On Saturday, June 28, 1986, George Michael picked up his tasselled leather jacket, walked out of London’s Wembley Stadium and cheerfully tore up five years of glittering pop history. He’d just disposed of Wham!, the band he’d formed with school friend Andrew Ridgeley when they were teenagers, and now, at 23, he knew he was all grown up. He just needed to convince everyone else.

Faith is what happens when you’ve outstripped your dreams, your peers, your friends and your fans, and no one’s caught up yet. It’s about pouring all of that confusion, insecurity and sizzling ambition into music that comes out confused, insecure and ambitious – and then selling 25 million copies of it. George Michael was always preparing for this and, in the process, he set a template for all disaffected singers making that move. This book examines that model and the themes that went into Faith – from engaging in politics to crossing over to a Black audience and writing classic pop songs to endure – and speaks to the surviving key players to tell the story of how it was made.