Father Figure (song) - Music Video

Music Video

The music video depicts a relationship between a cab driver (George Michael) and a high fashion model (Tania Coleridge). Various intercut flashbacks tell a backstory that, like the song, can be interpreted in various ways.

One possible interpretation is that it depicts the breakdown of a relationship. At some point in the past a cab driver and model began an unlikely but passionate relationship. The model, however, had an affair with her photographer, which she quickly regretted. The cab driver suspected the affair, followed her, and discovered the truth. At some point in the future—perhaps the next day, perhaps months later—he appears at a runway show in which she is performing, either to forgive her or to let her know he is aware of the affair.

Another interpretation is similar to the first, except that the cab driver is the one with whom she is cheating, but he is unaware of it and his discovery of it ends the relationship.

A completely different interpretation is that the cab driver is a stalker. In this interpretation, there was never a relationship between the cab driver and model in the first place, except in the cab driver's imagination. The cab driver was obsessed with the model (cutting out pictures of her in magazines and putting them on his wall, following her, etc.) and discovered that she was in a relationship with her photographer. In his mind, the cab driver substituted himself in place of her real lover, and convinced himself that they were in love. The stress of this obsession took its toll on the model. The final scene with the cab driver in the audience thus takes on a far more disturbing connotation.

George Michael and Andy Morahan won "Best Direction of a Video" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards for "Father Figure".