- Wikipedia

{"parse":{"title":"George Michael","pageid":45985,"text":{"*":"

For other people named George Michael, see George Michael (disambiguation).

\n\n\n\n

George Michael
Michael performing in Houston, 1988
Born	Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (1963-06-25)25 June 1963 East Finchley, Middlesex, England
Died	25 December 2016(2016-12-25) (aged 53) Goring-on-Thames, England
Resting place	Highgate Cemetery West, London
Occupations	\n Singer \n songwriter \n record producer \n
Years active	1981\u20132016
Partners	\n Anselmo Feleppa (1991\u20131993) \n Kenny Goss (1996\u20132009) \n Fadi Fawaz (2012\u20132016) \n
Musical career
Genres	\n Pop \n dance-pop \n post-disco \n R&B \n
Instruments	\n Vocals \n keyboards \n
Labels	\n Innervision \n Columbia \n Epic \n Virgin \n DreamWorks \n Polydor \n Sony \n Aegean \n
Formerly of	\n Wham! \n Boogie Box High \n
\n \n \n George Michael's voice \n \n from the BBC programme Desert Island Discs, 5 October 2007.^[1] \n
\n Musical artist
Website	georgemichael.com
Signature

George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 \u2013 25 December 2016) was an English singer-songwriter and record producer. Regarded as a pop culture icon,^[2] he is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time^[3] and was named one of the greatest singers of all time by Rolling Stone.^[4] Michael was known as a creative force in songwriting,^[5] vocal performance,^[6] and visual presentation.^[7]^[8]\n

Born in East Finchley, Middlesex, Michael rose to fame after forming the pop duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in 1981. Their first two albums, Fantastic (1983) and Make It Big (1984), reached number one on the US Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart. Their 1985 tour in China was the first by a Western popular music act, and generated worldwide media coverage.^[9]^[10] Michael took part in Band Aid's UK number-one single \"Do They Know It's Christmas?\" in 1984 and performed at the following year's Live Aid concert.\n

Michael's first solo single, \"Careless Whisper\" (1984), reached number one in over 20 countries, including the UK and US.^[11]^[12] The second solo single, \"A Different Corner\", also reached number one in 1986. After Wham! disbanded that year, Michael released the number-one duet with Aretha Franklin, \"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)\". His debut solo album, Faith (1987), stayed at number one on the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks and topped the UK Albums Chart. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, having sold over 25 million copies worldwide. The singles \"Faith\", \"Father Figure\", \"One More Try\", and \"Monkey\" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Michael became the best-selling music artist of 1988, and Faith was awarded Album of the Year at the 1989 Grammy Awards. Michael's second solo album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990), was also a number one in the UK and yielded the Billboard Hot 100 number one \"Praying for Time\" and the worldwide hit \"Freedom! '90\".^[13] Michael went on to release a series of multimillion-selling albums, including Older (1996), Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael (1998), Songs from the Last Century (1999), Patience (2004), and Twenty Five (2006). The albums earned him multiple hits such as \"Jesus to a Child\", \"Fastlove\", \"Outside\", \"Amazing\", and \"An Easier Affair\".\n

Michael came out as gay in 1998, and was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser. His personal life, drug use, and legal troubles made headlines following an arrest for public lewdness in 1998 and multiple drug-related offences. The 2005 documentary A Different Story covered his career and personal life. His 25 Live tour spanned three tours from 2006 to 2008. In 2011 Michael fell into a coma during a bout with pneumonia, but recovered. He performed his final concert at London's Earls Court in 2012. Michael died of heart disease on Christmas Day in 2016, at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.\n

Michael achieved 10 number-one songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 and 13 number-one songs on the UK singles chart. He won numerous music awards, including two Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards. He was listed among Billboard's \"Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time\". The Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984\u20132004.^[14] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.^[15]\n

\n\n

v t e George Michael
\n Discography \n Awards \n Live performances \n
Studio albums	\n Faith \n Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 \n Older \n Songs from the Last Century \n Patience \n
Live albums	\n Five Live \n MTV Unplugged \n Symphonica \n
Compilations	\n Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael \n Twenty Five \n
Video releases	\n Faith \n Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael \n Twenty Five \n Live in London \n
Concert tours	\n The Faith Tour \n Cover to Cover \n 25 Live \n Live in Australia \n Symphonica Tour \n
Documentaries	\n George Michael: A Different Story \n George Michael: Portrait of an Artist \n
Related	\n Wham! \n Boogie Box High \n Panayiotou v Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd. \n Aegean Records \n Eli Stone \n Imagine Piano Peace Project \n Last Christmas\n soundtrack \n
\n $\"\"$ Category \n

v t e George Michael singles
\n Discography \n Awards and nominations \n
1980s	\n \"Careless Whisper\" \n \"A Different Corner\" \n \"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)\" \n \"I Want Your Sex\" \n \"Faith\" \n \"Hard Day\" \n \"Father Figure\" \n \"One More Try\" \n \"Monkey\" \n \"Kissing a Fool\" \n
1990s	\n \"Praying for Time\" \n \"Waiting for That Day\" (\"Mother's Pride\") \n \"Freedom! '90\" \n \"Heal the Pain\" \n \"Cowboys and Angels\" \n \"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me\" \n \"Too Funky\" \n \"Killer\" / \"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone\" \n \"Jesus to a Child\" \n \"Fastlove\" \n \"Spinning the Wheel\" \n \"Older\" / \"I Can't Make You Love Me\" \n \"Star People '97\" \n \"Waltz Away Dreaming\" \n \"You Have Been Loved\" / \"The Strangest Thing '97\" \n \"Outside\" \n \"As\" \n
2000s	\n \"If I Told You That\" \n \"Freeek!\" \n \"Shoot the Dog\" \n \"Amazing\" \n \"Flawless (Go to the City)\" \n \"Round Here\" \n \"John and Elvis Are Dead\" \n \"An Easier Affair\" \n \"This Is Not Real Love\" \n \"December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas)\" \n
2010s	\n \"True Faith\" \n \"White Light\" \n \"Let Her Down Easy\" \n \"Going to a Town\" \n \"Feeling Good\" \n \"Fantasy\" \n \"This Is How (We Want You to Get High)\" \n
Other	\n \"Turn to Gold\" \n \"Nikita\" \n \"Wrap Her Up\" \n \"Jive Talkin'\" \n \"You and I\" \n
\n $\"\"$ Category \n

v t e Wham!
\n George Michael \n Andrew Ridgeley \n
Studio albums	\n Fantastic \n Make It Big \n Music from the Edge of Heaven \n
Compilations	\n The Final \n The Best of Wham!: If You Were There... \n The Singles: Echoes from the Edge of Heaven \n
Singles	\n \"Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)\" \n \"Young Guns (Go for It!)\" \n \"Bad Boys\" \n \"Club Tropicana\" \n \"Club Fantastic Megamix\" \n \"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go\" \n \"Careless Whisper\" \n \"Freedom\" \n \"Everything She Wants\" \n \"Last Christmas\" \n \"I'm Your Man\" \n \"The Edge of Heaven\" \n \"Where Did Your Heart Go?\" \n
Concerts and tours	\n Club Fantastic \n The Big Tour \n Whamamerica! \n The Final \n
Filmography	\n Wham! in China: Foreign Skies \n Wham! \n
Related articles	\n Discography \n Deon Estus \n Dee C. Lee \n Pepsi & Shirlie \n Tommy Eyre \n Whamageddon \n Last Christmas\n soundtrack \n
\n $\"\"$ Category \n $\"\"$ Commons \n

v t e Young British Artists
Artists	\n Fiona Banner \n Henry Bond \n Christine Borland \n Glenn Brown \n Angela Bulloch \n Jake and Dinos Chapman \n Adam Chodzko \n Mat Collishaw \n Ian Davenport \n Tacita Dean \n Tracey Emin \n Angus Fairhurst \n Nick Fudge \n Anya Gallaccio \n Liam Gillick \n Douglas Gordon \n Marcus Harvey \n Damien Hirst \n Gary Hume \n Michael Landy \n Abigail Lane \n Chris Ofili \n Sarah Lucas \n Stephen Park \n Richard Patterson \n Simon Patterson \n Steven Pippin \n Marc Quinn \n Fiona Rae \n Alessandro Raho \n Jenny Saville \n Georgina Starr \n Sam Taylor-Johnson \n Gavin Turk \n Gillian Wearing \n Rachel Whiteread \n Jane and Louise Wilson \n
Teachers	\n Basil Beattie \n Helen Chadwick \n Michael Craig-Martin \n Ian Jeffrey \n Jon Thompson \n Mark Wallinger \n Richard Wentworth \n
Influences	\n Art & Language \n Art in Ruins \n Conceptual art \n Gilbert & George \n Jeff Koons \n John Stezaker \n Andy Warhol \n Lawrence Weiner \n
Artworks	\n 24 Hour Psycho \n Break Down \n Bullet Hole \n Documents Series \n Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963\u20131995 \n For the Love of God \n House \n My Bed \n Myra \n No Woman No Cry \n 26 October 1993 \n The Upper Room \n Tense \n The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living \n
Shows	\n Brilliant! \n East Country Yard Show \n Freeze \n Modern Medicine \n Sensation \n
Curators	\n Joshua Compston \n Carl Freedman \n Gregor Muir \n Norman Rosenthal \n Jon Thompson \n
Galleries	\n Anthony d'Offay Gallery \n Curtain Road Arts \n City Racing \n Gagosian Gallery \n Karsten Schubert Gallery \n Lisson Gallery \n Maureen Paley \n Saatchi Gallery \n Sadie Coles HQ \n South London Gallery \n Victoria Miro Gallery \n White Cube \n
Collectors	\n Bernard Arnault \n Janet Wolfson de Botton \n Eli Broad \n Frank Cohen \n Steven A. Cohen \n Dakis Joannou \n Pauline Karpidas \n George Michael \n Jose Mugrabi \n Fran\u00e7ois Pinault \n Miuccia Prada \n Charles Saatchi \n Jack Wendler \n Poju and Anita Zabludowicz \n
Advocates	\n Louisa Buck \n Matthew Collings \n Richard Cork \n Andrew Graham-Dixon \n Sarah Kent \n Stuart Morgan \n Norman Rosenthal \n Sir Nicholas Serota \n Matthew Slotover \n
Opponents	\n BANK \n Billy Childish \n James Heartfield \n Matthew Higgs \n David Lee \n Brian Sewell \n Julian Stallabrass \n Stuckists \n Charles Thomson \n
See also	\n Conceptual art \n Frieze Art Fair \n Momart \n Post-YBAs \n Turner Prize \n

Authority control databases $\"Edit$
International	ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	Germany United States France BnF data Japan Italy Australia Czech Republic Spain Netherlands Norway Latvia Croatia Greece Korea Sweden Poland Israel Finland
Academics	CiNii
Artists	MusicBrainz Grammy Awards
People	Trove DDB
Other	IdRef

Early life

Early music

Wham!

Solo career

1987\u20131989

1990s

2000s

2010s

Posthumous releases

Personal life

Sexuality and relationships

Legal troubles

Health

Politics

Philanthropy

Assets

Death

Aftermath

Tributes

Awards and achievements

Discography and record sales

Tours

See also

References

External links

George Michael

Talks

George Michael's Talks