George Michael

This article is about the singer/songwriter and former Wham! member. For the sportscaster and television personality, see George Michael (sportscaster).

George Michael

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Greek: Γιώργος-Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου) (born June 25, 1963), better known as George Michael, is a two-time Grammy Award winning English singer-songwriter who performs soul influenced pop, and who (as a solo artist and half of the duo Wham!) has enjoyed massive global success since 1982. His biggest commercial success to date was in 1987 with his debut solo album Faith which has sold to date well over the 20 million mark worldwide. George Michael is one of the world's most successful male artists, selling over 85 million records globally and encompassing 12 British #1 singles, 9 British #1 albums, 10 US #1 singles and 2 US #1 albums.

Early life

Michael was born Georgios-Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley, North London. His father was Kyriacos Panayiotou, a Greek-Cypriot restaurateur who moved to England in the 1950s and changed his name to "Jack Panos". Michael's maternal grandfather was from a poor working-class English family and his maternal grandmother was from a wealthy Jewish family. Their daughter was Michael's beloved mother, Lesley Angold Harrison, a former dancer who died of cancer in 1997. He spent the majority of his childhood in North London living in the home his parents bought shortly after his birth. In his early teens, the family moved to Radlett and Michael attended Bushey Meads School.

He began his career by forming a short-lived ska band called The Executive with his best friends Andrew Ridgeley, Paul Ridgeley, Andrew Leaver and David Mortimer (aka David Austin). George attended Kingsbury High School, briefly in 1974, as did his sisters Melanie and Yioda.

Career

Wham!

Main article: Wham!

It wasn't until he formed the duo Wham! together with Andrew Ridgeley in 1981 that success came for Michael. The band's first album, Fantastic!, was released going to n.1 in the UK and within a year they had released their classic debut single, "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)". Their second single, "Young Guns (Go For It!)", became the first in a string of Top 10 hits in the UK singles chart. They followed with titles such as "Bad Boys", and "Club Tropicana". Their second album Make It Big was their breakthrough, eventually selling 6 million copies in the U.S. alone and made them international superstars. Singles from that album included "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Freedom", "Last Christmas/Everything She Wants", and "Careless Whisper", which was released as a Michael solo effort. "Careless Whisper", written when Michael was seventeen, became one of the most played songs of the decade and was voted favourite record of all time by Londoners in January 1995 in a competition run by the capital's leading evening newspaper and radio station. He was also voted Best Male Singer that year by the same radio station's listeners and by the readers of a national newspaper. George also sang on the original Band Aid recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas" and donated the profits from "Last Christmas/Everything She Wants" to the charity. In addition, he added background vocals to David Cassidy's 1985 hit "The Last Kiss," as well as Elton John's 1985 hits "Nikita" and "Wrap Her Up."

Wham!'s tour of China in April 1985, the first visit to China by a Western pop act, generated enormous worldwide media coverage, much of it centered on Michael. The tour was documented by celebrated film director Lindsay Anderson and producer Martin Lewis in their film Foreign Skies: Wham! In China and contributed to Michael's ever-widening fame.

With the success of his solo releases "Careless Whisper" (1984) and "A Different Corner" (1986) stories of an impending Wham! split intensified, and Wham! separated in the summer of 1986 after a farewell single, "Edge Of Heaven", an album, plus a sell-out concert at Wembley Stadium that included the world premiere of the China film. The Wham! partnership officially ended with the little-known single "Where Did Your Heart Go?", which reached a peak position of #50 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in November 1986.

Solo career

George Michael desired to create music targeted to a more sophisticated audience than the duo's primarily teenage fanbase, and the first step of his solo career, in early 1987, was a duet with soul music icon Aretha Franklin. The song, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" was a one-off project which helped Michael achieve an ambition by singing with one of his favourite artists, and it reached number one in both the UK Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release. For Michael, it became his third consecutive solo number-one in the UK from three releases, following 1984's "Careless Whisper" (though the single was actually from the Wham! album "Make It Big") and 1986's "A Different Corner". The single was also the first Michael had recorded as a lead artist which he had not written himself, with the exception of his turn in the Band Aid charity project of 1984. The co-writer, Simon Climie, was an unknown at the time, although he would go on to have success as a performer with Climie Fisher in 1988. With this song George won the Grammy Awards in 1988 as Best R&B Performance - Duo Or Group with Vocal.

Faith

The first single released from the upcoming album Faith was "I Want Your Sex", in the summer of 1987. The song was banned by many radio stations in UK and USA, due to its suggestive lyrics. MTV would only show the video, featuring celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung in basque and suspenders, in the late night hours due to the music video's implied nudity. The grounds that the song had been banned upon were completely the opposite of Michael's intention, as the theme of the video had blatantly been shown; instead of promiscuous sex, he showed the audience that the act was a beautiful thing if the sex was monogamous. (Michael even recorded a brief prologue for the video in which he said "this song is not about casual sex.") One of the racier scenes attacked involved Michael writing the words "explore monogamy" on his partner's back in lipstick. Many radio stations played a toned-down version of the song, "I Want Your Love", which was mainly the word "love" replacing "sex". When the tune reached the US charts, American Top 40 host Casey Kasem refused the say the song's title, referring to it only as "the new single by George Michael".

Despite censorship and airplay issues, "I Want Your Sex" reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on the week of August 8, 1987. Moreover, the single remained in the Top 10 for six weeks and the Top 40 for a total of fourteen weeks, becoming one of the most popular songs of the summer of 1987. The song charted at #3 in Britain, where the song's reprise maintained an audience for many years thanks to BBC Radio 1's breakfast show host Simon Mayo using a looped version as backing music for his daily feature On This Day In History. In 2002, several years after the major controversy that followed the release of the song, the music video was featured at #3 on MTV's countdown of the most controversial videos in the channel's history.

The second single, "Faith" was released in October 1987, just a few weeks before the album. "Faith" would go on to become one of his most popular and enduring songs, as well as being the most simplistic in its production. "Faith" is just over three minutes long, the first 37 seconds of which is taken up by a straightforward, fade-up organ introduction (based on the Wham! song "Freedom"). Eventually, a two-chord guitar progression takes up the song with Michael singing a basic but meaningful lyric about not being tempted away from his relationship by an attractive third party. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA and hit #2 in the UK singles chart. A famous video was made which provided some definitive images of the 1980s music industry in the process - Michael in shades, leather jacket and a particularly memorable pair of tight Levis jeans and cowboy boots, playing a guitar near a classic-design jukebox. "Faith" reached #1 on December 12, and remained there for four consecutive weeks, easily becoming the longest running chart-topper of 1987. Altogether, "Faith" lingered in the Top 10 for nine weeks, the Top 20 for 11 weeks, and the Top 40 for 15 weeks.

Faith is George Michael's first solo album, released in October 1987 after Michael spent the most part of 1987 writing and recording the songs for his breakthrough project. In addition to playing a large number of instruments on the album, he wrote and produced every track on the recording, except for one, which he co-wrote. The album became a massive success all over the world and the best selling album of 1988 in the United States; it reached #1 in the UK and in several markets worldwide.

In the United States, the album also had impressive staying power, with 51 non-consecutive weeks inside the Billboard 200 Top 10, including an impressive 12 weeks at #1. In 1987-88, Faith produced a long string of hit singles, including six Top 5 hits, four of which ("Faith", "Father Figure", "One More Try"and "Monkey") reached #1.

By the end of 1988 Faith had 7x platinum status; eventually, it reached Diamond certification by the RIAA for sales of 10 million in the USA. To date, global sales of "Faith" are over 20 million.

In 1989, Faith was ranked #84 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 480 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Faith was ranked 79th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.

Mega star

George embarked on a massive sold out world tour (The Faith Tour) in 1988; he put together a spectacular and futuristic show full of sex-related contents, providing night after night great performances, sexy dances and his great voice. In the track list of the show there were a couple of songs from the Wham! era (“Everything She Wants” and “I'm Your Man”) and some classic as “Lady Marmalade” or “Play That Funky Music”. In Los Angeles George was joined on stage by Aretha Franklin for a duet on "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". While on tour, new singles off “Faith” were released peaking at n.1 (“One More Try” , “Monkey”) and n.5 (“Kissing a Fool”) in the USA, definitely giving George the mega-star status. The enormous success of “Faith” was consolidated by a Grammy Award for “Album of the Year” in 1989.

In 1989 he sang backing vocals for his long-time friend and Wham! bass player Deon Estus on a song titled "Heaven Help Me". The song was written by both artists, and just missed reaching the British top 40, but reached #5 in the U.S.

Huge success and megastar status didn't bring George any happiness; as he says in his film “A Different Story”, he knew that with “Faith” he had taken wrong track number 2. Conscious of being a massive celebrity and possibly a gay man, he started to think there was something wrong in being a sex idol for milions of teenage girls; beside that, the whole “Faith” process (promotion, videos, tour, awards) left him completely exausted, lonely and frustrated for being so far from who he was as a person, and far from his friends and family. He clearly had the chance to become the best selling artist of the world, but he decided that his happiness was more important to him. That was the turning point, year 1990, when he decided and told Sony he didn't want to do promotion anymore.

Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1

"Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" was released in September 1990. Following the massive worldwide commercial success of his first album, "Faith", this album found Michael trying to create a new image for himself as a serious-minded artist: the title is a clear indication of his desire to be taken more seriously as a songwriter. Michael refused to make any kind of promotion for this album, including no music videos for the singles released.

The first single was "Praying For Time", released in August 1990; it was a dark and sombre reflection on social ills and injustice; the song was hailed by critics as it peaked at n. 6 in the UK and then reached n. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA despite the absence of a video to promote it. George used an echoey vocal effect and put the melody in a low enough key to take away the sunny nature of his regular singing voice. It was the first song of political motivation he had released as a single since his earliest days with Wham!.

The second single was “Waiting For That Day"; the song was an acoustic-heavy, reflective single, released as an immediate follow-up to the comeback record, "Praying For Time". However, the corresponding album "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1", had also been released and therefore sales of the new single were unsurprisingly limited. Waiting For That Day peaked at n. 27 in the USA and at n.23 in the UK in October 1990.

In September "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" was released.

The album debuted in the Billboard 200 list at #22 but quickly the following week climbed to #5, then to #4 and finally reached his peak position of #2, being blocked from the top spot by MC Hammer's Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em. From then the album managed to spent the rest of 1990 inside the Top 10, and a total of 42 week inside the entire list, not even the half of the 87 weeks spent by the previous "Faith".

In the UK reaction was quite impressive, the album became a big seller, even bigger than Faith. "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" debuted there straight at #1, although only for just one week. The two following weeks the album was at #2. The album spent 34 debut consecutive weeks inside the Top 20, making in its 24th an impressive sales increase with a #13-#3 movement. It spent a total of 88 weeks inside the UK albums charts, and was certified 4 times Platinum by the BPI, in January 2, 1992.

The album produced 5 UK singles, which were released very quickly (all of them in a 8-month period). They were "Praying For Time", "Waiting For That Day", "Freedom '90", "Heal The Pain" and "Cowboys And Angels"(this last being the only single ever from George not to get into the UK top 40).

"Freedom '90" was the third single and the only one from the album to be supported by a music video; the song was a highly-praised confessional project from George, acknowledging his fortune and luck from his early days with Wham! - referring directly to Andrew Ridgeley as his "buddy" - but maintaining that he was a changed man, with a more cynical and grown-up attitude to the business he was in. The song also alludes heavily to the struggles of being a closet homosexual, and acted as a catalyst to his effort to break free from his publishing contract with Sony Music.

As if to prove the song's sentiment, George refused to appear in the video, which was directed by David Fincher, and instead recruited a number of supermodels (including Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz and Cindy Crawford) to mouth the words. It also featured the destruction of various symbols of George's past, including the famous guitar, jukebox, and leather jacket of the Faith era.

Freedom '90 was six and half minutes long. The addition of the year to the title was to distinguish the song from Freedom, a #1 hit for Wham! back in 1984. It had contrasting fortunes on each side of the Atlantic - a #8 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, but only #28 on the UK singles chart. It managed to become anyway a real classic in George Michael's catalogue. The video was badly taken by the American audience who read in the destruction of the “Faith” icons the refuse by George of his own success.

The track "Mother's Pride" gained significant airplay in the United States during the first Gulf War in 1991, often with radio stations mixing in callers' tributes to soldiers with the music. It reached n.46 on Billboard Hot 100 only with airplay.

In the end "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" sold around 7 million copies, but despite high sales, it was evident that 7 million was a weaker number compared to the then-16 million for Faith. The reception was specially poor in the United States, where Faith became the best-selling album of 1988 and Listen to Without Prejudice “only” managed to sell 2 million copies.

Listen Without Prejudice Vol.2

In 1991 George Michael embarked in the “Cover To Cover Tour”, in England, USA and Brasil where he performed at the “Rock In Rio” event. In the audience in Rio he saw and then met Anselmo Feleppa, the man who would become his partner.

The tour was not a proper promotion for “Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1” but it was more about George singing his favourite other-artists' songs. Between his favourite song there was "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" a 1974 song by Elton John; George and Elton had performed the song together at the Live Aid concert in 1985, and then again on George's tour at a concert at Wembley Arena, London on March 25, 1991 when Elton John was a surprise guest of George Michael and where the duet was recorded live for a single release.

The single was released at the end of 1991 and it became a massive hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

As successful as the 1974 record had been, it was as a duet with George Michael that "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" had its greatest success and reached number 1 on the UK singles chart for two weeks in December 1991 and n.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1992. The song was the only #1 single of the modern era to be recorded at an outdoors venue. The proceeds from the single were divided among 10 different charities for children, AIDS and education.

In the meantime the expected following album, “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2”, was scrapped for reasons unknown, although it could quite possibly be due to Michael frustration with Sony. Among Michael's complaints was that Sony had not fully supported the release of his second solo album resulting in its poor performance in the U.S. compared to "Faith". Sony responded that Michael had refused to appear in promotional videos and it was this that had caused the poor response to the album.

George shelved the idea for “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2” and donated four songs to the charity project "Red Hot + Dance", which raised money for AIDS awareness.

Three of the tracks intended for the “volume 2” album appeared on the charity album while a fourth ("Crazyman Dance") turned up on the B-side of the single "Too Funky". George donated the "Too Funky" royalties to the same cause.

"Too Funky" was released as a single by Epic Records in spring 1992. The song was lyrically a basic, animalistic plea from George for sexual activity with an individual and musically it was the most upbeat record he had released since Faith almost five years previously.

"Too Funky" was George's final single for his publishing deal with Sony Music before he started legal action to extricate himself from his contract. The song didn't appear on any George Michael studio album, although later it was included on his solo collections "Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael" in 1998 and "Twenty Five" in 2006.

The video featured George (sporadically) as a director filming a number of supermodels including Linda Evangelista, Tyra Banks, Beverly Peele, and Nadja Auermann.

"Too Funky" was another massive hit all around the world reaching n. 4 in the UK singles chart and n.10 in the Billboard Hot 100, and became 1992's most played record in Europe.

Five Live

George Michael performed at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness on April 20, 1992 at London's Wembley Stadium. The concert was a tribute to the life of the late Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, with all proceeds going to AIDS research. George Michael stole the show by delivering a brilliant performance of "Somebody to Love" sparking speculation of him joining Queen. Although the performance of the song was released on the "Five Live" EP, a union with Queen never materialised.

Five Live, released in 1993, features five (in some countries six) tracks performed by George Michael, Queen and Lisa Stansfield.

"Somebody to Love" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives" were recorded at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert . “Killer”, “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone” and “Calling You” were all live performances by George recorded during his “Cover To Cover Tour” from 1991.

All proceeds from the sale of the EP benefited the Mercury Phoenix Trust.

Sales of the EP were very strong through Europe, where it debuted at number 1 in the UK and several European countries. Chart success in the United States was far less spectacular. The EP peaked at number 40 on the Billboard 200.

Five Live sold an estimated 5 million copies worldwide.

Loss and Court Case

At the time of his performance at Freddy Mercury Tribute George already knew his brazilian boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa was terminally ill. Unfortunately in March 1993 Feleppa died from an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage. Michael had been unable to write for the next 18 months as a consequence of his grief and he went through a deep depression.

He put his anger in a court case againt Sony concerning his contract.

The case that music-industry executives around the world have been dreading for months wounded its way to the English High Court in October 1993. Analysts said that music companies could then face a series of legal actions from other top performers demanding similar terms in case of George victory.

In the front row of Court 39 George lawyers contended the pop star was the victim not only of an unfair contract but of an industry that concentrated power in too few hands, to the disadvantage of the recording artists. On one side of the courtroom lawyers for Sony Corp., which bought Michael's original record company, CBS, in 1987 emphasized that George Michael had signed a binding contract.

In outlining his case, Michael's counsel, Mark Cran, said his client had signed up with a recording company at age 18 and had been a prisoner of that action ever since. Mr. Cran described his client, who together with his partner formed the then-struggling pop group Wham!, as "completely unknown" at the time and as "effectively supplicants looking for any contract they could get." What they got, Mr. Cran insisted, was a lifetime commitment to their record company. "This case is not about money," Mr. Cran argued. "It is about restraint of free trade ... an agreement which binds George Michael for the whole of his professional career to terms capable of being worked to his substantial disadvantage." In quantifying that disadvantage, Mr. Cran insisted that the profit Sony had made from Mr. Michael was six times what George Michael himself had received. Mr. Cran cited documents provided by Sony in 1991 that put its net profit on each compact-disc recording at £2.45 ($3.71), compared with Mr. Michael's bottom-line profit on CD sales of 37 pence.

The points of George lawyer included remuneration and the fact that recording artists must surrender the copyright on their work to their record companies. He said, however, that the most important point was the lifetime nature of the contract. The "imbalance" in the standard recording contract, he said, spoke volumes about the concentration of power among the six companies that dominate the music industry and added up to their stars being "fettered." The big companies, Mr. Cran charged, "only compete with each other when it comes to the selling, promotion and marketing function," not in the terms they offer recording artists, especially unproven artists, for their services.

Among Michael's complaints was that Sony had not fully supported the release of his second solo album resulting in its poor performance in the U.S. compared to Faith. Sony responded that Michael had refused to appear in promotional videos and it was this that had caused the poor response to the album.

It's said that the reason for Michael's departure from Sony, however, had little to do with his record contract and more to do with the way he was treated by then-label president Donnie Ienner. During a phone conversation between Ienner and George Michael's then-manager Robert Kahane, Ienner reportedly told Kahane "You tell that fucking faggot (George Michael)..."[citation needed] Unbeknownst to Ienner, George was listening in on another phone, and Michael went ballistic when he heard Ienner's disparaging remarks. As a result, Michael told Ienner that he would never record for Sony again and proceeded with his lawsuit against Sony.

The case was found against Michael.

As a consequence, Michael declared he would not release any new material until he had completed the minimum of his contractual obligations to Sony declaring he was victim of artistic slavery.

After the ordeal with Sony, Michael was signed by David Geffen's U.S. start-up label Dreamworks SKG. Michael's single release for "Jesus to a Child" was SKG's first release as well. After a few years of lackluster domestic sales, Michael returned to Sony for his new, highly anticipated album Patience. It was released in March 2004 after two popular singles were released through Polydor Records. Patience debuted at number one in the UK album charts and number two in Australia. Globally, it has performed moderately with 3 million units sold.

During the 2005 event Live 8, George Michael joined Paul McCartney on stage, harmonizing on the Beatles' classic "Drive My Car". Michael did not perform a separate set himself because of a head cold.

Michael was one of several remixers commissioned in 1990 to work on dance mixes for Bananarama's "Tripping on Your Love". Bananarama covered "Careless Whisper" for their Exotica album in 2001, the track was also released as a single in France.

George Michael during a concert in Munich in 2006

Michael also released a duet single with ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena, "This Is Not Real Love", on 6 November 2006. It peaked at #15 in the UK Charts.

Michael received $3 (£1.5) million for a 1-hour concert in Moscow for the 300 guests of Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin for a concert on the Eve of 2007 Some equipment was damaged in a fire caused “by badly wired pyrotechnics that went off a few hours after George Michael's band and crew had left”. This payment is reputed to have made him the highest paid act in Russian history overtaking the £1 million paid to Christina Aguilera for performing at the wedding of Russian oligarch Andrei Melnichenko in 2005. The gig performed by George Michael prior to this highly profitable Moscow event was a free gig for nurses in north London.

On May 12, 2007 in Coimbra, Portugal, he began the "25 Live Stadium Tour 2007", which will tour throughout Europe and will end on August 4, 2007 in Belfast, UK. There are 29 tour dates (as of April 21, 2007) over the whole of Europe. In July 2007, George was fined £130,000 for overrunning his show by 13 minutes on June 9, 2007 at Wembley Stadium, London.

Future career

In an interview in 2006 with Michael Parkinson on Britain's ITV television channel, Michael announced his intention to tour for the first time in 15 years. In May 2007 it was announced that Sophie Ellis-Bextor would be supporting him for the UK leg of the tour.

He also confirmed his intention to form a civil partnership with long-time partner Kenny Goss. He told Parkinson they would perform the legal ceremony and then hold a party. He also quipped that none of them would be donning a dress.

To coincide with the tour, a new greatest hits collection, Twenty Five, was released on 9 November, 2006, including four new songs. The lead single, "An Easier Affair", debuted on radio on May 24, 2006, and was released by Sony BMG as a download on 19 June and as a CD release a week later. This new single hit #1 in the UK dance charts and reached #13 in the UK singles chart upon physical release (download entered the charts at #74). This will be the fourth "best of" package of George Michael material after 1986's "The Final", 1997's "If You Were There" (both Wham! collections), and 1998's solo collection "Ladies & Gentlemen", a double disc which went double platinum in the US.

Due to an overwhelming response by fans to his recently announced tour celebrating 25 years in the music industry, Michael, as stated by his publicist, is considering a North American tour as well.

It has been revealed that Michael has been contracted to make a guest appearance in the 2007 Christmas special of The Catherine Tate Show.

Personal life

Sexual orientation

Michael was initially private about his sexual orientation, with rumours of relationships with high-profile women like Brooke Shields, Whoopi Goldberg and backing dancers common tabloid fodder during his Wham! career.

These persisted into his solo career, but Michael had already established a relationship with a male Brazilian dress designer, Anselmo Feleppa, whom he had met at the 1991 concert "Rock in Rio". Michael and Feleppa enjoyed a loving relationship, but Feleppa died of an AIDS-related brain hemorrhage in 1993. Michael's single "Jesus to a Child" is a direct tribute to Feleppa (he consistently dedicates it to him before performing it live), as is his 1996 album Older.

Questions of his sexual orientation persisted in public, until April 7, 1998, when he was arrested for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet in a park in Beverly Hills, California. He was arrested by an undercover policeman named Marcelo Rodriguez

George Michael: "Well, I was followed into the restroom, and then, this cop – well, I didn't know he was a cop at the time, obviously – he started playing this game. I think it's called ‘I'll show you mine, you show me yours, and then when you show me yours, I'm gonna nick you!'"

After pleading "no contest" to the charge, Michael was fined $810 and sentenced to 80 hours of community service. Soon afterwards, Michael made a video for his single "Outside" which was clearly based on the public toilet incident and which featured men dressed up as policemen kissing. Rodriguez, the police officer, claimed that this video "mocked" him, and also that Michael had slandered him in interviews, and in 1999 brought a $10 million court case in California against the singer who has amassed an estimated personal fortune of 70 million pounds ($100 million). The court dismissed the case on the grounds related to the officer's status as a public official, but an appeals court reinstated the case on 3 December 2002.

After that incident he became open about his homosexuality and became public about his relationship with Kenny Goss, a former cheerleader coach and later sports clothing executive originally from Dallas, Texas, and his partner since June 1996. Goss opened the Goss Gallery in May 2005 in Dallas, which shows contemporary works of art including those collected by the couple. They have homes in London and Dallas. In late November 2005 it was reported that Michael and Goss would register their relationship as a civil partnership in the UK, but due to negative publicity and his upcoming tour, they have postponed it to a later date.

Drugs

Michael has admitted to problems with depression, which he has tried to cope with by taking Prozac, smoking cannabis, and at one time buying a Labrador Retriever, which died in the Thames.

During 2006, a series of incidents occurred which suggested he was still in turmoil. On February 26, 2006, Michael was arrested for possession of Class C drugs, an incident that he described as "my own stupid fault, as usual." He was cautioned by the police and released.

On May 15, 2006, Michael was found slumped over the wheel of his Range Rover, photographed apparently snoozing at traffic lights in London. He awoke after a member of the public knocked on his window for five minutes, and was "sweating heavily and had his iPod on". He drove off weaving up the road, and then hit a traffic bollard. Later the same month, he was questioned by police after shunting three cars in the street in which he lives.

In the early hours of October 1, 2006, Michael was found unconscious in his Mercedes-Benz S-Class car, causing an obstruction at the junction of Cricklewood Lane with Hendon Way, in northwest London. Police found Michael slumped in his seat in a semi-conscious state. He was taken to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead for checks, and was then booked in at Colindale police station. He was later cautioned by the police for possession of cannabis, and was released on bail pending further inquiries on his fitness to drive. He pleaded guilty on May 8, 2007 to driving while unfit through drugs.

Michael's long term partner Kenny Goss has also been treated for dependence on prescription sleeping medication, checking into an Arizona-based clinic for two months in June 2004 after encouragement from Michael.

Politics

Michael has often taken a public, socially conscious, and sometimes political stance. In 1984, he sang as part of Band Aid on the charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for famine relief in Ethiopia. This single held the #1 position in the UK music charts over Christmas 1984, holding Michael's own song, "Last Christmas" by Wham!, at #2. Michael donated the royalties from "Last Christmas" to Band Aid and subsequently sang with Elton John at Live Aid (the Band Aid charity concert) in 1985.

In the 1980s during his years with WHAM George Michael was very critical of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government and its cruise missile alliance with the U.S. George said that he felt bad, since through his taxes he was paying for these weapons, yet was obliged to never dodge his tax obligations to his home country.

Michael also wrote "Shoot the Dog," a critical song about the friendly relationship between the governments of the U.S. and the UK towards the Iraqi War. In the animated music video for the song, Tony Blair is depicted as the "dog" that follows his "owner" (George W. Bush) everywhere. In George's latest tour, an inflatable British Bulldog doll is seen fellating Bush on stage.

In February 2003 George Michael unexpectedly recorded a live version of Don McLean's "The Grave" song in protest against the looming Iraq war. Michael performed the song on numerous top rated TV shows including "Top of the Pops" and "So Graham Norton". The video featured extensively on MTV.

He is presently touring the United States with the piano that John Lennon used to write "Imagine". On the anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King's death (April 4), he is appearing with the piano at the National Civil rights museum in Memphis, TN. Further stops are planned in Oklahoma City, and Waco, Texas.

He devoted his concert in Sofia, Bulgaria from his 25 Tour to the Bulgarian nurses sued in the HIV trial in Libya.

Residences

George Michael ranks as Britain's 10th richest musician with an amassed personal fortune said to be between at 65 million pounds to over 100 million pounds in assets, real estate and currency. George owns several homes all over the world, including one in London, one in Texas and one in Goring-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.

Discography

Main article: George Michael discography

See also Wham! discography

Albums

Studio albums

• 1987: Faith
• 1990: Listen without Prejudice, Vol. 1
• 1996: Older
• 2004: Patience

Compilation albums

• 1999: Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael
• 2006: Twenty Five

Other albums

• 1993: Five Live (Live Album)
• 1999: Songs from the Last Century (Cover Album)

Number-one songs

U.S. number one singles (8)

• 1984: "Careless Whisper"
• 1987: "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (with Aretha Franklin)
• 1987: "Faith"
• 1988: "Father Figure"
• 1988: "One More Try"
• 1988: "Monkey"
• 1990: "Praying For Time"
• 1991: "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" (with Elton John)

U.K. number one singles (7)

• 1984: "Careless Whisper"
• 1986: "A Different Corner"
• 1987: "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (with Aretha Franklin)
• 1991: "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" (with Elton John)
• 1993: "Five Live (EP)" (with Queen & Lisa Stansfield)
• 1996: "Jesus To A Child"
• 1996: "Fastlove"

Awards and Nominations

Main article: George Michael awards and nominations

See also

• Wham!
• 25 Live
• George Michael awards and nominations
• George Michael discography
• Best selling music artists - World's top selling music artists chart.
• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of number-one singles (UK)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
• List of artists by total number of USA number one singles
• List of artists by total number of UK number one singles
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart
• List of number-one R&B hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart

External links

• George Michael's Official Website
• George Michael at WikiMusicGuide

Press articles

• Revealing interview with George Michael from London Independent, in which he discusses his childhood, depression, sexuality and friendship with Diana
• "George Michael faces $10m lawsuit" - BBC News article, dated Tuesday, September 14, 1999
• "George Michael video case dismissed" - BBC News article, by Peter Bowes, dated Thursday, February 17, 2000
• "Officer allowed to sue Michael" - BBC News article, dated Wednesday, December 4, 2002
• "George Michael refuses to have HIV test " -holymoly.co.uk
• There was so much death, December 9, 2005 Interview with The Guardian
• Singer Michael says cannabis keeps him sane, October 21, 2006, Reuters