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Tonight the Music Seems So Loud

The Meaning of George Michael

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Tonight the Music Seems So Loud

Written by: Sathnam Sanghera
Narrated by: Homer Todiwala
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'No ordinary pop biography, this is a very personal exploration of a very unusual artist' - DORIAN LYNSKEY

'A beautiful, frequently extraordinary book. Part biography, part social commentary and part love letter, it somehow does full justice to the magnificent man it examines' - JAMES O'BRIEN

'Far more than a biography of a pop icon – it’s a sharp, insightful look at George Michael’s life and how he challenged society, from politics to identity, in ways that still resonate today' - SADIQ KHAN


He wrote one of the biggest hits of our age in ‘about an hour’ in his childhood bedroom.

He would go on to collaborate with some of the greatest musicians of all time, from Aretha Franklin to Stevie Wonder.

He was a pop star who bleached his hair blonde, wore tiny shorts and, at the same time, critiqued his own image mercilessly.

He lived through the AIDS crisis and one of the most homophobic periods of British history and yet when he finally came out, he did so boldly and unapologetically.

Wham! were the first Western pop group to play in Communist China and he repeatedly broke boundaries in music too.

Ten years after his death, George Michael is still everywhere: the annual success of ‘Last Christmas’, new covers of his songs, and endless memes on social media.

Tonight the Music Seems So Loud is at once a kaleidoscopic portrait of one of Britain’s most beloved musicians and an account of a strange and turbulent period of British history. In his unconventional and enthralling audiobook, bestselling author Sathnam Sanghera explores the connection between music and politics, exposes what secrecy does to the soul, and reveals how fame rots the sense of self. Throughout, Sanghera captures, joyfully and poignantly, one of Britain’s greatest artists in all his musical glory.

Biographies & Memoirs Composers & Musicians Entertainment & Celebrity Music
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Critic Reviews

This is a beautiful, frequently extraordinary book. Part biography, part social commentary and part love letter, it somehow does full justice to the magnificent man it examines. For me, and for millions of others, that really is the highest praise possible (James O'Brien)
This is far more than a biography of a pop icon – it’s a sharp, insightful look at George Michael’s life and how he challenged society, from politics to identity, in ways that still resonate today (Sadiq Khan)
His lucid and accessible writing reaches out to those with closed minds
This affecting exploration of the troubled genius’s impact is packed with anecdote, sharp analysis and social context
A compulsive new fan’s-eye life of the singer . . . A fabulous account of the various expressions of George’s precocious and polymathic talent, from writing "Careless Whisper" aged 17 on the top deck of the No 32 bus to the great soul-revival of Faith
No ordinary pop biography, this is a very personal exploration of a very unusual artist. Sathnam Sanghera digs deep into sexuality, ethnicity, politics, celebrity and, of course, the songs to change the way we think about this misunderstood megastar (Dorian Lynskey)
It’s this occasionally eccentric revelling in detail, this willingness to give proper time and thought to an artist still too often stuck in teen-idol aspic, that makes this book such a revelatory blast
With the years the spent ‘in the trenches of the culture wars’ while writing and promoting his brilliant books on the British Empire having taken their toll, Sanghera resolved to embark on a project that would spark joy. The result is this elegiac, yet also poptastically enjoyable, exploration of the life, times and creativity of George Michael
An affectionate but thoughtful portrait of the artist’s music, contradictions and background
To understand the magic of his book you have to understand its author, and he gives us just enough of his own life to add a depth that others may have lacked . . . This book isn’t a eulogy, it’s a frank examination of the open wound of celebrity; an assessment of the man George Michael was and what he meant as a public, political and artistic figure. And, most importantly, what he meant to a fellow misfit who forged a life-long connection with him (Alex Kadis, The Financial Times )
A nerdy, passionate, extraordinary book (Lynn Barber, The Spectator)
Sathnam Sanghera has previously written about his British Sikh upbringing, as well as the impact of the British Empire on Britain and the rest of the world. Immigration is in his new book, a biography of George Michael, too; people sometimes forget Michael was the son of a Greek Cypriot, and born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. Fame, sexuality, and the music of the 1980s obviously also feature in the life – a life filled with both glory and tragedy – of one of Britain’s greatest popstars
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