As the 1990s came to an end, George Michael was faced with a sort of ultimatum. When faced with an unanticipated scandal and years of public scrutiny, he did what only George Michael could do: he crafted a music video about his problematic mistakes and paraded the spotlight with them. His arsenal to meet the situation with a humorous edge would be “Outside,” but not before another setback upset his plans.<\/p>\n
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Michael was ready to laugh at the situation by the time the music video for “Outside” started to play nonstop on music channels, and he encouraged others to do the same. Michael was not the kind to give up easily and concede defeat, in contrast to many others who were involved in scandals that could have damaged their reputation. Rather, he took control of his image with the song and video.<\/p>\n
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The whole point of the sequence was to reflect Michael’s sentiments about the entire incident by making it seem ridiculous and humorous. Michael’s arrest is dramatically reenacted, complete with police officers, surveillance cameras, and obtrusive flashing lights. This gives Michael the symbolic middle finger he has always wanted to give to everyone who disregarded his desire to exhibit sexual liberation and freedom.<\/p>\n
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But Michael’s recent embracing of controversy wasn’t without its difficulties, as shown by a collaboration with Mary J. Blige that her record label rejected because it was too poorly timed to be played on US public radio. The song “As” was not included in the US release of Michael’s compilation album Ladies & Gentlemen and was not released as a single because Jay Boberg, the president of Blige’s company, would not approve it.<\/p>\n
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Following Michael\u2019s arrest, Boberg felt the track was too controversial to be associated with Blige and declined any request to give it space on national broadcasting or commercial listening spaces. \u201cIt pissed everyone off at Sony,\u201d Kirk Burrowes, who produced Blige\u2019s album Mary, said in 2019. \u201cIt pissed George Michael off. It pissed everyone off, but we couldn\u2019t make Jay Boberg bend.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Michael, too, experienced a hard hit with the refusal, describing it as the \u201cworst consequence\u201d of the entire rollout. \u201cThat was the worst consequence about this,\u201d he told USA Today in 1998. \u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic duet, a highlight of my career. He told Sony\u2019s lawyer, \u2018What\u2019s in it for her? He\u2019s coming off the back of a sex scandal\u2019. Maybe he feared the R&B community\u2019s reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the situation\u2019s obvious seriousness, Michael also explained that making a video like \u2018Outside\u2019 was \u201cwhat I needed to do\u201d. Michael\u2019s arrest didn\u2019t just appear reckless\u2014it was that, too\u2014but it also alluded to years of speculation and scrutiny about who he was as a person, which included how he identified sexually.<\/p>\n
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As a result, he knew that cowering away, ignoring the situation, or attempting to minimise it wouldn\u2019t be helpful for anybody, so he paraded his sexuality with confidence, not only to let everybody know he wasn\u2019t going to sit back and be laughed at but in a way that also beckoned others not to be afraid of coming out and being who they truly were.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the 1990s came to an end, George Michael was faced with a sort of ultimatum. When faced with an unanticipated scandal and years of public scrutiny, he did what only George Michael could do: he crafted a music video about his problematic mistakes and paraded the spotlight with them. His arsenal to meet the 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