George Michael

Greek-British singer, songwriter and record producer, always bearded with stubble and a tough-guy persona. Michael made his debut with Wham!, a pop-soul duo formed in 1981 with Andrew Ridgeley whom he met at school in 1975, when they first began to work together. Their first band was The Executive, 1979, a short-lived ska group, but it was as Wham! that they became Britain's most successful pop duo of the '80s. Wham!'s first album Fantastic reached No. 1 in the UK in 1983 and produced a series of top 10 singles including "Young Guns," "Wham Rap!" and "Club Tropicana." Their second album, Make It Big reached No. 1 on the charts in the US. Singles from that album included "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (No. 1 in the UK and US), "Freedom," "Everything She Wants," and "Careless Whisper" which reached No. 1 in nearly 25 countries, including the UK and US, and was Michael's first solo effort as a single. With the success of Michael's solo singles, "Careless Whisper" (1984) and "A Different Corner" (1986), rumours of an impending break up of Wham! intensified. The Wham! partnership ended officially with the commercially successful single "The Edge of Heaven," which reached No. 1 on the UK chart in June 1986. In late 1987, Michael released his debut solo album, Faith. In addition to playing a large number of instruments on the album, he wrote and produced every track on the recording, except for one, which he co-wrote. The first single released from the album, "I Want Your Sex" (mid-1987) was banned by many radio stations in the UK and US, due to its sexually suggestive lyrics. The second single, "Faith," was released during October 1987, a few weeks before the album. "Faith" would become one of his most popular songs. In 1988, Michael embarked on his first world tour. His second solo album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, was released in September 1990, followed by Five Live (1993), Older (1996), Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael (1998), Songs from the Last Century (1999), Patience (2004) and Symphonica (2014). The latter became his 7th solo number one album in the UK, and 9th overall including his Wham! chart-toppers. Michael sold more than 100 million records worldwide. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Michael garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, including "Careless Whisper" and "Freedom! '90." Michael was arrested in a Beverly Hills park public toilet for "lewd conduct" that he had the poor luck to give a private performance in front of a police officer on 7 April 1998, 4:45 PM. After years of cultivating a heterosexual image, he blew his cover in a moment of indiscretion, a snicker in the scandal sheets. He revealed that he had been in a gay relationship with Texan Kenny Goss for ten years and was taking Prozac for depression. Michael had been slapped with a $10 million dollar lawsuit, September 1999, by arresting officer, Marcelo Rodriguez for slander, mental anguish and physical distress after the officer was mocked on Michael's recent music video. At a news conference in London, Michael called the lawsuit a "minor irritation." The court dismissed the case, but an appellate court reinstated the case on 3 December 2002. The court then ruled that the police officer, as a public official, could not legally recover damages for emotional distress. Michael was arrested for possession of Class C drugs in 2006 and several arrests on similar drug charges followed over the years. He publicly acknowledged that his cannabis use was a problem. On 24 August 2010, the singer pleaded guilty in London after admitting driving under the influence of drugs and on 14 September 2010 at the same court, was sentenced to eight weeks in prison, a fine, and a five-year ban from driving. Michael was released from Highpoint Prison in Suffolk on 11 October 2010, after serving four weeks. On 21 November 2011, the singer was admitted to a hospital in Vienna, Austria and was later confirmed to have suffered from pneumonia and, until 1 December, to have been in an intensive care unit. He was discharged on 21 December 2011. He later mentioned that he had undergone a tracheotomy, also revealing that, after waking from the coma, he had a temporary West Country accent. On 16 May 2013, Michael sustained a head injury when he fell from his moving car on the M1 motorway, near St Albans in Hertfordshire, and was airlifted to a hospital. On 25 December 2016, George Michael, aged 53, died of heart failure at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Link to Wikipedia biography