Upon the release,
Larry Flick from
Billboard magazine wrote, "After teasing his die-hard club following for months with several rhythmic (but not quite
dance) singles, George Michael has finally unleashed a slamming
house music anthem from his glorious—if underappreciated—opus
Older.
Jeremy Healy, Amos,
Mike Koglin, and Forthright have been tapped to turn the original retro
pop/
jazz ditty into a dance ditty. Working as a team, Healy, Amos, and Koglin successfully transform the song into an edgy anthem befitting the swagger of Michael's vocal. Meanwhile, Forthright injects a few drops of
Europop flavor into the groove, making the single a viable top 40 contender. A sterling
12-inch package that was well worth the wait."
Paul Lester from
Melody Maker described the song as "uptempo", noting that it "has a go at celebrity attention-seekers". A reviewer from
Music Week gave "Star People '97" a score of four out of five, adding, "The restrained
Older track takes on a completely new life in this re-recorded, funked up version which amounts to George's brightest, most uplifting single in a long while." Ed Morales for
Vibe opined that "the halfhearted condemnation of glitz in 'Star People' has a serious
Latin beat working." Retrospectively, Matthew Hocter from Albumism noted that the song "spoke to the fakery and greed that consumes many in the entertainment business, making reference to damaging childhoods and insecurity as some of the possible causes." He described it as a song "rooted in a
soul,
funk sound with splashes of
disco". ==Track listings==