"Jesus to a Child" is a song by British singer and songwriter George Michael. It was released in January 1996 the first of six singles from his third studio album, Older (1996). The song peaked at number one in Australia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom; it was Michael's sixth UK number one, and his third as a solo performer. It also reached the top three on several other European charts, and became Michael's highest debut on the US Billboard Hot 100. It is a melancholy tribute to his late lover Anselmo Feleppa. The accompanying music video was directed by Howard Greenhalgh. After Michael's death in 2016, Dame Esther Rantzen, founder of the charity ChildLine, revealed that Michael had secretly donated all of the single's royalties to the charity. She said "George helped us to reach out to hundreds of thousands of children through his generosity. I met him a couple of times, he approached us, rather than us going cap in hand to him, but it was an intensely personal gift. He didn’t want it to be known or to be part of his image." She told BBC News that "he really wanted to keep his help secret, it was an intensely personal gift. It meant we could answer more children." Background Although "Jesus to a Child" was not officially released until 8 January 1996, Michael unveiled the song in November 1994 during the inaugural MTV Europe Music Awards, where he performed it live in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. The song was Michael's first self-penned hit in his homeland for almost four years, becoming his first solo single to enter the UK Singles Chart at number one. On the US Billboard Hot 100, it became the highest new entry by a British artist for more than 25 years, entering at number seven. In Spain, the single held the top spot for seven non-consecutive weeks. Content The song was a melancholy tribute to Michael's Brazilian lover Anselmo Feleppa, whom he met when performing in Rio de Janeiro in 1991. Feleppa died two years later from an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage. Michael had been unable to write for the next 18 months as a consequence of his grief, but then penned the words to "Jesus to a Child" in little more than an hour, indicating that the time was right to move on with his life. The