Hear George Michael’s Posthumous Song ‘This Is How (We Want You to Get High)’
George Michael‘s posthumous single, “This Is How (We Want You to Get High),” has been released nearly three years following the singer’s death. The track, which was co-written and co-produced by Michael and collaborator James Jackman, will be released as part of the soundtrack to Paul Feig‘s upcoming movie Last Christmas.
“This Is How (We Want You to Get High)” was first written in 2012 and later recorded at London’s Air Studios, with finishing touches done in 2015 during Michael’s final recording sessions. The song has an upbeat vibe, but leans on heavier topics in the lyrics. “So you raise another glass looking for a different space,” Michael croons over the Latin-inspired beat. “I was leaning on the grass dreaming of a sunnier day/Oh it never came, how could it have baby/Where the present meets the past it’s hard to be more than we’ve seen.”
The song, which marks Michael’s first release of original material in seven years, appears as the credits track in Last Christmas, a film inspired by the singer’s music. Last Christmas, co-written by Emma Thompson, stars Emilia Clarke as a down-on-her-luck Londoner who meets a guy who turns her attitude around (played by Henry Golding).
Michael died on Christmas Day in 2016 at the age of 53 at his home in Goring in Oxfordshire, England, and Thompson got the singer’s blessing for the film ahead of his death.
“He was just the loveliest guy you can imagine,” Thompson recently told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. “All of these themes in the movie, he was passionate about homelessness, he had this great social conscience, he was so lovely. I got really enthused and we started to write and then he had that tragic early death in 2016 on Christmas.” She added, “I miss him so much and I wish he was here because I know he’d love it.”
Last Christmas is in theaters November 15th.