The VMAs gave George Michael four gifted singers and still struggled to find the man at the centre of the songs. Sombr, RAYE, Teddy Swims and surprise closer Adam Lambert all brought vocal force. What the tribute lacked was a single emotional idea holding them together.
On paper, the assignment looked foolproof. The official announcement promised a celebration 40 years after Faith, with Adam Blackstone directing the music and three contemporary stars crossing pop, soul and rock. Lambert was kept as the reveal.
Great voices are not the same as a point of view
Sombr opened with âFaithâ and âFather Figureâ. RAYE tackled âI Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)â. Teddy Swims took âCareless Whisperâ, before Lambert closed with âFreedom! â90â alongside Meek and Saint Harison. Rolling Stone Australiaâs report captured the scale of the medley and its anniversary context.
The problem was not a shortage of range. It was that George Michaelâs catalogue needs intimacy as much as power. âFather Figureâ is restraint and danger. âCareless Whisperâ is embarrassment turned into theatre. âFreedom! â90â is a public argument with fame. Treating each number as a vocal showcase flattened the personality that connected them.
That disconnect explains why the backlash concentrated on curation rather than effort. Pitchfork called the initial lineup a major error and argued that Lambert ultimately rescued the segment. George Michael fans on Reddit were harsher about the production, although many also singled out Lambert and RAYE as the performers who came closest to the material.
The jacket understood the assignment better than the medley
Sombrâs styling contained the eveningâs clearest line back to Michael. Vogue reported that he wore one of the late starâs leather jackets, sourced from the estate. It was not costume-shop mimicry. The object carried history, silhouette and a sense of physical connection.
Lambert then supplied what the running order had been missing: command that felt specific to Michaelâs scale. He did not need to imitate the original voice. âFreedom! â90â gave him a song about image, control and reinvention, subjects his own career could meet without explanation. Suddenly the tribute had a reason for this singer to be singing this song.
The VMAs were already balancing reverence with spectacle. Madonnaâs appearance generated a separate wave of misleading online speculation. Taylor Swift used the broadcast to launch her âPatient Zeroâ video, while her new honour pushed the ceremonyâs competitive history forward in a way POPTOPIC examined before the show.
George Michael deserved more than a sequence of difficult songs sung loudly. He made immaculate pop feel private, then turned private conflict into public style. The tribute came alive only when Lambert found that tension. Four singers were never the problem. The missing ingredient was a clear answer to why each one belonged there.
The tribute also carried a promotional burden. The Faith anniversary campaign includes a live album due in November and a film in December, so the segment had to speak to longtime fans while introducing the catalogue to younger viewers. That is precisely why the choices needed stronger connective tissue. An anniversary medley works best when it reveals how the artistâs ideas travel across generations, rather than simply placing current stars beside familiar hooks.
Michaelâs own VMA history offered an obvious spine. He won four Moon Persons, earned 16 nominations and received the Video Vanguard Award in 1989, presented by Madonna. A tribute built around the tension between the polished video icon and the private songwriter could have moved naturally from image to vulnerability and liberation. Instead, the show mostly left each performer to solve a different version of George Michael alone.
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