Wham! is releasing its own proof that the whole thing actually happened. Sony Music will put out 10 Days in China – The Live EP on December 4, 2026, drawing on newly mixed recordings from George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s landmark 1985 concerts in Beijing and Guangzhou, according to music trade outlet Superdeluxeedition.com and the band’s own official Facebook announcement.

The four-track EP features “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Freedom” recorded live in Beijing, paired with “Everything She Wants” and “Careless Whisper” from the Guangzhou show, per Superdeluxeedition.com. Producer Chris Porter remixed and remastered the tapes from the original recordings, meaning fans get first-generation audio rather than a bootleg patched together from someone’s cassette deck. It’s being pressed on 12-inch vinyl, including a colored variant, plus a CD single, and the trade site notes it may end up being a taster for a longer live album down the road rather than a one-off.

Context matters here, and it’s a genuinely wild piece of pop history. In April 1985, Wham! became the first Western pop act to perform in communist China, playing to roughly 15,000 fans across two shows at Beijing’s Workers’ Gymnasium and a venue in Guangzhou, according to TIME’s retrospective on the tour. TIME reports the duo beat out both Queen and the Rolling Stones for the distinction. Getting there took manager Simon Napier-Bell eighteen months of negotiation with Chinese officials, and George Michael reportedly covered a chunk of the promotional costs himself just to make sure the trip happened at all, per the same TIME account.

The EP arrives alongside a companion documentary, WHAM! 10 Days in China, directed by Mike Christie, which is set to air on the BBC on August 29, 2026, built from restored footage of the original trip and interviews with Ridgeley and members of the touring party.

Key Points

• Sony Music will release 10 Days in China – The Live EP on December 4, 2026, on 12-inch vinyl and CD, according to Superdeluxeedition.com.
• The four tracks were recorded live in Beijing and Guangzhou during Wham!’s historic April 1985 China tour and newly mixed and mastered by Chris Porter.
• Wham!’s own Facebook page confirmed the release, calling it a first-time release of performances from the historic trip.
• The 1985 tour made Wham! the first Western pop act to play communist China, a distinction TIME notes they secured ahead of both Queen and the Rolling Stones.
• A companion documentary from director Mike Christie premieres on the BBC on August 29, 2026.

None of this would matter much if the 1985 trip had just been a novelty. It was not. China was still years away from opening up culturally, and a pop duo best known for headbands and white shorts ended up as an unlikely diplomatic icebreaker, playing to an audience that had almost no prior access to Western pop music. Four decades on, the tapes finally catching up with the legend feels less like a nostalgia cash-in and more like paperwork the band always owed history.