Quick Facts

The English singer, songwriter, and record producer George Michael is regarded as one of the most influential figures of the MTV generation. He has sold more than 120 million records worldwide and is one of the most successful musicians of all time. In terms of songwriting, vocal performance, visual presentation, and music production, he was regarded as the top creative force. Teenagers who had met Andrew Ridgeley at Bushey Meads School went on to establish the pop group “Wham!” in 1981.

George was a member of the short-lived ska band “The Executive” before “Wham!” was founded, along with Andrew Ridgeley, his brother Paul, Andrew Leaver, and David Mortimer. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Freedom, I’m Your Man, and The Edge of Heaven, four of his tracks from the band “Wham!” reached number one on the UK and Irish music charts. Together with Andrew Ridgeley, he formed the English pop duo “Wham!” and in July 1983, the two of them issued their debut studio album, “Fantastic.” On the UK Albums Chart, the album peaked at number one.

His debut solo album, “Faith,” was made available in October 1987. The album reached its highest position at the top of the US, UK, and Dutch Billboard charts. In 1982, he appeared as himself on Top of the Pops for the first time. He had given a lot of time and money to numerous causes as a great philanthropist. He was discovered dead from heart illness on December 25, 2016, at his Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, residence.

How much was the net worth of George Michael?

George Michael was an extremely successful singer, composer, and record producer who released numerous albums, singles, and songs. As of 2022, George Michael’s net worth is predicted to be $200 million. He acquired this riches through the music business. At the time of his passing, he was receiving a salary in the millions of dollars. In 1989, he participated in a TV ad for Diet Coke as his brand endorsement.

According to reports, he made £48.5 million ($97 million) from just the 25 Live tours between 2006 and 2008. He was reportedly a famous investor in Liberty, a tax avoidance scheme, in July 2014. Michael was listed as having a net worth of £105 million in the Sunday Times Rich List 2015 among the richest British musicians. Michael had sold more than 115 million records globally at the time of his passing. He was one of the best-selling musicians thanks to his over 80 million album sales as a solo artist.

Early Years and Bio

On June 25, 1963, George Michael was born. He was born in East Finchley, London, and spent his early years there. Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was his given name at birth. He was of Mixed heritage and British nationality. On his father’s side, he was of Greek Cypriot origin, while on his mother’s side, he was of English ancestry. As of 2016, he finally celebrated his 53rd birthday.

His faith was Judaism, and he was a Cancer. His father, Kyriacos Panayiotou, emigrated to England in the 1950s and is a Greek Cypriot. He was a restaurant proprietor. His mother, Englishwoman Lesley Angold, was a skilled dancer. Yioda and Melanie, his two older sisters, were also his. He went to Roe Green Junior School and Kingsbury High School for his studies. He then went to Bushey Meads School there.

How did George Michael die?

At the age of 53, George Michael passed away in bed at his Goring-on-Thames home on Christmas Day 2016. Fadi Fawaz, his companion, discovered him. Michael’s demise was attributed in March 2017 by a senior coroner in Oxfordshire to dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver.

His funeral was held on March 29, 2017, despite the cause of his death not being known at the time. He was laid to rest at Highgate Cemetery in north London, next to the grave of his mother, in a private ceremony. On the other side is his sister Melanie’s grave, who passed away precisely three years after him.

What was the Professional Career for George Michael?

Michael began his career as a DJ, spinning at bars and neighborhood schools in the Bushey, Stanmore, and Watford areas. Later, in 1981, he and Andrew Ridgeley founded the duet “Wham!” They later released their debut album, “Fantastic,” which peaked at No. 1 in the UK in 1983. This album also yielded a number of top 10 singles, including “Young Guns,” “Wham Rap!” and “Club Tropicana.” “Make It Big,” their second album, peaked at No. 1 on the US charts. Singles. He participated on the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” from the original Band-Aid recording from 1984. Michael also gave the proceeds from “Last Christmas” and “Everything She Wants,” which also peaked at number one in the UK, to charity.

Wham! made history during their tour of China in April 1985 since they were the first British band to go to a communist country and play Western popular music. Numerous genres of music were prohibited in China prior to Whamtrip !’s there. As a result, Wham! received extensive media coverage from their visit. He left the group in 1986 after “Music from the Edge of Heaven” was recorded in order to launch his solo career. He released “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” in 1987 to launch his solo career. Both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart ranked the song at number one. He issued his first solo album, “Faith,” in 1987. The album topped the UK Albums Chart and spent 12 weeks at the top of the US Billboard 200.

More on Career

“I Want Your Sex” was the album’s first single to be made public in the middle of 1987. On the US Billboard Hot 100, “I Want Your Sex” peaked at No. 2, while it peaked at No. 3 in the UK. In 1990, he released “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1,” his second solo album. It debuted at number one and stayed there for a week, becoming a massive hit in the UK. For 34 weeks in a row, it was among the top 20. In 1996, he issued his subsequent album, “Older.” 1999 saw the release of his fourth album, Songs from the Last Century. The album peaked at No. 157 on the American Billboard 200 albums list and No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, which is the lowest peak of any of his solo albums.

“Patience,” his fifth studio album, was released in 2004. It was speculated that he will leave the music industry after releasing this album. His professional and personal lives were featured in the 2005 documentary “A Different Story.” His second compilation album, “Twenty Five,” which commemorated his music career’s 25th anniversary, was published in 2006. He was producing “Freedom,” a different life-documentary that was slated to be released in March 2017, when he passed away. Also, He was not only a singer, but he was also an actor who made his American acting debut in the movie “Eli Stone” as the guardian angel of Jonny Lee Miller’s character. He also sang “Praying for Time” on American Idol’s 2008 season finals on May 21. Michael posted “December Song,” a brand-new Christmas-themed song, for free on his website on December 25, 2008.

Awards and Achievements

Michael won numerous music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male Artist twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, six Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards (including two in the traditionally-black Soul/R&B category), and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.

Nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal

• 27th Annual Grammy Awards (1984)
• Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (Single)

Won the Album of the Year

• 31st Annual Grammy Awards (1988)
• Faith

Nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male

• 34th Annual Grammy Awards (1991)
• Freedom 90 (Single)

Won the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal

• 30th Annual Grammy Awards (1987)
• I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)

Nominated for Best Short Form Music Video

• 7th Annual Grammy Awards (2004)
• Flawless

Nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

• 43rd Annual Grammy Awards (2000)
• Songs From The Last Century (Album)

Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male

• 31st Annual Grammy Awards (1988)
• Father Figure (Single)

Nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal

• 35th Annual Grammy Awards (1992)
• Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Single)

Nominated for Best Music Video, Long Form

• 28th Annual Grammy Awards (1985)
• Wham! The Video (Video)

Who was girlfriend of George Michael?

George Michael never got married, although during the course of his life, he dated numerous women. His early dreams, he claimed, were about women, and they “caused me to assume I was on the route to heterosexuality,” but after adolescence, he began to daydream about guys, which, he subsequently claimed, “had something to do with my environment.” Michael came out as bisexual to Andrew Ridgeley when he was 19 years old. He also revealed his sexuality to one of his two sisters despite being urged not to tell his parents. Michael revealed to The Advocate’s Editor in Chief, Judy Wieder, in a 1999 interview that “falling in love with a man ended his dilemma about bisexuality.” Michael told her, “I never had a moral issue with being gay.

“A few times, I believed I had found love with a woman. Then I discovered that none of those things had been love and I fell in love with a man.” 2004 saw Michael say, “In the Wham! era, I slept with women pretty frequently, but I never thought a relationship could grow out of it since I was aware of my emotional orientation as a gay guy. I felt drawn to them even though I didn’t want to commit to them. Then I felt guilty for perhaps utilizing them. When I started to worry about AIDS, which was spreading throughout Britain, I made the decision that I had to quit. I didn’t want to sleep with a lady without informing her I was bisexual, even though we had always had safe sex.

His partner

That, in my opinion, would be reckless. I basically stopped sleeping with them because I didn’t want to have that awkward chat that would ruin the moment.” He continued, “If I wasn’t with Kenny [his partner at the time], I would have sex with ladies, without a doubt,” in the same interview. He asserted that he thought the development of his sexuality was “a nurture issue brought on by the absence of my working-always-busy father. Although he acknowledged that “there are probably some who have a tendency to being gay in which the environment is irrelevant,” it meant that I was quite close to my mother.”

George Michael made headlines in 1998 after being detained for engaging in “lewd” behavior in a Los Angeles park’s public lavatory. He revealed his homosexuality on television after the incident. He was charged for having intercourse in public at London’s Hampstead Heath in July 2006. Michael said in 2007 that he had kept his sexuality a secret out of concern for his mother’s reaction. He said, “My depression at the conclusion of Wham! was because I was starting to realize I was gay, not bisexual,” two years later. Michael dated makeup artist Kathy Jeung in the late 1980s; she was considered to be his “muse” for a while and was featured in the “I Want Your Sex” video.

She was his “sole bona fide” relationship, he subsequently said, and she was aware of his bisexuality. In response to Michael’s passing in 2016, Jeung referred to him as a “genuine friend” with whom she had had “some of the happiest times of [her] life.” Michael met Brazilian costume designer Anselmo Feleppa at the Rock in Rio performance in 1991, and the two started dating in 1992. Additionally, he had a protracted relationship with Kenny Goss, a former flight attendant and executive in the sportswear industry. Later, in 2009, they split up. He started dating famous hairstylist Fadi Fawaz in 2012, and they remained together until his passing in 2016. Michael’s body was discovered by Fawaz on Christmas morning in 2016.

Body Stats: What was George Michael’s height?

George Michael was a gorgeous singer who stood at a lofty height of 5 feet 11 inches (180.5 cm) and weighed 82 kilograms (181 pounds). His eyes were hazel, but his hair was salt and pepper. He had a typical body type. His hair was short. His physical stature was 42-35-12 in (chest-waist-bicep).

Trivia

• In 1993, he collaborated with the band Queen and Lisa Stansfield for his first extended play titled Five Live. It peaked at the number 1 spot on the UK Music charts.
• His 2014 solo album Symphonica reached #1 on the United Kingdom charts.
• He would play at clubs and schools as a DJ across many towns, as well as busking on the London Underground.
• He was a pop singer who fronted the band Wham! (known for such songs as “Careless Whisper” and “Bad Boys”).
• He pursued a solo career, releasing the hit album Faith, which won the 1989 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
• In 2019, Michael was named as the greatest artist of all time by Smooth Radio.

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