Odds slashed on George Michael being Christmas number one a year after death
George Michael (Getty)
George Michael is set for the Christmas number one on the first anniversary of his death.
The Wham! star was found dead Christmas Day aged 53 after dying from natural causes.
Now a campaign to make his festive classic Last Christmas number one is gaining ground.
Bookmakers Betway have cut their odds from 11/4 to 4/6 in recent days
William Hill are also offering 4/6 on either George Michael or Wham! topping the charts on 25 December.
Last Christmas was kept off the coveted spot on its first release in 1984 by Band Aid’s charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?
The song returned to the top 10 in the week after his sudden death.
Some of the late star’s posthumous songs could also chart.
Music legend Nile Rodgers has opened up about working with George Michael in the days before his death.
The producer, writer and guitarist had been working on the former Wham! singer’s comeback documentary Freedom: George Michael, as well as new music.
Speaking to Diffuser FM, Nile said: “On December 23rd [of 2016], I am at his house finishing up my work on the film and I leave to come back home on the 24th.
“Well, on Christmas Day we were supposed to speak and I get an alert on my phone that George Michael was found dead. It didn’t make any sense.
“It felt like one day to me that we hadn’t spoken and he was gone. It was shocking, it was alarming.
“After cancer I decided I wanted to chronicle my life better so I started taking more pictures on my cell phone.
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“There is a photograph I took when I was approaching George Michael’s house on the 23rd.
“Before we made the last turn to go down his street, there was a funeral procession coming out of his street.
“At the time, I didn’t make anything of it other than photographing this tradition of the English to have a horse pull the casket.
“In retrospect it is spooky. I keep thinking about it. All of this impacts me artistically.
“I have been working on music thinking about these people as I do.”
Since his death, dozens of people have opened up about the singer’s extraordinary generosity and anonymous philanthropy.
The star is be buried next to his mother, in highgate Cemetery, in the burial plot he bought when she died in 1997.
