George Michael

He was arrested in April 1998 at a public restroom in Beverly Hills for committing a lewd act in front of an undercover police officer. As a result, for the first time he spoke publicly about being gay. BBC talk show host Michael Parkinson dedicated an episode of his "Parkinson" series to an interview with him. Michael also wrote and released the song "Outside", which had lyrics and a music video mocking the whole incident. The arresting police officer filed a civil suit against Michael for defamation of character, but it was dismissed.

He enjoyed four UK number one singles with Wham: "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" , "Freedom" , "Im Your Man" and "The Edge of Heaven".

He recorded duets with Aretha Franklin , Elton John , Rory Bourke , Mary J. Blige and Whitney Houston.

His song "Father Figure" was sampled for PM Dawn s hit "Looking Through Patient Eyes".

He collaborated with Queen and Lisa Stansfield on the UKs chart-topping "Five Live" (EP) in 1993.

The first three singles of George Michaels solo career all went to the number one position on the UK chart: "Careless Whisper" , "A Different Corner" and "I Knew You Were Waiting ". The latter was a duet with Aretha Franklin.

His song with Wham! , "Last Christmas", is the best selling UK hit never to get to number one, reaching the number two position in December 1984, being re-issued and reaching the number six position the next December and being re-issued again and reaching the number 45 position in December 1986. It spent a total of 24 weeks on the UK chart.

He sang on the number one and number two Christmas singles of 1984, Band Aids "Do They Know Its Christmas?" and Wham! s "Last Christmas".

He was a big fan of "This Morning" and, on the final episode of the series, he phoned the presenters, Richard and Judy, to thank them live on air and to wish them the best.

He has contributed two songs to the "Warchild Hope" album (released 21 April 2003); one is a cover of Don McLean s "The Grave" and the other is his own classic "Faith" (a duet with Ms Dynamite).

His controversial single "Shoot the Dog" (released 2002) had a video that ridiculed Tony Blair , Cherie Blair and George W. Bush.

His last performance with Wham! was at Wembley Stadium in June 1986.

In September 1984, he played a benefit for striking British miners as part of Wham!.

He wrote his smash hit single "Careless Whisper" when he was just 17, on a Thursday afternoon in Bushey. He waited until he was 21 before he released it as his first solo single. The song reached number one in more than 25 countries and sold in excess of six million copies.

His father, Kyriacos Panayiotou, was a Greek Cypriot restaurant owner, who emigrated to the U.K. from Cyprus in the 1950s. His mother, Lesley Angold (Harrison), was of English background, the daughter of George James Harrison and Daisy Angold Young.

He and Andrew Ridgeley wrote "Careless Whisper" on the back of a bus during their school days.

He provided backing vocals on Andrew Ridgeley s album "Son Of Albert" on tracks "Red Dress" & "Shake". These were the only two songs to do well on the charts.

His 1990 solo hit "Freedom 90" from the CD "Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1" was so titled to avoid confusion with his previous Wham! hit "Freedom".

He wrote many of his songs while working at a movie theater as a teenager.

He was reported to have sold over 100 million albums upon his death in 2016 when his sales with Wham! and as a solo artist were combined.

In the Independent on Sunday 2006 Pink List - a list of the most influential gay men and women - he came no. 25, down from 22.

He had an estimated fortune of 105 million upon his death in 2016.

He won several Brit (British Phonographic Industry) Awards during his career. He was the winner (as part of Wham! ) of the British Phonographic Industry Award for British Group in 1985. Wham! then shared the Outstanding Contribution award with Elton John in 1986. He was the winner of the award for British Male Solo Artist in 1988 following the success of his multi-million selling album "Faith". His album "Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1" won the 1991 Brit Award for British Album. He was also the winner of the 1997 Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist following the success of his album "Older".

He announced his retirement in February 2004, but began a new European tour in September 2006, his first tour in fifteen years.

His debut solo album "Faith" has sold more than 20 million copies since its release in 1987.

He was paid 1.7 million to perform for an hour at Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanins New Years party on 31 December 2006.

His partner Anselmo Feleppa, whom he met in 1991, died from an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage in 1993.

He was sentenced to 100 hours community service for driving while unfit. The singer was arrested on 1 October 2006 after being found slumped at the wheel of his Mercedes in the early hours of the morning. He had an antidepressant in his system, as well as cannabis and 16 micro-grams per milliliter of the illegal Class C drug GHB. (9 June 2007).

He was a close friend of Shirlie Kemp , one of Wham! s backing singers, and introduced her to her future husband, Martin Kemp , who was the bass player of the popular 1980s band Spandau Ballet. His other music industry friends included Elton John , Spice Girls singer Geri Horner , Belinda Carlisle and Mariah Carey.

He was ranked #73 on VH1s 100 Sexiest Artists.

A fan of The Beatles , he performed with Paul McCartney at Live 8 . He also bought John Lennon s Steinway Model Z upright piano for 1.67m in the year 2000, then donated it to Liverpools Beatles Story museum. In September 2010, while serving a prison sentence for driving under the influence of drugs, Michael received a two-page handwritten letter from McCartney to lift his spirits. In the letter, McCartney said that he empathized with Michael as he himself had spent ten days in prison in Japan in 1980 after being caught with cannabis. He told Michael to keep his chin up and that he would see him when he is released. Apparently, Michael was delighted with the letter and read it over and over again.

He wrote, produced and performed the classic song "Last Christmas" when he was just 21 years old. There have been over 395 cover versions of the song by different artists since it was released in 1984.

He had homes in London, in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (where he died), and Dallas, Texas.

The singers music video "Freedom" featured supermodels Linda Evangelista , Naomi Campbell , Christy Turlington , Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. Curiously, GM appeared nowhere in the video himself. Directed by David Fincher and photographed by Jeff Cronenweth.

Many people paying tribute to him observed the poignancy that he died on Christmas Day, 32 years after he first had a hit with Wham! s "Last Christmas", a song which has become a Yuletide perennial. Many people also regarded his death as a tragic end to an almost relentlessly sad year for music, following the deaths of other hugely successful and influential music industry figures such as David Bowie , Prince , Leonard Cohen and pioneering producer George Martin.

He nearly died from pneumonia in December 2011.

Although Michael claimed his maternal grandmother was Jewish, genealogical research has proved this was not true.

Following his death, Madonna described him as a "great artist" and Nile Rodgers called him "an absolute genius". Tributes also came from the rock world. Peter Gabriel called him a "very talented musician" who was "always kind and generous". Fish called him "a massively likeable and extremely down to earth person" and "a brilliant songwriter and truly amazing singer". Tributes were also paid by comedians Ricky Gervais and James Corden (who had performed in comedy sketches with him) and Margaret Cho. Chris Martin performed the tribute to him at the 2017 Brit Awards and Adele performed the tribute at the Grammy Awards.

After he died, many stories quickly came forward about his generous nature. It was revealed that he had donated to charities such as Childline, The Terrence Higgins Trust for HIV victims and Macmillan Cancer Support as well as being the greatest benefactor for Project Angel Food. His only condition for many of these contributions was that his identity not be revealed. He also often volunteered at homeless shelters. It was revealed that he often gave money freely to strangers who were in trouble, such as a student nurse working in a bar to whom he gave a five thousand pound tip, giving twenty-five thousand pounds to a woman he heard crying over debt in a cafe, asking the waitress to hand it over once he had left and anonymously sending fifteen thousand to a woman on the game show "Deal or No Deal?" who needed the money for IVF treatment. Every Christmas, he would donate one-hundred thousand pounds to Capital FMs charity drive. He donated the royalties from his 1996 UK number-one "Jesus to a Child" to Childline and the royalties from another number-one, the Elton John duet "Dont Let The Sun Go Down On Me", to an AIDS hospice.

He wrote two of the 50 best-selling singles in UK history, "Careless Whisper" and "Last Christmas". Both were originally released in 1984.

Although he was celebrated as a gay icon upon his death, he had been criticised during his lifetime for pretending to be heterosexual for commercial reasons during the height of his fame in the 1980s and not officially coming out until the late 1990s following his arrest in Los Angeles. This had been despite the growing acceptance of gay stars during the 1980s such as Boy George , Marc Almond , Jimmy Somerville , Holly Johnson , Andy Bell and Neil Tennant , who all had massive hit records. He had a particularly frosty relationship with Boy George , who said of Michael: "People saw me as the benchmark queer while George Michael was passing himself off as a straight stud. In fact, he was loitering in public loos like some pre-war homosexual. Its one thing to keep quiet. Its another to pretend youre someone youre not".

His 1998 arrest in a public restroom in Los Angeles was famously reported in the British tabloid The Sun with the headline "Zip Me Up Before You Go Go", a reference to his 1984 single with Wham! , "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go".

Replaced Cousin Brucie Morrow as the early evening disc jockey at WABC Musicradio 77 in New York in 1974.

Father of Michelle and Brad.

(March 2007) Resigned as Sports Director of television station WRC in Washington, DC on March 1, 2007 due to layoffs among his staff. He continues to host Full Court Press and Redskins Report. The George Michael Sports Machine went off the air on March 25, 2007

I do think that Live Aid (1985) (TV) was a great thing, it,focused people, I think it showed young kids the way in many respects,and I think a lot of people are still inspired by what happened in the,mid-Eighties.

I still believe that music is one of the greatest gifts that God gave to,man.

It was my own stupid fault. I was in possession of class C drugs which,is an offence and I have no complaints about the police, who were,professional throughout.

"Parkinson" (1971) is still the only interview on British TV that,means anything. Perhaps that is because he appears to realize that his,guest should always be the star of the show and. . . He paid for dinner!,It is nice to know that the News of The World is still so concerned for,my well being.

[on his arrest for lewd conduct in 1998] Running naked up and down,Oxford Street singing "I Am What I Am" would have been a more dignified,way to come out.

[on his time in prison in September/October 2010] Most of my days have,been spent reading thousands of letters and postcards of incredible,support from people around the world. I promise to repay their kindness,with new music as soon as I possibly can.

I do love Christmas. I always have loved it, ever since I was a child.

Loyalty can be different things to different sexualities.

I have a serious problem with the fact that every time I made a mistake,and every time I let myself down that I was letting young gay kids,down.

It is such an amazing feeling to watch the effect I have on my audience.

There is no question that is the most valuable thing I can ever do in,terms of contribution and it seems that God wanted me to and gave me,the voice to do it and the stamina to do it.

I knew, regardless of anything else, singing in front of an orchestra was going to be inspirational. It would feed me.

I have more love, success, and security than I could ever dream of. .