- Born
- DiedDecember 25, 2016 · Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, UK (dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver)
- Birth nameGeorgios Kyriacos Panayiotou
- Nicknames
- Yog
- Knobby
- TLTI
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in Finchley, north London, in the United Kingdom, to Lesley Angold (Harrison), a dancer, and Kyriacos Panayiotou, a restaurateur. His father was a Greek Cypriot, and his mother was of English background. He first discovered fame as a musician when he and school friend, Andrew Ridgeley, formed the pop group Wham!. Success came fast and furious with their first album, 'Fantastic' (1983) hitting the UK number one spot. Wham! survived for five years and during that time the group notched up four number one singles and two number one albums. Most of their other releases made top three. George also contributed to the Band Aid Single 'Do They Know It's Christmas' (1984), and scored two further solo number one hits with 'Careless Whisper' and 'A Different Corner'.
Following the break-up of Wham!, George went on to have a hugely successful career as a solo artist, his debut album 'Faith' (1987) - and the single of the same name - both achieving instant and international success. The album has since been certified Diamond.
Over the last four decades George has notched up 8 number one albums in the and 13 number one singles in the UK (including Wham!, Band Aid, and the 'Five Live' EP). In the U.S. he has achieved 2 number one albums and 10 number one singles, with numerous other number one hits throughout the rest of the world.
He has performed duets with artists including Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Queen, and Lisa Stansfield, and actively participates in charitable causes, Live Aid and the Freddie Mercury concert for AIDS being just two of the more prominent examples. According to a BBC documentary, George donated more than five million pounds towards various charities. Whilst with Wham!, he donated all the proceeds of 'Last Christmas' (1984) to charity. The single reached number two in the UK and George also performed simultaneously on the number one charity record 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'.
George released the single 'December Song' in 2008 as a free download: his hope was that purchasers would donate money to charity.
He remained in contact with his Wham! partner and long-time friend Andrew Ridgeley until his death in 2016.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- ParentsLesley Angold PanayiotouKyriacos Panayiotou
- RelativesYioda Panayiotou(Sibling)Melanie Panayiotou(Sibling)
- His powerful, smooth and soulful voice
- His songwriting talent - he had huge success with both ballads and uptempo pop songs
- His pin-up good looks
- His sunglasses.
- Wearing an earring on the right ear
- He wrote many of his songs while working at a movie theater as a teenager.
- 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.
- 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? (2005) who needed the money for IVF treatment. Every Christmas, he would donate one-hundred thousand pounds to Capital FM's 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 "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", to an AIDS hospice.
- His partner Anselmo Feleppa, whom he met in 1991, died from an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage in 1993.
- His debut solo album "Faith" has sold more than 20 million copies since its release in 1987.
- I do think that Live Aid (1985) 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.
- Even though it's become a really cliched thing to see musicians working for charity, it's still effective and it still has to be done.
- 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.
- [April 2006] The trajectory of my particular soap opera with the press launched from that statement Elton [Elton John] made about eighteen months ago when Elton hadn't seen me for years. Elton said he thought I was really miserable for some reason. From that point on I've been trying to prove that I'm not. Unfortunately it made me incredibly vulnerable to the press.
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