George Michael

George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist who rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! and later embarked on a solo career.He was widely known for his work in the 1980s and 1990s, including hit Wham!singles such as "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and "Last Christmas" and solo albums such as Faith (1987) and Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990). Michael achieved seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, including "Careless Whisper" and "Praying for Time".He ranks among the best-selling British acts of all time, and in 2008, Michael was ranked 40th on Billboards list of the Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time.Michael won various music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, six Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.Michael, who came out as gay in 1998, was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser. In 2004, the Radio Academy named Michael the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004.The 2005 documentary A Different Story covered his career and personal life.Michael's first tour in 15 years, the 25 Live tour, spanned three tours over the course of three years (2006, 2007, and 2008).He performed his final concert at London's Earls Court on 17 October 2012. In the early hours of 25 December 2016, Michael, aged 53, was found dead at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.A coroner's report attributed his death to natural causes.

During early 1987, at the beginning of his solo career, Michael released "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)", a duet with Aretha Franklin. In late 1987, Michael released his debut solo album, Faith."Faith" became one of his most popular songs. The song was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks, becoming the best-selling single of 1988 in the US. It also reached No. 1 in Australia, and No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart The video provided some definitive images of the 1980s music industry in the process—Michael in shades, leather jacket, cowboy boots, and Levi's jeans, playing a guitar near a classic-design jukebox.On 30 October, Faith was released in the UK and in several markets worldwide.In 1988, Michael embarked on a world tour.[43] In Los Angeles, Michael was joined on stage by Aretha Franklin for "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)".In 1990, he told his record company Sony that, for his second album, he did not want to do promotions like the one for Faith.Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was released in September 1990. "Mother's Pride" gained significant radio play in the US during the first Persian Gulf War during 1991.Michael performed at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992 at London's Wembley Stadium.In 1996, Michael was voted Best British Male, at the MTV Europe Music Awards and the Brit Awards; and at the B ritish Academy's Ivor Novello Awards, he was awarded the title of Songwriter of the Year for the third time.Ladies & Gentlemen was a success, peaking at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart for eight weeks.In 2000, Michael worked on the hit single "If I Told You That" with Whitney Houston.In February 2003, Michael unexpectedly recorded another song in protest against the looming Iraq war, Don McLean's "The Grave". In November 2004, Sony released the fifth single – "Round Here".Twenty Five was released in North America on 1 April 2008 as a 29-song, two-CD set featuring several new songs (including duets with Paul McCartney and Mary J. Blige and a song from the short-lived TV series Eli Stone)[100] in addition to many of Michael's successful songs from both his solo and Wham!In early 2010, Michael performed his first concerts in Australia since 1988.On 20 February 2010, Michael performed his first show in Perth at the Burswood Dome to an audience of 15,000In February 2012, two months after leaving hospital, Michael made a surprise appearance at the 2012 Brit Awards at the O2 Arena in London, where he received a standing ovation, and presented Adele the award for Best British Album. Symphonica was released on 17 March 2014, and became Michael's seventh solo No. 1 album in the UK, and ninth overall including his Wham!