People are apparently mourning the death of George Michael in the most appropriate of fashions: By blasting the pop icon’s music all over the world.
Spotify told TMZ and Billboard that plays of Michael’s solo music jumped 3,158 percent between Sunday and Monday. The song “Last Christmas,” which Michael wrote when he was in the duo Wham!, also registered as the No. 3 song on the digital music service’s Global Top 50, which tracks the most-played songs on Spotify at any given moment.
On Sunday, police were called to Michael’s house in Goring in Oxfordshire, England, where they pronounced Michael dead. Authorities have not announced the official cause of death, but the singer’s manager, Michael Lippman, said he died of heart failure.
Since Michael’s death, pop icons have come forward to mourn the artist behind hits like “Careless Whisper” and “Freedom! ‘90.”
“George Michael’s sweet soul music will live on even after his sudden death,” Paul McCartney said in a statement.
Indeed, it already is.
