George Michael at the Palais Garnier, Paris

HUM OF TRAFFIC

My name is George Michael.

I was given the great honour of becoming the first

contemporary artist to perform a concert

at the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris.

This is the story of that night.

CHEERING

-OK, where are we going?

-This way.

-FRENCH ACCENT: Tonight, je suis play at...

-L'opera.

-L'opera.

TUNING OF CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTS

SONG: "Through"

# Is that enough? #

CHEERING

# I think it's over

# See, everything has changed

# And all this hatred may just make me strong enough

# To walk away

# They may chase me to the ends of the earth

# But I've got you, babe

# And they may strip me of the things that I've worked for

# But I've had my say

# Babe

# So hear me now

# I've enough of these chains

# I know they're of my making

# No-one else to blame

# For where I stand today

# I've no memory of truth

# But suddenly the audience is so cruel

# So, God

# Hey, God, you know why I'm through

# Through

CHEERING

# I guess it's tough, I guess I'm older

# And everything must change

# But all this cruelty and money instead of love

# People, have we no shame?

# They may chase me to the ends of the earth

# But I've got you, babe

# And they may take away the things that I've worked for

# But you'll pull me through, babe

# It's so clear to me now

# I've enough of these chains

# Life is there for the taking

# What kind of fool would remain in this...

# In this cheap gilded cage?

# I've no memory of truth

# Suddenly the audience is so cruel

# Oh, God, I'm sorry

# I think I'm through

# I think I'm through

# I think I'm

# I know I'm...

# I'm through. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Bonjour, Paris, ca va?

See your hands in the air.

SONG: "My Baby Just Cares For Me"

# My baby don't care for shows

# My baby don't care for clothes

# My baby just cares for me

# My baby don't care for cars and races

# My baby don't care for...

# He don't care for high-tone places

# Elizabeth Taylor is not his style

# And even Ricky Martin's smile

# Is somethin' he can't see

# My baby don't care who kno-whoa-ows it

# My baby just cares for me... #

Come on!

AUDIENCE CLAP ALONG

# I wonder what's wrong with baby

# My baby just cares for

# He just says his prayers for

# I said, baby just cares for me

# Bum-bum-bum-bum, yeah! #

We're in the opera...Garnier.

-FRENCH ACCENT:

-Garnier. It's very romantic.

-We should go in like that.

-Yeah, we should.

-ALL: Wahey! Hey!

-Doing our warm-up.

It's a good look, you know.

-We should.

-OK.

-ALL:

-# This little light of mine

# I'm gonna let it shine

# This little light of mine

# I'm gonna let it shine

# This little light of mine

# I'm gonna let it shine

# Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. #

Have a good time.

I think you can tell that A Different Corner is genuinely

the sound of a man who's heart's been broken.

I was 19, and the best critique I ever heard of that song

was from a friend of mine, who said,

"It's beautiful. Pathetic, but beautiful."

# I'd say love was a magical thing

# I'd say love would keep us from pain

# Had I been there, had I been there

# I would promise you all of my life

# But to lose you would cut like a knife

# So I don't dare

# No, I don't dare

# Cos I've never come close in all of these years

# You are the only one to stop my tears

# And I'm so scared, I'm so scared

CHEERING

# Take me back in time, maybe I can forget

# Turn a different corner and we never would have met

# Would you care?

# I don't understand it For you, it's a breeze

# Little by little, you've brought me to my knees

# Don't you care?

# No, I've never come close in all of these years

# You are the only one to stop my tears

# I'm so scared of this love

# And if all that there is is this fear of being used

# I should go back to being lonely and confused

# If I could, I would, I swear. #

I know that Cowboys And Angels is one of people's favourites,

but I don't think anyone could possibly understand what it's about.

In reality, it's about a strange love triangle...

..involving a woman, who is madly in love with me,

and a man, who I was madly in love with.

And none of it came to anything.

Well, I got a good song out of it.

# When your heart's in someone else's hands

# Monkey see and monkey do

# Their wish is your command

# You're not to blame

# Everyone's the same

# All you do is love and love is all you do

# I should know by now The way I fought for you

# You're not to blame

# Everyone's the same

# I know you think that you're safe, Mister

# Harmless deception That keeps love at bay

# It's the ones who resist that we most want to kiss

# Wouldn't you say?

# Cowboys and angels

# They all have the time for you

# Why should I imagine?

# That I was designed for you

# Why should I believe

# That you would stay?

# But that scar on your face

# That beautiful face of yours

# Don't you think that I know

# They've hurt you before? #

APPLAUSE

SONG: "John & Elvis Are Dead"

# Close friend of mine as a child

# Fell into a slumber

# No sign of life since '75

# Then one day he just

# What do you know?

# I guess God just called his number

# He called me up, he called me up and said

# "I've been awake about a week

# "I'm thinking about asking the doctor

# "If he could put me back to sleep"

# Then he laughed and said

# "Hey, all the girls look the same"

# "Don't they know just what their mothers

# "Paid in blood, and tears to change?"

# But the words that made me cry

# The thing he softly said

# It stayed with me, it keeps messing with my head

# He said, "If Jesus Christ is alive and well

# "Then how come John and Elvis are dead?

# "Tell me, if Jesus Christ is alive and well

# "Then how come Marvin and Elvis are dead?"

# I said, "If Jesus Christ is gonna save us from ourselves

# "Then how come peace, love and Elvis are dead?"

# How come? #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I don't play any jazz any more.

You never really did, from what I'm told.

-What's the first chord, though?

-D-minor.

OK, so this is first-draft set list for the tour.

There's a working title of,

"Symphony, symphony, they've all got it symphony."

-George.

-Oh, I really thought there was an orchestra in today,

-I got myself all excited.

-Did you?

Well, there is. It's just you and me.

Do you want to hear the original?

Just play it.

We're going to a run without him for the moment.

Cos he's waiting for a Fisherman's Friend.

-Yeah.

-His name is Carlos.

I'm bound to do really well today cos as I came out of the house,

I fan gave me a little thing that says "protection" on it.

He read me this prayer in Greek.

It's all, "Jesus Christ, son of God," and...

And all this great shit started happening.

You can't take that off.

I've got to take it off eventually, it's cheap as shit.

I'd like to hear it played...say, two down and a little bit gentler.

OK.

We're going to lower the click two steps and play it more gently.

SONG: "You've Changed"

# You've changed

# That sparkle in your eyes is gone

# Your smile is just a careless yawn

# You're breaking my heart, you've changed

# You've changed

# Your kisses now are so blase

# You're bored with me in every way

# I can't understand

# You've changed

# You've forgotten the words "I love you"

# Each memory that we shared

# You ignore every star above you

# I can't realise that you ever cared

# You've changed

# You're not the angel I once knew

# No need to tell me that we're through

# It's all over now

# You've changed

# I miss you. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# They never. #

One, two. One, two. One, two.

# I'm going to a town. #

That's much better.

So now it's coming.

One more please, for me.

If you guys sing...

# I really need to know. #

And do that.. Up, like that.

# I really need to know

# I may just never see you again, or I might as well

# Might as well. #

Do ahead of the beat.

# So I might as well

# Might as well

# You took advantage of a world that loved you well

# I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down

# I'm so tired of you, America. #

I went into the other booth to hear...what the band sounds like.

I mean, it's so good.

So, I'm not afraid of what you ask for on the stage.

I'm still waiting for my pictures.

Because they check,

Some of them have got to be hot, and apparently none of them are over 40.

Yeah, that's what they told me.

So there's got to be a good bits of eye candy I can look at

-while I'm singing.

-Absolutely.

Oh, we like that.

-What was dinner tonight?

-Thai curry.

The room will smell bad by the end of tonight.

-Air it out.

-Oh, my God, you just made me think.

I've never thunk before.

Here we go.

SONG: "Going To A Town"

# I'm going to a town that has already been burned down

# I'm going to a place that has already been disgraced

# I'm gonna see some folks who have already been let down

# I'm so tired of America

# I'm gonna make it up for all of the Sunday Times

# I'm gonna make it up for all of the nursery rhymes

# They never really seem to want to tell the truth

# I'm so tired of you, America

# Making my own way home

# Ain't gonna be alone

# I've got a life to lead

# America

# I've got a life to lead

# Tell me do you really think you go to hell for having loved?

# Tell me you're not for thinking every thing that you've done is good

# I really need to know

# After soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood

# I'm so tired of you, America

# I really need to know

# I may just never see you again, or I might as well

# You took advantage of a world that loved you well

# I'm going to a town that has already been burned down

# I'm so tired of you, America

# Making my own way home

# But I won't be alone

-# Be alone

-No

# I've got a life to lead

# America

# I've got a life to lead

# I've got a soul to feed

# I got a dream to heed

# And that's all I need

# Making my own way home

# Ain't gonna be alone

# I'm going to a town

# That, a town that has already

# Been burned down. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Thank you.

'I remember the first time I ever saw Paris properly.

'And I remember driving up to this fantastic building and thinking,

' "This is the most glorious piece of architecture I've ever seen."

'And then noticed the word "opera" above the building.

'And I remember thinking, "How amazing must that venue be inside?"

'And I never dreamed that I would get to sing on that stage.

'I must have been 21.

'It took me 38 years to get there, but my God, was it worth the wait.

SONG: "Brother Can You Spare A Dime?"

# Once I built a railroad

# Made it run

# Made it race against time

# Once I built a railroad, now it's done

# Brother, can you spare a dime? #

Ladies and gentlemen, the Symphonica Orchestra.

# Once in khaki suits

# Gee, we looked swell

# Full of that Yankee doodle de dum

# Half a million boots went slogging through hell

# I was the kid with the drum

# Say don't you remember, they called me Al

# It was Al all the time

# Say, don't you remember? I'm your pal!

# Brother, can you spare a dime?

# Buddy, can you spare

# A dime? #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

SONG: "Let Her Down Easy"

# You're top man on the scene

# You don't think life comes in between

# But, hey, she's just 17

# She feels like she's a worldly girl

# But, man, you've been around the world

# She is just some worried daddy's girl

# Even though there's nothing I can say

# To cheat you and nature any way

# Let her down easy

# Her heart is on a dime

# Let her down easy

# And she'll grow old in time

# In her strawberry eyes

# The way she sees you signifies

# That she's susceptible to your velvet lies

# But if you must lay her down

# May a butterscotch glow be her dressing gown

# And please do not lead her on when, on when you leave town

# Even though there's nothing I can say

# To cheat you and nature any way

# Let her down easy

# Her heart is on the line

# Let her down easy

# And you'll grow up in time

# She's a woman now

# With a daughter to make her proud

# In her crayon world of paper clouds

# She still remembers you

# The first boy that she gave it to

# And she laughs at how little then she knew

# Even though there's nothing I can say

# To cheat you and nature any way

# Let her down easy

# Her heart is on a dime

# Let her down easy

# And she'll grow up in time

# Whoa, in time. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Thank you.

'The audience at the opera house that night was different.

'The majority were here to support one of the largest AIDS organisations in France,

'and after the show,

'we held an auction dinner to raise more money for the cause.'

SONG: "You Have Been Loved"

# She takes the back road and the lane

# Past the school that has not changed

# In all this time

# She thinks of when the boy was young

# All the battles she had won

# Just to give him life

# That man

# She loved that man

# For all his life

# But now we meet to take him flowers

# And only God knows why

# For what's the use in pressing palms

# When children fade in mother's arms

# It's a cruel world

# We've so much to lose

# And what we have to learn

# We rarely choose

# So if it's God who took her son

# He cannot be the one living in her mind

# Take care my love, she said

# Don't think that God is dead

# Take care my love, she said

# You have been loved. #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

CHATTER

Pavarotti has played here, all the great opera stars.

Gene Kelly danced here in An American In Paris.

Cyd Charisse danced here.

Fred Astaire has danced here.

How fabulous for a pop artist like George Michael to be given

the opportunity to play here.

It's incredibly rare - it's the first time in history.

I think the first track I sang for Phil Ramone was Roxanne.

And I remember thinking,

"My God, here I am singing to a man who's worked with

"Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Elton -

"just about every one of my favourite vocalists.

"Christ, this had better be good."

And then I finished and he came out to the booth and he gave me

possibly the greatest compliment I'd ever heard.

I nearly fell over and I thought, "How lucky am I?"

It was one of the greatest, happiest moments of my life.

# Roxanne

# You don't have to put on the red light

# Those days are over

# You don't have to sell your body to the night

# Roxanne

# You don't have to wear that dress tonight

# Walk the streets for money

# You don't care if it's wrong or if it's right

# Roxanne

# You don't have to put on the red light

# Roxanne

# Oh, you don't have to

# Oh-oh-oh-oh

# Whoa-oh

# Oh-oh-oh-oh

# I loved you since I knew you

# I wouldn't talk down to you

# I have to tell you

# Just how I feel

# I won't share you with another boy

# I know my mind is made up

# So put away your make-up

# I told you once

# I won't tell you again

# It's a bad way

# Roxanne

# You don't have to put it on

# The red light

# Roxanne

# Don't you know

# You don't have to

# Baby, don't put it on

# No, no, no, no No, no, no

# Baby, don't put it on

# Baby, don't put it on

# No, no, no, no, no, no

# Baby, don't

# Put it

# On

# No, no, no, no, no, no. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Love me, love me, love me

# Say you do

# Let me fly away with you

# For my love is like the wind

# And wild

# Is the wind

# Give me more than one caress

# Satisfy this hungriness

# Let the wind blow through your heart

# For wild is the wind

# You touch me

# I hear the sound

# Of mandolins

# You kiss me

# With your kiss my life begins

# You're spring to me

# All things to me

# You're life itself

# Like a leaf

# Clings to the tree

# Oh, my darling

# Cling to me

# For we're like creatures of the wind

# And wild

# Is the wind. #

APPLAUSE

I knew I could never make Symphonica without Phil Ramone.

It had been 12 years since we'd made Songs From The Last Century together.

So I already knew he was a genius.

And I just had such fun with him.

He was one of those rare people you get to meet in life,

someone that you fall in love with instantly.

Apart from which, he understood more about music

than anyone I had ever met.

So I knew I could trust him completely

with a tour as ambitious as this.

He wasn't just a wonderful man,

he was the most accomplished producer of the 20th century.

And that's not a matter of opinion, really.

You just take a look at his history,

at the number of amazing artists he's worked with since the 1950s,

and you realise it's a plain fact.

And it breaks my heart that he's not around to see this album released

or to watch this documentary.

# I remember you

# You're the one who made my dreams come true

# A few kisses ago

# I remember you

# You're the one who said I love you too

# Didn't you know

# I remember too

# A distant bell

# And stars that fell

# Like a rain out of the blue. #

What a great honour to be the last artist to have a piece of music

released that was produced by Phil Ramone.

He treated me with such respect.

We should never forget him,

he brought the world so much great music and so much joy.

And I for one will always be so grateful.

APPLAUSE

# Doo-do-doo-oh

# These are the days of the open hand

# They will not be the last

# Look around now

# These are the days of the beggars and the choosers

# This is the year of the hungry man

# Whose face is in the past

# Hand in hand with ignorance

# And legitimate excuses

# The rich declare themselves poor

# And most of us are not sure

# If we have too much

# But we're taking our chances

# I sang 20 years and a day

# But nothing changed

# The human race found some other guy

# And walked him to the flames

# It's hard to love

# Jesus, there's so much to hate

# Hanging onto hope

# There is no hope to speak of

# And the wounded skies above say it's much too late

# Then maybe we should all be praying for time

# Doo-doo-doo

# Do you think we have time?

# Do you?

# Do you think we have time?

# Lord, give us time. #

APPLAUSE

Thank you. Good night, Paris.

That was unbelievable!

My name is Jean Paul Gaultier, I am a fashion designer.

I love George Michael since the beginning when he was at Wham!

I saw the show tonight, it was fabulous.

I must say, it was in Paris, I never saw an audience like that,

you know, because normally in the operas, people are very snobbish,

very Parisian, very like such, you know?

And they were, I don't know, the hysteria.

It was like everybody, when he started to sing,

they were like singing at the same time,

they were clapping in the middle of the song, it was incredible,

I never saw that in Paris.

It was truly unique, his energy was unique,

his voice is always marvellous.

It was a wonderful show, so it was fantastic.

Thank you, George, thank you, we love you.

# Fish in the sea You know how I feel

# River running free You know how I feel

# Blossom in the tree You know how I feel

# It's a new day, it's a new dawn it's a new life

# For me and I'm feeling good

# Dragonfly out in the sun You know what I mean

# Butterflies all having fun You know what I mean

# Parisian peace when the day is done

# That's what I mean

# And this old world is a new world and a bold world

# For me

# Oh, you know just how I feel

# It's a new day, it's a new dawn

# It's a new life and I'm and I'm

# It's a new low

# You know, it's too much to expect a man, a white man

# To do it like Nina

# Say You know how I feel

# Say, say

# You know how I feel

# Freedom is mine And you know how that feels

# It's new dawn, it's a new day

# It's a new life and I'm feeling good. #

APPLAUSE