George Michael

British singer and composer
Also known as: Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou
Quick Facts
Byname of:
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou
Born:
June 25, 1963, London, England
Died:
December 25, 2016, Goring (aged 53)

George Michael (born June 25, 1963, London, England—died December 25, 2016, Goring) was a British singer and songwriter who rose from teen idol status with the Britpop band Wham! to global superstardom as a solo pop music artist in the 1980s and ’90s, with such hit songs as “Faith” and “Freedom! ’90.” Despite a waning career by the time of his death in 2016, he had a transformative impact on pop music and is considered to have been an important trailblazer for LGBTQ+ recording artists.

Early life

Born Giorgios Panayiotou, he was the youngest of three children in a family of English and Greek-Cypriot heritage. His mother, Lesley Panayiotou (née Harrison), was a former dancer, and his father, Kyriacos (“Jack”) Panayiotou, was a restaurateur who had immigrated to England from Cyprus in the 1950s. Giorgios was interested in music from a young age, but his father strongly disapproved of music as a career choice. This rejection made him only more determined to prove himself as a musician as he grew older.

When he was 12 years old, his family moved to Radlett, a town northwest of London. At his new school, he became close friends with a classmate, Andrew Ridgeley, who shared his love of music. Within a few years, they formed a ska band with other friends called the Executive, but it was short-lived. It was then that Giorgios Panayiotou changed his name to George Michael.

Duck Soup (1933) Lobby card of the Marx Brothers L to R Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx and Groucho Marx in the comedy film directed by Leo McCarey. movie
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The Real McCoy

Career with Wham!

In 1981 Michael and Ridgeley formed Wham!, a pop band whose name derived from a short rap lyric improvised by Ridgeley. The band landed a record deal the following year with the Innervision label. Wham! had its first hit in 1982 with “Young Guns (Go for It!),” a song of youth rebellion that was written by Michael, who also sang lead vocals. The band’s debut album, Fantastic (1983), went to number one in Britain.

The band’s next album, Make It Big (1984), was a tremendous commercial success, reaching number one in the United States and spawning a world tour. Its infectious first single, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” was supported by a music video that showcased the band’s youthful energy, good looks, and colorful style, all of which seemed tailor-made for the burgeoning MTV era. Michael and Ridgeley became teen idols, although Michael quickly emerged as the more ambitious and musically gifted member of the band.

Michael had a supple and soulful voice that could be powerfully emotive on ballads such as “Careless Whisper,” a sultry song of infidelity with an indelible lyrical hook (“Guilty feet have got no rhythm”) that shot to number one and became a pop classic. Michael became the writer of most of the band’s songs and assumed more creative control of its output. For “Careless Whisper,” which he and Ridgeley first composed in 1981, Michael insisted on several rounds of production over three years before the song was completed to his satisfaction.

By 1985, when Wham! made history as the first Western pop band to tour China, Michael’s solo career seemed inevitable. He sang with other top musicians of the day on Band Aid’s charity single for famine relief in Ethiopia, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (1984). In the summer of 1985, he performed a stirring duet with Elton John, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” at the Live Aid benefit concert for famine relief. Also that year, Michael won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for songwriter of the year. Only 21 years old, he was then the youngest songwriter ever to receive the award. In 1986 Wham! released Music from the Edge of Heaven, which includes the now-classic holiday song “Last Christmas.” Later in 1986 Wham! announced that it was breaking up.

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Solo career and personal life

Michael’s first single after the dissolution of Wham! was a duet with Aretha Franklin, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (1987), which won a Grammy Award for best R&B performance by a duo or group. Later in 1987 he released Faith, a remarkably confident solo album debut that sold 10 million copies in the United States alone. Four of its singles went to number one: “Faith,” “Father Figure,” “One More Try,” and “Monkey.” The album blended numerous musical styles, including pop, funk, gospel, soul, and rockabilly, and it spent 12 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. In 1989 Michael won his second Ivor Novello Award for songwriter of the year and two Grammy Awards, for album of the year and best male pop vocal performance (for “Father Figure”).

To distance himself from his teen idol days, he cultivated a new image and look that was showcased in the music video for “Faith,” in which he sports a leather jacket and boots, fitted blue jeans, and sunglasses while dancing around a jukebox and strumming a guitar. He became an international pop music icon, a level of fame he deliberately sought. He also achieved notoriety for the frank lyrics in his song “I Want Your Sex,” which some radio stations played only late at night. The music video, featuring Michael and his girlfriend, Kathy Jeung, was also controversial for its partial nudity. Although both the song and the video convey support for monogamous relationships, Michael was criticized in the media for ostensibly promoting promiscuity.

His next album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990), signaled his desire to mature as an artist. Its first single, the ballad “Praying for Time,” addresses social justice concerns. Having grown weary of his public image, Michael refused to appear in music videos to promote the album. For “Freedom! ’90,” an upbeat song whose lyrics otherwise express his dissatisfaction with “playing the game” of stardom, he hired supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford to appear in the music video and lip-synch the lyrics as the leather jacket, jukebox, and guitar from the “Faith” video are shown being destroyed.

Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 went multiplatinum, but its sales were much lower compared with Faith, which led Michael into a lengthy dispute with Sony, his record label. He withheld new songs for a follow-up album and then donated them to the compilation Red Hot + Dance (1992), a music project to benefit HIV/AIDS research, a cause to which he increasingly lent his support. In 1992 Michael sued Sony to break his contract, citing restraint of trade. He claimed he had little creative control over his music and was being held unfairly to his contract, which required six more albums from him. The court decided in favor of Sony in 1994.

In 1996 he released Older, his most personal and autobiographical collection of songs, including “Jesus to a Child” and “You Have Been Loved,” both of which were inspired by his former partner, Anselmo Feleppa, who had died in 1993. Six of the singles from Older reached the top 10 in Britain, and the dance track “Fastlove” reached number one. He also received his third Ivor Novello Award. However, the album did not sell as well in the United States, where his popularity was waning.

In 1998 Michael was arrested for disorderly conduct in Beverly Hills, California, when an undercover police officer observed him performing a “lewd act” inside a public restroom. He was fined and ordered to undergo psychological counseling and perform community service. The arrest was treated as a scandal in the media and compelled Michael to publicly acknowledge that he was gay. In his interviews after his arrest, he rejected any implications that he should feel ashamed about his sexuality.

Michael continued to perform and record new songs, such as the cheeky dance single “Outside” (1998) and the gay anthem “Flawless (Go to the City)” (2004), but his music was now following trends rather than setting them. In 2006 he was arrested in London for possession of a controlled substance while driving. It was the first of numerous arrests and accidents that arose from his increasing drug abuse. The most high-profile incident occurred in 2010, when he crashed into a shop in London while driving under the influence. He served a four-week prison sentence and was banned from driving for five years.

Final years, death, and legacy

“[George Michael] was the reason I decided I wanted to do pop music.”—British singer Sam Smith, 2017

In 2011 Michael launched the Symphonica tour, a series of European gigs featuring a symphony orchestra. The tour was cut short in November when he fell ill with pneumonia. He resumed touring in 2012, performing his last concert in October of that year. A live album from the tour, Symphonica, was released in 2014, and it was the last album he completed. In 2015 he entered a drug rehabilitation program in Switzerland. Despite his troubles, his death at age 53 in 2016, caused by liver and heart disease, came as a shock to his fans.

Since his death, Michael’s career and his influence on new generations of pop recording artists have been the subject of numerous films and biographies. Notable among these is a memoir by Ridgeley, Wham!, George Michael and Me (2019), and Freedom Uncut (2022), a documentary that Michael had been working on at the time of his death. In 2023 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

René Ostberg

Quick Facts
Also called:
Wham! UK
Date:
1981 - 1986
Related People:
George Michael

News

Lola Young & RAYE Lead Finalists for The Ivors 2025: Full Nominations List Apr. 23, 2025, 11:11 PM ET (Billboard)

In the early 1980s, American fans of pop music found themselves in the midst of the Second British Invasion. British pop and new wave groups such as Culture Club, Duran Duran, the Police, Depeche Mode, Human League, and A Flock of Seagulls stormed American radio, the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and MTV. Among these groups was a duo made up of two former school chums, Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael. The duo called itself Wham! and became one of the biggest Britpop bands of the decade, racking up seven top 10 hits in the United States. By the time the group disbanded in 1986, Wham! had made history as the first Western pop band to tour China and had set the stage for Michael’s solo career as a pop superstar.

Band members
  • George Michael (byname of Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; born June 25, 1963, London, England—died December 25, 2016, Goring)
  • Andrew Ridgeley (in full Andrew John Ridgeley; born January 26, 1963, Windlesham, England)
Backup singers
  • Dee C. Lee (byname of Diane Catherine Sealey; born June 6, 1961, London)
  • Pepsi DeMacque (byname of Helen DeMacque-Crockett; born 1958, London)
  • Shirlie Holliman (born April 18, 1962, Bushey Heath, England)

From boyhood friendship to band formation

Georgios Panayiotou and Andrew Ridgeley met when they were both about 12 years old after Panayiotou and his family moved from London to Radlett, a town about 20 miles northwest of the city. They quickly became close friends, sharing a love of music and bonding over their similar “outsider” backgrounds. Panayiotou’s father was of Greek heritage and had immigrated to England from Cyprus. Ridgeley’s father was of Egyptian, Italian, and Yemeni heritage and had immigrated to England from Egypt during the Suez Crisis. However, whereas Ridgeley was confident and rebellious, Panayiotou was shy and insecure and was belittled by his father for his musical dreams. Nevertheless, within a few years Panayiotou and Ridgeley formed a ska band with other friends called the Executive, but it was short-lived.

In 1981 Panayiotou and Ridgeley formed Wham!, taking the name from a short rap lyric improvised by Ridgeley while the two friends were out clubbing one night. The lyric also became the refrain of their first single, “Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)”: “Wham, bam! / I am a man / Job or no job, you can’t tell me that I’m not.” Featuring Panayiotou on vocals and a spunky disco beat, the song was a cheeky response to the high rate of youth unemployment in the United Kingdom. It was also a rebuke of the bourgeois aspirations of the duo’s parents. The single was released in 1982 shortly after the band landed a record deal with the Innervision label. About this time, Panayiotou adopted the performing name George Michael.

George Michael
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George Michael: Career with Wham!

Later in 1982 Wham! had its first hit with “Young Guns (Go for It!),” another song of youthful rebellion, which was boosted by an appearance on the British television show Top of the Pops. Wham! followed up with the singles “Bad Boys” and “Club Tropicana,” the latter of which became a kind of blueprint for the band’s effortlessly pure pop sound.

Although officially a duo, Wham! had recruited two backup singers: Shirlie Holliman (Ridgeley’s girlfriend at the time) and soul singer Dee C. Lee. After Lee left to pursue a solo career in 1983, she was replaced by Pepsi DeMacque, just in time for the group’s meteoric rise. That year the band’s debut album, Fantastic, went to number one in Britain.

Making it big in the U.S. and beyond

In 1984 Wham! broke through in the United States. The band’s sophomore effort, Make It Big, reached number one on the Billboard album chart and spawned a world tour. Its first single, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” was supported by a music video that showcased the band’s youthful energy, good looks, and colorful style, all of which seemed tailor-made for the burgeoning MTV era. Michael and Ridgeley became teen idols.

Did You Know?

Wham! was initially called Wham! UK in the United States to distinguish itself from an American band that also had the name Wham.

For both Ridgeley and Michael, success came with drawbacks. Ridgeley earned the nickname “Randy Andy” in the tabloids for his hard partying, while Michael’s sexuality was also the subject of gossip in the media. Michael neither hid the fact that he was gay nor made public pronouncements about his sexuality. However, the media’s presentation of him as heterosexual contributed to his growing struggles with depression.

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Meanwhile, Michael had emerged as the more ambitious and musically gifted member of the band. He had a supple and soulful voice that could be powerfully emotive on ballads such as “Careless Whisper,” a sultry song of infidelity with an indelible lyrical hook (“Guilty feet have got no rhythm”) that shot to number one and became a pop classic. By this point, Michael was writing most of the band’s songs and assumed more creative control of its output. For “Careless Whisper,” which he and Ridgeley first composed in 1981, the perfectionist-minded Michael insisted on several rounds of production over three years before the song was completed to his satisfaction. When it was released in 1985, it was billed as a solo single in some countries and credited to “Wham! Featuring George Michael” in others. Either way, it was an indication of Michael’s rising star.

China tour and Live Aid

In 1985 Wham! toured China, where Michael and Ridgeley were presented as representatives of Western youth. Footage of the tour featured in the video for the hit song “Freedom” and formed the basis of the documentary Wham! in China: Foreign Skies (1986). Wham! also had hits in 1985 with the jubilant “I’m Your Man” and the rueful “Everything She Wants,” which became its third single to reach number one. That summer Michael performed a duet with Elton John at the Live Aid benefit concert for Ethiopian famine relief, while Ridgeley sang backup.

Band breakup and death of George Michael

Yet, in terms of the band’s future, the writing was on the wall. In 1986 Wham! announced that it was breaking up and released a final album, Music from the Edge of Heaven, which includes the now-classic holiday song “Last Christmas” and “A Different Corner,” another ballad that was billed as a solo single for Michael. Determined to go out on its own terms (and convey that Michael and Ridgeley remained friends), Wham! performed a farewell concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in June 1986. Michael released a statement to fans that said, “Whatever else, [this concert] will represent the end of four years of something most people don’t believe in. A dream come true. It’s a cliché, but I can’t think of a better way to describe what has happened to Andrew and me since the beginning of 1982.” He added, “Something’s telling me that whatever lies ahead, nothing will mean as much to me as this group has.”

Both Ridgeley and Michael followed up with solo albums, but Michael’s career far eclipsed Ridgeley’s. Michael died in 2016 at age 53, but not before establishing himself as transformative pop star and an important trailblazer for LGBTQ+ recording artists.

Legacy

After Michael’s death, numerous films and biographies were released reassessing the legacy of Wham! as well as of Michael’s career. Notable among these is a memoir by Ridgeley, Wham!, George Michael and Me (2019), and the Netflix documentary Wham! (2023). That same year Michael was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In an emotional induction speech during the ceremony, Ridgeley stated:

George and I grew up together in an exceptional friendship. It was everlast. Our youth was lived in each other’s pockets as good as brothers. And along the way from schoolboys to adults, we achieved as Wham! our burning boyhood ambition. Wham! was the realization of everything I had ever aspired to and the realization for George that stretching before him along a gilded and infinite path lay his destiny.

René Ostberg