George Michael

George Michael stood out as Britain’s leading pop figure throughout the 1980s, transforming one infectious hit after another into international acclaim and more than 100 million albums sold around the planet. Gifted with an expressive voice and an instinct for crafting memorable melodies that paired naturally with dance-oriented grooves, he evolved from a teenage phenomenon into an artist widely admired in his maturity.

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on June 25, 1963, in the North London suburb of East Finchley, he was the son of a Greek Cypriot restaurant owner who had adopted the name Jack Michael upon arriving in England in the 1950s after originally being known as Kyriacos Panayiotou. When the family moved to Bushey in Hertfordshire during his early teenage years, he befriended fellow student Andrew Ridgeley. Sharing a passion for music, the pair launched a ska outfit called the Executive in 1979; though short-lived, the experience fueled their desire for greater visibility, leading them to form the pop duo Wham! in 1981. Their initial demos caught the attention of Innervision, an independent label that offered the group a recording contract. By 1982 Wham! had reached the U.K. singles chart with “Wham Rap” and “Young Guns (Go for It),” and soon secured an American release through Columbia.

The restrictive terms of their Innervision agreement quickly became apparent, prompting Michael and Ridgeley to exit the deal by relinquishing future royalties from their debut album Fantastic in exchange for a worldwide Sony contract. The decision paid off handsomely when Wham!’s 1984 follow-up, Make It Big, elevated them from domestic favorites to global superstars, propelled by the massive success of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” “Everything She Wants,” “Careless Whisper,” and “Freedom” across Britain, Europe, and the United States. The duo ranked among the decade’s most prominent new acts, and in 1985 they became the first Western pop group to perform in the People’s Republic of China. Even so, Michael’s ambitions extended beyond the partnership; the single “Careless Whisper” appeared under the billing “Wham! Featuring George Michael,” foreshadowing his solo path. After issuing the standalone single “A Different Corner” in 1986, Wham! formally disbanded and closed their chapter with a sold-out farewell concert at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Michael moved swiftly into solo territory, unveiling Faith in 1987. He wrote, produced, and arranged every track, and the album surpassed even Wham!’s achievements, generating major hits such as “I Want Your Sex,” “Father Figure,” “Kissing a Fool,” and the title song while selling over 20 million copies worldwide. He supported the release with a series of sleek, sensual videos and an extensive tour that encompassed 137 performances across 16 months. The project cemented his status among pop’s elite, and after successful collaborations with Elton John on “Wrap It Up” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” as well as Aretha Franklin on “I Knew You Were There [Waiting for Me],” he earned recognition from established legends alongside younger listeners.

Seeking to shed his pop-star persona, Michael took time away before delivering Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 in 1990, an album marked by greater introspection, maturity, and emotional depth. To emphasize the songs themselves, he declined to appear in promotional videos and chose not to tour; while it sold respectably, its numbers fell short of Faith, and growing frustration with Sony led him to file suit, claiming the contract was both financially unfair and creatively restrictive. The protracted legal conflict concluded in 1995, after which he signed with the newly formed DreamWorks Records in the United States and Virgin elsewhere. In the interim he issued a live EP documenting performances with the remaining members of Queen at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. His third solo album, Older, arrived in 1996 and continued the reflective direction established earlier. Although it achieved platinum status in America, the set was viewed as a relative commercial letdown given prior benchmarks, even as it performed more strongly throughout Europe and the U.K.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael, a two-disc retrospective spanning his solo work and Wham! recordings, appeared in 1998 and introduced the new track “Outside.” Both the song and its video responded to Michael’s widely reported arrest by an undercover officer in Los Angeles for performing a lewd act in a public restroom. Following the incident, he openly confirmed his homosexuality; it later emerged that “Jesus to a Child” from Older had been composed as a tribute to his late partner Anselmo Feleppa, who succumbed to AIDS-related complications in 1993. Michael next released the covers collection Songs from the Last Century in 1999, issued globally by Virgin after his departure from DreamWorks.

He entered a fresh recording agreement with Polydor in 2002 and unveiled the single “Freeek,” with a new album anticipated shortly afterward. Patience finally surfaced in 2004, surprisingly appearing on the Sony-affiliated Epic imprint after Michael rejoined the company he had departed nine years earlier. He informed reporters that he anticipated it would be his last commercially distributed album, expressing a preference for future releases via the internet with proceeds directed to charity. The second anthology, Twenty-Five, followed in 2008, accompanied by the Twenty-Five tour that marked his return to North American stages after a 17-year absence. Over the ensuing five years he maintained an active touring schedule, initiating the Symphonica tour in 2011. This orchestral pop production was recorded by producer Phil Ramone, who passed away before the album’s completion; Michael finished the project and released it as Symphonica in March 2014, where it topped the U.K. chart and reached number 60 in the United States. His subsequent plans included a documentary titled Freedom and new studio recordings, yet he died of heart failure on Christmas Day 2016 before any further material could appear.

The first posthumous release was an expanded 2017 edition of Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 that also incorporated his 1996 MTV Unplugged performance. In 2019 the romantic comedy Last Christmas incorporated several Michael and Wham! songs, among them the previously unheard “This Is How (We Want You to Get High).”