--- title: James Corden Tribute to George Michael for Carpool Karaoke description: James Corden kicked off the first Late Late Show of the year by thanking George Michael for all he did for both music and Carpool Karaoke. canonical: https://time.com/4621719/james-corden-george-michael-carpool-karaoke-tribute/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-04T15:45:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:39:52.880Z og:title: James Corden Pays Tribute to George Michael for Inspiring Carpool Karaoke og:description: "I feel like I’ve loved George Michael as long as I’ve loved music" og:url: https://time.com/4621719/james-corden-george-michael-carpool-karaoke-tribute/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Corden Pays Tribute to George Michael for Inspiring Carpool Karaoke twitter:description: "I feel like I’ve loved George Michael as long as I’ve loved music" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch James Corden's Jam Session With George Michael That Inspired Carpool Karaoke  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 4, 2017 3:45 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 4, 2017 3:45 PM UTC [James Corden](http://time.com/4545657/lady-gaga-james-corden-carpool-karaoke/) kicked off the first _Late Late Show_ of the year by thanking the singer for all he did for both music and [Carpool Karaoke](http://time.com/4280491/watch-james-cordens-first-ever-carpool-karaoke/). After paying tribute to [George Michael](http://time.com/4617893/george-michael-dead-celebrities-mourn/) on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/JKCorden/status/813169352111329280) Dec. 25 — the day his publicist [confirmed his death](http://ew.com/music/2016/12/25/george-michael-dead-singer-dies-age-53/) — the host took the opportunity to speak about what Michael meant to him personally during Tuesday’s opening monologue, touching on the power behind his music. “I feel like I’ve loved George Michael as long as I’ve loved music in a way, and I know so many of his fans feel the same,” he said. “I can remember so many specific times in my life where I might have felt on my own, and George’s music would feel like you would listen to a song and he would reach his hand out and tell you that you weren’t on your own, and that these feelings were not particular to you.” Corden also took time to remember the first ever Carpool Karaoke — a 2011 sketch for the British charity Comic Relief that featured himself and Michael belting out Wham! songs. Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4621719/james-corden-george-michael-carpool-karaoke-tribute/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4621719/james-corden-george-michael-carpool-karaoke-tribute/"},"headline":"Watch James Corden's Jam Session With George Michael That Inspired Carpool Karaoke","datePublished":"2017-01-04T15:45:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:39:52.880Z","description":"\"I feel like I’ve loved George Michael as long as I’ve loved music\"","url":"https://time.com/4621719/james-corden-george-michael-carpool-karaoke-tribute/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","TV","The Late Late Show","james corden","The Late Late Show with James Corden","carpool karaoke"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4621719/james-corden-george-michael-carpool-karaoke-tribute/","name":"Watch James Corden's Jam Session With George Michael That Inspired Carpool Karaoke"}}]}] ```