George Michael’s Faith Tour is coming back from the archive
The restored Paris concert and its live album revisit a pivotal solo tour, but the cinema date and record release should not be confused.
Fourteen cameras followed George Michael across two Paris performances in 1988. Their 35mm footage now supplies The Faith Tour, a restored concert film built from the European leg of his tour. OnSight, which worked on the picture, describes material audiences had not previously seen.
The source was the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, rather than a compilation assembled from many cities. OnSight says its work included a new colour grade and digital remastering for both xenon and laser projection, with Steve Atkins as colourist. That separates the original capture medium from the way cinemas will present the restored material.
Andy Morahan and David Austin direct the project. The combination of an original multi-camera shoot and a later restoration gives this release its archival interest: a performance filmed decades ago can reach cinemas through a newly prepared picture, without being a newly recorded concert.
Sony Music’s announcement gives the companion live album a November 6, 2026 release, while the film is scheduled for North American cinemas on December 11. Those dates describe different products. Mary McCartney’s introductory short, Finding Faith, draws on audio and images from 1986–1988 before the concert feature.
The record also needs an edition check. Sony lists eighteen tracks for the standard programme, while its standalone two-LP version has sixteen. Comparing those lists, Hand To Mouth and Play That Funky Music appear in the longer selection. The deluxe box contains the full concert across three LPs and two CDs, plus a 136-page photo book.
Alongside the Faith-era singles, the programme includes the Wham! songs Everything She Wants and I’m Your Man, plus covers including Lady Marmalade. It is a document of Michael’s repertoire on that tour, rather than simply the studio album played in its original running order.
The timing places the performances at a turning point. The Recording Academy’s career record identifies Faith as Michael’s 1987 solo debut and records its Album of the Year win at the 1989 ceremony. The Paris footage comes between the album’s arrival and that award. The Academy also lists Father Figure among that ceremony’s vocal-performance nominees, showing how recognition extended beyond the album as a whole.
He was already crossing musical boundaries before the solo album. His first Grammy came for the Aretha Franklin duet I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), in an R&B performance category. That earlier collaboration and the Wham! material help explain why a Faith Tour set reaches beyond the record whose name it carries.