On June 25, 1963, Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was given the name George Michael. He is an English singer and songwriter. He is among the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and among the best-selling musicians of all time, with over 120 million records sold worldwide.
Michael was considered to be a significant creative force in the fields of songwriting, vocal performance, visual presentation, and music production.
Seven of his hits reached the top spot on the UK Singles Chart, and eight of his songs reached the same position on the US Billboard Hot 100. In the early hours of Christmas Day 2016, 53-year-old Michael passed suddenly in bed at his Goring-on-Thames residence.
He was found by his buddy, Fadi Fawaz. A senior coroner in Oxfordshire determined that Michael’s death occurred as a result of dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver in March 2017.
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Who Was George Michael?
George Michael was an English singer, songwriter, and record producer. His real name was Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. In East Finchley, London, on June 25, 1963, George Michael was born. In the 1950s, Kyriacos Panayiotou, a Greek Cypriot, emigrated to England.
He ran a restaurant as its proprietor. Englishwoman Lesley Angold, his mother, was a skilled dancer. His older sisters were Yioda and Melanie. He was raised in Kingsbury, London, where his parents had purchased a residence. Both Roe Green Junior High and Kingsbury High School were attended by him.
He went to Bushey Meads School in Bushey, where he made friends with Andrew Ridgeley, until his family relocated to Radlett. As they both desired to pursue careers in music, the two became close. He performed in nearby clubs and institutions while working as a DJ.
The Executive is a band that Michael and Andrew started after they both dropped out of high school. The group only had enough time to perform a few shows before breaking up. He was a prominent pop star in the 1980s and 1990s and was honored with a Grammy in 1987 for the year’s best album.
He became famous as a member of the musical duet Wham!, which he founded while he was a youngster, and had his first international hit in 1984. Since then, he has achieved success with a number of singles and albums.
His first solo album, “Faith,” was a commercial success for him. As a solo artist, he sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of his time. He became passionate about music at a young age while growing up in and around London.
He and Andrew Ridgeley, a friend from high school, became close because of their shared passion for popular music. Both quit their studies and formed an unsuccessful band. But soon after, they secured a recording contract and adopted the moniker Wham! He left Wham! to pursue a solo career after enjoying some success with them.
For a duet with Aretha Franklin, he won his first Grammy as a solo artist. He has run into the law on several occasions personally. He had made significant time and monetary contributions to numerous charities as a famous philanthropist. At the age of 53, he passed away from heart and liver conditions.
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George Michael Career
After starting the pop band Wham! with a classmate named Andrew Ridgeley, he became well-known as a musician. Fantastic, their debut album, arrived at the top of the charts in the UK in 1983. Four songs and two albums peaked at number one during the five years that Wham! was active.
Most of their other titles ranked among the top three. Along with his involvement in the Band-Aid record, George went on to have two additional solo number-one successes with “Careless Whisper” and “A Different Corner.”
After Wham! split up, George went on to have a very successful solo career. His 1987 debut album, “Faith,” and the accompanying song were both tremendously successful domestically and abroad.
Since then, the album has received a Diamond certification. Over the past forty years, George has had thirteen number-one singles and eight number-one albums in the UK (including Wham!, Band-Aid, and the “Five Live” EP). In addition to many more number-one hits globally, he has two number-one albums, 10 number-one singles, and countless additional number-one hits in the United States.
In addition, he has collaborated on duets with Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Queen, and Lisa Stansfield. He also actively supports humanitarian organisations, with Live Aid and the Freddie Mercury AIDS performance being two of the most noteworthy instances. A BBC programme claims that George donated more than £5 million to various organisations.
Furthermore, when a member of Wham!, Michael gave all the money earned from the 1984 song “Last Christmas” to charity. The song reached its highest point in the UK at number two. At the same time, George also sang on the number one charity record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
In 2008, George offered the single “December Song” as a free download in the hopes that those who downloaded it would make charitable contributions. He stayed in touch with his Wham! bandmate and lifelong buddy Andrew Ridgeley up until his passing in 2016.
George Michael Songs
- I’m Your man
- Outside
- Freedom
- Last Christmas
- One More Try, Careless Whisper
- Father Figure
- Wake Me Up, Before You Go-Go
- Sexy Sax Man
- Jesus to a Child
- As
- Amazing
- Heal the Pain
- Wham Rap!
- Everything She Wants
- I knew you Were waiting
- Faith
- I Want Your Sex
- One More Don’ton’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
- Fastlove
- Do They KIt’sIt’s Christmas?
- Free ’90!’90
- Club Tropicana
- Cowboys and Angels
- You Have Been Loved
- Praying For Time
- A Different CorneCan’tan’t Make You Love Me
- The edge of Heaven
- Kissing a Fool
George Michael Death
In the early hours of Christmas Day 2016, 53-year-old Michael passed suddenly in bed at his Goring-on-Thames residence. He was found by his buddy, Fadi Fawaz. A senior coroner in Oxfordshire determined that Michael’s death occurred as a result of dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver in March 2017.
Due to the delay in establishing the cause of death, Michael’s funeral was held on March 29, 2017. In a private ceremony, he was laid to rest alongside the tomb of his mother in Highgate Cemetery in north London.
On the other side is his sister Melanie’s grave, who passed away three years after him. The funeral for George did not take place until three months after his passing because George’s family had to postpone it while the coroner awaited the results of toxicology tests.
On March 29, 2017, a service was held at Highgate West Cemetery, with relatives and close friends in attendance. The iron gates to the cemetery were covered in a black sheet for added security during the funeral.
There was no sign of a hearse entering the grounds. The singer’s body may have arrived in a private ambulance. The wake was held at George’s home in Hampstead, which is only a short distance from the cemetery, after the service.
Conclusion
George Michael is an English singer, composer, and record producer. He was born on June 25, 1963, in East Finchley, London. He was a pop phenomenon in the 1980s, and his long list of singles helped him become an iconic character who could still sell out stadium shows in the twenty-first century.
His work in the 1980s and 1990s, which included Wham! songs like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Last Christmas” and solo albums like “Faith” (1987) and “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1,” earned him widespread recognition (1990). George Michael was discovered dead at his Goring-on-Thames home on December 25, 2016.
At that time, he was 53 years old. His companion from Australia, Fadi Fawaz, discovered him. Elton John, who also paid tribute to Michael, cried when he addressed the Las Vegas crowd on December 28 and said, “What a singer, what a lyricist. But above all else, he was one of the kindest, sweetest, and most generous persons I’ve ever known.
He had natural causes of death due to liver and heart illnesses, according to the tests used to identify the reason of his death. Michael’s funeral was postponed until March 29th, 2017, because the investigation into his cause of death took too long.
He was laid to rest at Highgate Cemetery in north London, close to his mother’s tomb, in a private ceremony. Outside of his previous Highgate residence, a casual memorial garden was established that summer. Fans maintain the site, which is in a square that Michael formerly owned.
Despite the ban on the single “I Want Your Sex,” George Michael’s debut solo album “Faith” sold more over 25 million copies. Many radio stations in the US and the UK banned the song because of its sexually explicit lyrics.
Only in the late-night hours did MTV air the video. The song peaked at number 40 on the American Top 40 chart, number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number three on the UK Singles Chart. Over 115 million recordings had been sold globally by Michael at the time of his passing. He became one of the best-selling musicians after selling more than 80 million records as a solo artist. With Wham!, he sold 30 million additional records.
More over 25 million copies of his first solo album, Faith, were sold. Without Prejudice Vol. 1, his debut solo album, was likewise a huge success. In the tracks, he included jazz and soul elements. He attempted to establish for himself a name as a serious vocalist and songwriter with this album.
He did not launch any promotional initiatives for the album or make any music videos. With sales of 8 million copies globally and 1.5 million in the UK alone, the album was awarded a 4 platinum certification.
