason for the supermodels appearance.
In 1990 George was having serious issue with the idea of being a celebrity and trying to get away from his heartthrob image in Wham.
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He was done with being a pop star telling Rolling Stone: “The only thing that distresses me is the idea that people think I’m a star star.
“I do like being a celebrity—it’s good to get into clubs for free and stuff. But genuinely, I am only passionate about my music.”
George was keen to shift the focus on his music rather than the image, so he had flatly refused to appear in videos for the singles from his second solo album, Listen Without Prejudice – the clue is even in the title of the record.
“I would like to never step in front of a camera again,” he told Q in 1990. However, in the era when MTV could make or break an artist, the music video was still seen as a necessary promotional tool and his record company were far from happy with that idea.
The first single, Praying For Time, was accompanied by a simple lyric video – quite common now but unheard of then. The second single Waiting for That Day was released without any promotional clip.
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As the launch date for the third single, Freedom ’90, got closer, the record company implored George to make a video.
Hence the collaboration with the supermodels was born – a juxtaposition of the beauty and gloss of the industry alongside meta-lyrics that spoke of George’s sexuality and frustration with the image that had been thrust upon him.
For his part George was pretty pleased with the finished result.
“One of my better ideas was getting five gorgeous supermodels [miming to the song] that people still want to look at today,” George said in an interview at the time.
“If you’re going to say to your record company, ‘Look, I’m not going to be in this video,’ I’d say that’s a fairly good consolation prize really, you know, those five gorgeous babes.”
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