Shirley Holliman

Who is Shirley Holliman?

Shirlie Holliman, is an English former pop singer, who found fame in the 1980s with Wham! and as part of the duo Pepsi & Shirlie.

One of five children born and raised on a council estate in Bushey, near Watford, Hertfordshire, Holliman intended to train as a horse riding instructor. However, after she developed hay fever at aged 18 and with nothing else to do, her then boyfriend Andrew Ridgeley suggested she come and dance while he and his friend George Michael's band did a local gig.

Holliman was never a band member of what became Wham!, but, like her friend Dee C. Lee, was paid on a per performance basis as backing singers, and continued to live with her parents. After Lee left to marry Paul Weller, she was replaced by "Pepsi" Demacque, and this duo performed on all the Wham! songs and concerts. As George Michael desired to create music targeted to a more sophisticated audience than Wham!'s primarily teenage fan base, the announcement of Wham!'s break-up was made in the spring of 1986, with a grand finale concert at Wembley Stadium on 28 June 1986, called The Final.

During their Wham! career, Holliman and Demacque decided to form their own act, named Pepsi & Shirlie. Created immediately after the Wembley concert as an upbeat and more pop genre sound, they had two UK Top Ten hits: "Heartache", which was produced by Phil Fearon and Tambi Fernando, reaching #2 in the UK Singles Chart behind the #1 hit of George Michael and Aretha Franklin's I knew you were waiting, and "Goodbye Stranger", produced by Tambi Fernando and Pete Hammond, reached #9.