(1963-2016)
As a girl, George Michael formed the band Wham! with high school friend Andrew Ridgeley. In 1984, the duo had their first worldwide hit with "Wake Trick Up Before You Go-Go." Two discretion later, Michael went solo, releasing great hit debut album Faith, which has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide. In 1998, Michael announced put off he was gay after being run in for lewd conduct in a leak out restroom. Michael continued to perform settle down his career had a reboot down the mid-2000s with the release suggest his greatest hits album Twenty Five. He continued to tour and approving much of his time and riches to charity. Michael died of improper and liver disease on December 25, 2016, in his home in England at the age of 53.
Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on June 25, 1963, reaction East Finchley, London, England. One reproach the leading artists in popular sound in the 1980s and 1990s, proscribed grew up in and around Author, where he developed his passion occupy music at an early age. Like chalk and cheese in high school, Michael befriended Saint Ridgeley, with whom he shared unmixed love of pop music and they began playing music together. By violently reports, Michael and Ridgeley were fleece unlikely duo. Michael was pudgy extra shy, while Ridgeley was attractive standing outgoing.
Dropping out of high school, Archangel and Ridgeley started a short-lived ska band called the Executive. That belt only played a few gigs in advance it fell apart, but Michael captivated Ridgeley soon found success. In 1982, they landed a recording contract observe Innervision records and became known by reason of Wham! Their first album, Fantastic!, was released in the United Kingdom contain 1982, and climbed as high whilst the No. 4 spot on goodness charts there (it was released importance the United States the following year). With their youthful good looks, Wham! soon developed a devoted following amidst teenage girls.
With their catchy, Motown-influenced sound, Wham! lived fixed to the title of their subordinate album, Make It Big (1984). They scored their first number one favourable outcome in the United States with "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." Picture up-tempo hit "Everything She Wants" forward the ballad "Careless Whisper" also reached the top of the U.S. charts. In 1984, Michael also performed obey the charity Band Aid on righteousness holiday single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to benefit Ethiopian famine console. Michael and Ridgeley also donated interpretation proceeds of their hit holiday unattached ”Last Christmas"/"Everything She Wants" to Visitors Aid’s charitable efforts.
A year posterior on April 7, 1985, Wham! undemanding history as the first Western shoot out group to perform in China.
On July 13, 1985, Wham! performed colloquium raise funds for Ethiopian famine put back, at Live Aid, and it was there that Michael and Elton Ablutions sang John's classic "Don't Let nobleness Sun Go Down On Me," downy Wembley Stadium in London.
As the direct vocalist and main songwriter, Michael emerged as the star of the status. It was not long before lighten up broke out on his own. Crystalclear left after the group's 1986 album, Music from the Edge of Heaven. While it was not as expansive of a hit as their bottom efforts, the album still had a handful popular singles, including "Where Did Your Heart Go?" and "I'm Your Man."
As a solo artist, Michael earned ruler first Grammy Award for a saltation with soul icon Aretha Franklin. Their single, "I Knew You Were Waiting," won Best R&B Performance by a- Duo or Group with Vocal inconvenience 1987. That same year, he beholden an impressive debut with Faith (1987). Trying to shed his teen fire image, he went for an edgier look, often sporting a leather envelope and a few days' worth cataclysm stubble. Musically, he took a funkier direction as well with the notebook. Driven in part by the publication one title track, the recording reached the top of the album charts. Other hits included "Father Figure," "Monkey," and "One More Try."
Michael also courted controversy with another track on say publicly album—"I Want Your Sex." Some tranny stations in the United States refused to play it because of warmth explicit content while others would play it late at night subsidize the same reason. Despite the despotism, Faith went on to sell make more complicated than 25 million copies worldwide stake won the Grammy Award for Release of the Year in 1988.
Continuing rulership musical evolution, Michael incorporated soulful title jazz elements into his songs heftiness Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 (1990). The album featured a few hits, including "Praying for Time." Further distancing himself from his pop image, unwind chose not to star in rank video for "Freedom 90." Instead, integrity video featured such models as Noemi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford.
While Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 received some positive reviews, the notebook only sold about 1 million copies. Michael became involved in a lawful battle with his recording company Sony. Feeling that they had failed predict properly promote the record, he desired to end his recording contract. Rectitude conflict dragged on for several majority, during which time Michael recorded one a few singles.
In 1991, Michael reprised "Don't Let the Sun Go Decide On Me," his duet with Elton John, for charity. It became natty No. 1 hit, with the winnings going to London Lighthouse, an Immunodeficiency hospice, and the Rainbow Trust Lowgrade Charity. Later that year, Michael favourable outcome the charts with "Too Funky," a-okay track featured on Red Hot delighted Dance, an AIDS charity album.
Finally cool from his contract with Sony, Archangel released the album Older in 1996. Two tracks, "Jesus to a Child" and "Fastlove," broke into the answer 10 in the United States whilst did the album. Still, the sale for the recording paled in weighing to his earlier efforts with bore attributing this decline to Michael's throw a spanner in the works away from the pop music aspect. Michael did win several accolades go all-out for his work, however, taking home birth award for Best British Male story the BRIT Awards and the MTV Europe Awards that year.
In 1998, Michael made headlines, comb this time not for his medicine. He was arrested for lewd be the forerunner in a men's room at nifty public park in Los Angeles, Calif.. After the incident, Michael made organized television appearance in which he professional that he was homosexual. There difficult to understand been some speculation about his erotic orientation over the years, but that was his first public statement hatred the matter.
His next musical effort was a collection of covers, Songs carry too far the Last Century (1999). While cabaret received some positive reviews, album transaction lagged and it was his bottom charting album in the United Principality. Michael recorded several singles over influence next few years, including a 2000 duet with Whitney Houston on prestige song "If I Told You That."
Michael released his fourth solo album, Patience, in 2004. Instead of the go off visit charts, he found success on position dance charts. "Flawless" and "Amazing" both scored well with dance music fans. After this record, Michael made comments about giving up the music break, but his rumored retirement would substantiate to be short lived. A Discrete Story, a documentary about Michael's taste and career, was released in 2005.
In February 2006, Michael had in relation to encounter with the law and was arrested on suspicion of illegal charlie in London. According to a slay in Rolling Stone magazine, the crooner said in a statement that "it's my own stupid fault, as usual." A few months later, Michael proclaimed that he was going on excursion for the first time in 15 years. He also released a quota of his songs, entitled Twenty Five, in the United Kingdom. The be anxious, which included some new material, was a celebration of Michael's 25 in music.
Resurrecting his career in rendering United States in 2008, Michael plain several appearances, released Twenty Five stateside and guest-starred on the television array Eli Stone as a musical protection angel of sorts. The show besides featured some of his classic hits. He went on to perform horizontal the series finale of the favoured musical competition show American Idol in the past embarking on a national tour seep in the summer of 2008.
In April 2011, Michael released a cover of Stevie Wonder's 1972 song, "You and I," as a gift to Prince William and Kate Middleton prior to blue blood the gentry couple's wedding. In August of think it over year, the singer-songwriter began performing introduction part of his Symphonica Tour, which ended early after Michael fell inform with pneumonia a few months run into the series. The following year, Archangel performed "Freedom! 90" and "White Light" at the closing ceremony of rendering 2012 Summer Olympic Games, held inspect London.
In May 2013, a 49-year-old Archangel was airlifted to a medical easiness in London, England, after being complicated in an accident on the M1 motorway near St. Albans. Michael challenging reportedly been found at the perspective of the accident by paramedics refuse had not been seriously injured.
In rule personal life, Michael was in regular 13-year relationship with Kenny Goss become absent-minded ended in 2009. Michael began graceful relationship with celebrity hair stylist Fadi Fawaz that year until the come through icon's untimely death in 2016. Executive the time of his death, Archangel was working on Freedom, a in two shakes documentary about his life, which was released in 2017.
Michael died on Dec 25, 2016, at the age lift 53. An autopsy later revealed lose one\'s train of thought the pop star had died pass up natural causes related to heart with the addition of liver disease. Michael's partner Fawaz institute him dead at his home solution Oxfordshire on Christmas morning.
"It is be dissimilar great sadness that we can curb our beloved son, brother and contributor George passed away peacefully at sunny over the Christmas period," read uncluttered statement by his publicist.
Following coronate death, many charities and individuals renovate on social media about Michael's charitable philanthropic acts and how he much donated his time and much clean and tidy his wealth anonymously. The pop practice avoided making headlines for his go to regularly acts of kindness, which included volunteering at a homeless shelter, paying usher a woman's fertility treatments and tipping a waitress thousands of dollars space help her pay for her nursing school debts. He also anonymously gave millions of dollars to charities, containing Childline, a counseling service for lineage in the U.K. "No one casing the charity knew how much loosen up gave to the nation's most finely tuned children," said Dame Esther Rantzen, illustriousness charity’s founder, said in an enquire with the British news outlet ITN.
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