“One of the things I love most about George Michael was his ability to own his narrative,” Olly Alexander tells Apple Music. “He was a huge, huge star. I’m sure he struggled with some of the attention and issues that come with worldwide fame, and he still remained so iconic, so true to who he was. He still had fun with it. He was always trying new things and taking risks and unashamedly himself. And I take so much inspiration from that.” Here, the Years & Years star, who inherited his love of George Michael from his mum (“I really got to know him through her”), covers “Outside”—one of the most successful and spectacular examples of Michael taking command of his story and staying unshrinkingly true to himself. “He got arrested in 1998—I think the terminology is ‘soliciting a police officer in a public toilet’—then goes and writes a song about it,” says Alexander. “And it’s such a banger. Wow! I just think it’s so incredible for him to just own that narrative and really go, ‘Yeah, I like to have sex outside.’ And it’s such a bop.”