George Michael’s Estate Responds to Comparisons of Lorde’s ‘Solar Power’
After comparisons were made between George Michael’s song “Freedom! ’90” and Lorde’s recently released “Solar Power,” the estate of the late singer responded to the claims with praise. Lorde’s comeback…
George Michael leaves Brent Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to a charge of driving while unfit through drugs on May 8, 2007 in London. He appeared under his real name Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. Lorde attends VH1 “You Oughta Know In Concert” 2013 on November 11, 2013 at Roseland Ballroom in New York City.
Peter Macdiarmid/Neilson Barnard/Getty ImagesAfter comparisons were made between George Michael's song "Freedom! '90" and Lorde's recently released "Solar Power," the estate of the late singer responded to the claims with praise.
Lorde's comeback single after a four-year hiatus dropped June 10. "Solar Power" leads her highly-anticipated third studio album of the same name. A new teaser was uploaded to Lorde's website over the weekend along with the caption "SOLSTICE." Given that the Summer Solstice takes place today (June 21), fans are expecting new material from Lorde to drop imminently.
Following her release of "Solar Power," some people began drawing comparisons to Michael’s "Freedom! ’90", which was released in October 1990. In a statement shared on Friday (June 18), Michael’s estate shot down any notion that they were bothered by the comparisons. Instead, the praised Lorde, saying that Michael “would have been flattered to hear” about the connection.
The short statement read, "We are aware that many people are making a connection between "Freedom ’90" by George Michael and "Solar Power" by Lorde which George would have been flattered to hear, so on behalf of one great artist to a fellow artist, we wish her every success with the single. – The George Michael Estate"
The response from Michael’s estate comes after Primal Scream recently also praised "Solar Power" following an interview where Lorde cited their 1990 single "Loaded" as a key inspiration behind her new material.
Lorde said, "I had never heard Primal Scream in my life. I’d been told to check them out. I wrote the song on the piano and then we realized it sounds a lot like "Loaded." It’s just one of those crazy things that they just were the spiritual forebears of the song.”
She spoke to the band’s frontman Bobby Gillespie about the similarities between the songs and that he was “so lovely about it." She explained that he said, "'You know, these things happen, you caught a vibe that we caught years ago.' "And he gave us his blessing. So let the record state "Loaded" is 100 percent the original blueprint for this, but we arrived at it organically. And I’m glad we did."
Watch Lorde's "Solar Power" video below:
Watch George Michael's video for "Freedom! '90" below:
Folks on Twitter saw the similarities right away:
