Pop culture » Pop kultura | 43 T H I RT Y Y EARS ON . . . Cindy, Linda, Tatjana, Christy andNaomi remember Freedom George Michael persuaded the five greatest supermodels of the ‘90s to appear in the video for his song Freedom. This song, the 30th anniversary of which we celebrated recently, was proclaimed one of the most significant pieces of pop music of its time When the 30th anniversary of this cultmusic video was celebratedat the end of last year, the world again recalled the song Freedom and the artist who left us four years ago. With striking lyrics that testified brilliantly to his strugglewith identity, growth as an artistic and star status, it won over listeners instantly. However, GeorgeMichael, who was then at the peak of his dizzying fame, decided that he didn’twant to appear in the video for his new single or use his image to promote the 1990 albumListenWithout Prejudice Vol. 1. But his record label still wanted music videos for MTV. Inspired by a group portrait featuring NaomiCampbell, LindaEvangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford from the January 1990 cover of British Vogue, George Michael asked the supermodels to take his place, together withmodel John Pearson and photographer Mario Sorrenti. And the rest is history! Althoughmodels appearing ina music videowasn’t a newphenomenon, in the past women had usually been cast in a “girlfriend” role. Here, instead of being appendages, the models were the focus of the video, lip-syncing lyrics such as “All we have to see is that I don’t belong to you, and you don’t belong to me”. Whether bathing, dancing or gazing into the camera, the models all brought the star qualities they’d exhibited on the catwalk to Michael’s song, which helped the video become a hit. Of course, many people who’d never paidmuch attention to fashion became aware that another world existed, one that was yet to reign in the time to come - the world of supermodels. Fashion had, thus, made its mark on the video for Freedom, and in turn the song and accompanying videowould impact on the fashion industry. The show for Gianni Versace’s Autumn1991 collection ended with four of themodels from the video—Campbell, Evangelista, Crawford, andTurlington— strutting down the catwalk, handin-hand, as theyoncemoremouthed the words to Michael’s song... Setting the fashion aspect aside, the video for Freedomobliterated symbols of Michael’s earlier career, like a jukebox and leather jacket connected to the video for his song Faith (the jacket burned along to the lyrics “sometimes the clothes do not make the man”). Moreover, by entitling the song Freedom! ‘90, the author actually referenced one of his hit songs as part of the duo Wham! That was also called Freedom (without ‘90). However, he seemed to be asking his audience to forget about the earlier tune and pay attention to the updated one for a new era. Georgewas alsono longer interested in stardom. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times at that time, he said, “Everybody wants to be a star. I certainly did, and I worked hard to get it. But I was miserable, and I don’t want to feel that way again.” He’d used Freedom to stand up for himself and his needs as an artist. He also set an example for others in the music industry by doing so. Talking about Michael’s refusal to appear in the video, Elton John once said, “It changed thewhole face of how videos were done: the video said everything. It was genius. And it was a revolutionary thing”. Svi su supermodeli obavili sjajan posao / All the supermodels did a great job
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