George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist who rose to fame as a member of the music duo ‘Wham!’ and later embarked on a solo career.
At the time of his death, Michael had sold over 115 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He achieved seven number-one songs on the UK Singles Chart and eight number-one songs on the US Billboard Hot 100. Michael won various music awards, including two Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, and six Ivor Novello Awards. In 2008, he was ranked 40th on Billboard’s list of the Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time.
Born in East Finchley, Michael formed the duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in 1981. The band’s first two albums, ’Fantastic’ (1983) and ’Make It Big’ (1984), reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. Their hit singles included ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ and ‘Last Christmas’.
China tour
Certifying themselves as a global act, Wham!’s 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 solo single, ‘Careless Whisper’, reached number one in over 20 countries, including the UK and US.
His debut solo album, ’Faith’, was released in 1987, topping the UK Albums Chart and staying at number one on the ’Billboard 200’ for 12 weeks. Four singles from the album — ‘Faith’, ‘Father Figure’, ‘One More Try’, and ‘Monkey’—reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. ’Faith’ was awarded Album of the Year at the 1989 Grammy Awards. ’Listen Without Prejudice’ Vol. 1 (1990) was a UK number-one and included the Billboard Hot 100 number-one ‘Praying for Time’.
‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, a 1991 duet with Elton John, was also a transatlantic number one. Michael went on to release the albums ’Older’ (1996), ’Songs from the Last Century’ (1999) and ’Patience’ (2004). In 2004, the Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004.
Final concert
Michael, who came out as gay in 1998, was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser. Michael’s personal life and legal troubles made headlines during the late 1990s and 2000s, as he was arrested for public lewdness in 1998 and was arrested for multiple drug-related offences after that.
The 2005 documentary ’A Different Story’ covered his career and personal life. Michael’s first tour since 1991, the 25 Live tour, spanned three tours over the course of three years: 2006, 2007, and 2008. Four years later, he performed his final concert at London’s Earls Court in 2012. In the early hours of 25 December 2016, Michael was found dead at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, aged 53. A coroner’s report attributed his death to liver issues and heart disease.
Death
In the early hours of 25 December 2016, Michael died in bed at his home in Goring-on-Thames, aged 53. He was found by his partner, Fadi Fawaz. In March 2017, a senior coroner in Oxfordshire attributed Michael’s death to dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver.
Owing to the delay in determining the cause of death, Michael’s funeral was held on 29 March 2017. In a private ceremony, he was buried at Highgate Cemetery in north London, near his mother’s grave. That summer, a temporary informal memorial garden was created outside his former home in The Grove, Highgate. The site, in a private square that Michael had owned, was tended by fans for approximately eighteen months until it was cleared.
Tributes
Elton John was among those who paid tribute to Michael, emotionally addressing the audience in Las Vegas on 28 December, “What a singer, what a songwriter. But more than anything as a human being he was one of the kindest, sweetest, most generous people I’ve ever met.”
At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on 12 February 2017, Adele performed a slowed-down version of ‘Fastlove’ in tribute to Michael. On 22 February, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin performed ‘A Different Corner’ at the 2017 Brit Awards. In June, Michael’s close friend, former Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell, released a charity single, “Angels in Chains”, a tribute to him, to raise money for Childline.
In August 2020 it was announced that Michael, who grew up in Kingsbury, London, and attended Kingsbury High School, was to be commemorated with a mural in his native borough of Brent. The artwork, which formed part of the Brent Biennial, was commissioned to pay tribute to Michael’s outstanding contribution to the fields of music and entertainment. The work — envisioned by artist Dawn Mellor, who said it celebrates the singer as a pioneering cultural and LGBTQ+ figure — was unveiled on 17 September last year.