Where Is Andrew Ridgeley Now? Here’s if the Wham! Musician Is Still Making Music
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After the premiere of the Netflix documentary Wham! about the popular British pop duo, many fans are asking: where is Andrew Ridgeley now?
Ridgeley met schoolfriend George Michael and together, formed one of the most popular British acts to date. “We met when I was 11 and Andrew was 12,” a young Michael says in archival footage in the Wham! trailer. An older Ridgeley adds, “And there was only ever one thing that I wanted to do — be in a band with George.” The “Careless Whisper” singer admitted, “Andrew changed my life in exactly the way someone needed to change my life if I was gonna be a pop star.”
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Since Wham!’s split, Ridgeley has kept away from the limelight. So where is Andrew Ridgeley now? Read more to find out.
Where is Andrew Ridgeley now?
Where is Andrew Ridgeley now? In the past couple of years, Ridgeley has had his hand in a couple of Wham! related projects such as his memoir, Wham!: George Michael and Me, and a cameo in the 2019 film Last Christmas starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding which is based on Michael’s discography.
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Since Wham! dissolved, he’s kept a low-key profile. “I had a very nice country life with my ex-partner, Keren [Woodward] from Bananarama. But no, there won’t be any going back. We’ve got a few years of Wham! milestones to celebrate in one way or another. The Wham! legacy is very important for me to promote,” he told The Los Angeles Times. “I know that Yog (George Michael’s nickname) would want Wham! to be in the forefront of people’s memories. That’s going to be a large part of what I’m doing in the years to come. It’s sort of starting work again at the age of 60. It’s all a bit ass about face. Just when I thought I could be indolent, I’ve got to work.”
As to why he keeps himself outside of the public eye, former Wham! backup singer Shirlie Kemp told the New York Times that Wham! was “everything he wanted.” “I don’t think I ever met anyone else who was on par with George the way Andrew was, intellectually and with a sense of humor,“ she recalled. “It was the best relationship I’d ever seen George have with anyone.” After Wham! dissolved, Ridgeley had a brief stint in Formula 3 racing and released an album Son Of Albert in 1990, which failed to chart in the UK.
Ridgely told the newspaper, “I could never quite really get that we had achieved the same kind of success as the artists that we revered like gods when we were growing up,” he said. “We were playing Wembley Stadium, the same place Elton John played. You can say, ‘I am the same.’ But in your own mind, you’re never the same.” He also said, “The only thing I ever wanted to do from the age of 14 was to be in a band, write songs and perform,” and added that fame and celebrity “were never a motivating factor for either of us.”
Ridgeley explained to Yahoo! about the two decided to embark on new avenues and ultimately move onto new projects, “I knew, and he knew, that his future lay outside of Wham!, even at that point,” Ridgeley said. “Wham! imposed constraints upon his songwriting, which he was going to outgrow as an artist, as George Michael. He couldn’t forever write for Wham!, because Wham! was essentially the representation of our youthful friendship up to that point. But we were growing into men and adults.”
He continued, “We knew instinctively, as Wham!’s career unfolded at that pace, that it had a finite lifespan, because Wham! was so much about us. Wham! was that snapshot of our youthful years we were going through, and it became evident that we’d have to bring it to a close.”
Though they were still close after Wham!’s breakup, the two “made a pact, if you like, that we’d never reform Wham!, because Wham! was a sort place in time,” Ridgeley told Yahoo. Our friendship was a big part of what Wham! was to people. There was a lot more to it besides just having to write and record the songs.”
George Michael passed away on December 25, 2016.“It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period,” his rep Michael Lipmann said in a statement to the BBC at the time. “I’m devastated.” The manager received a call on Christmas morning notifying him that Michael had been found “in bed, lying peacefully.”
Days before the premiere of the Wham! documentary, People talked to Ridgeley about his last moments with Michael over a game of Scrabble. He said that his best friend “was a big fan [of the board game] and we’d have regular games of Scrabble.”
“He’d beaten me the week before, and I was exacting my revenge,” he continues. “It took us right back to just … the essence of our schoolboy friendship and one-upmanship. It was a game that stimulated him, and me also.”
In 2023, George Michael will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which Ridgeley called “a great privilege.” He told CNN he believes Michael would have felt the same because “He was aware of the meaning of accolades from his peers. He would be very rightly proud, and he deserves his place there.
“You know, he is a genuine legend and an icon of contemporary music,” Ridgeley added. “I said so in my tribute to him at the BRITs, that he was a supernova in a firmament of shining lights and stars, and he was probably the finest singing voice and songwriter of his generation. There ain’t too many that held a candle to him.”
Wham! is now available to stream on Netflix.
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