Since his death on November 22, 1997, in a room at Sydney's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Michael Hutchence's legacy has been coloured as much by his private life as his contribution to music.

The tabloid press in Britain and Australia were relentless, making much of his high-profile romances, particularly his affair with British television presenter Paula Yates, who at the time had three children with her husband, the singer Bob Geldof.

There were other ups and downs, as Hutchence — a lanky, charismatic performer — found intense fame and media scrutiny off the back of hit INXS records like Kick (1987) and X (1990).

On that Saturday morning, 20 years ago, INXS were due to rehearse ahead of their upcoming Australian tour in support of 1997's Elegantly Wasted.

Hutchence never showed up. The band heard the news the way the rest of the world did, through the media.

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The singer's death silenced, far too soon, a phenomenal voice — moody, sexual, and dynamic, able to shift effortlessly from fragile to cocksure.

Hutchence didn't so much sing things as tell them coyly (on songs like Devil Inside) or boldly declare them (when the band was really kicking, like in Just Keep Walking). His voice fit perfectly in the nooks and crannies of the angular guitar lines.

Still, in the popular consciousness, Hutchence the celebrity has arguably outlived Hutchence the musician.

Yates, who died of a heroin overdose in 2000, suggested in a 1999 television interview that Hutchence's death may have been an accidental result of autoerotic asphyxiation, a claim that travelled far and further obscured the talents of the man involved. (New South Wales coroner Derrick Hand had considered that possibility and dismissed it.)

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"The tragedy of it all is that's how people remember Michael now, as the guy who hung himself," Tim Farriss, one of three brothers in the six-piece band, told Double J's Myf Warhurst recently. "And that's a real shame."

In recent weeks, more has emerged — via the Paradise Papers leak — about the managing of Hutchence's estate, and how much of the money it generates is going to Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, the singer's only child.

For fans, though, much of this is incidental. What are they remembering on this day, two decades on?

They remember the post-punk moments (1980's self-titled album), the funk moments (Suicide Blonde, Need You Tonight) and the big pop moments (Baby Don't Cry).

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They remember the small shows and the really big ones — the biggest being at Wembley Stadium in 1991, in front of a crowd of 70,000, a performance that solidified their place in pop history.

And they remember the songs, which — 40 years since the band started, and 20 years since the singer's death — still stand up.

That's how it should work. Hutchence, if nothing else, was an entertainer. That he can still entertain us today, through his music, is proof that his legacy should not be shaped by the headlines.

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