George Michael

George Michael

George Michael was an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist. He rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! and later embarked on a solo career. Michael sold over 80 million records worldwide making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He came out as gay in 1998 and was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIVAIDS charity fundraiser. He died of natural causes at the age of 53 in Oxfordshire on December 25, 2016.

About George Michael in brief

Summary George MichaelGeorge Michael was an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist. He rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! and later embarked on a solo career. Michael sold over 80 million records worldwide making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. In 2008, he was ranked 40th on Billboard’s list of the Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time. He came out as gay in 1998 and was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIVAIDS charity fundraiser. Michael was found dead at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, on 25 December 2016, aged 53. He was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on 25 June 1963 in East Finchley, London. He had two sisters: Yioda and Melanie. While he was in his early teens, the family moved to Radlett. Michael attended Bushey Meads School in Bushey, where he befriended his future Wham.! partner Andrew Ridgeley. The two had the same career ambition of being musicians. Michael busked on the London Underground performing songs such as ’39, Watford, Stanmore and Watford This was followed by the formation of a short-lived ska band called The Tropicana. The band’s first two albums, Fantastic and Make It Big, reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. Their second album, Make it Big, reached No. 1 in the UK in 1983 and produced a series of top 10 singles including ‘Young Guns’ and ‘Tropicana’ Their first tour of China in April 1985 was the first visit to China by a Western popular music act, and generated worldwide media coverage.

Michael’s first tour since 1991, the 25 Live tour, spanned three tours over the course of three years; 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2004, the Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004. He performed his final concert at London’s Earls Court in 2012. He died of natural causes at the age of 53 in Oxfordshire on December 25, 2016. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, two sons and a step-daughter. He leaves behind a wife and two step-daughters. He also leaves a son and a daughter-in-law who he met while playing in Wham!’s first band, the band Wham!, and a son who is now a professional football coach. He has two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He passed away on December 26, 2013, at his London home in Kensal Rise, London, after a long battle with lung cancer. His funeral was held at St James’ Park, London on December 27, 2013. He will be buried at St Paul’s Cathedral, London in London, on December 28, 2014. He left behind a husband and two children, a son, a daughter, a stepdaughter, and a brother.