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George Michael
George Michael was born in 1963 in Finchley, London. His mother was British, a professional dancer, his father a Greek-Cyprian restaurant owner. The family later moved to Radlett, and George attended Bushey Meads School in Bushey, where he got to know his future Wham partner Andrew Ridgley.
He also performed as a street musician in the London Underground, singing songs like ’39’ by Queen and worked as a DJ in and around Bushey. This was followed by the formation of a short-lived ska band called The Executive, with Ridgeley, Ridgeley's brother Paul, Andrew Leaver, and David Mortimer (later known as David Austin).
George and Andrew started Wham! in 1981. Their first record ‘Fantastic’ reached the top of the British charts in 1983 and the three singles Young Guns (Go For It!), Bad Boys and Club Tropicana reached the Top 5.
Their second album Make It Big became an international Bestseller in 1984 and reached the top of the British, the Australian, the German, The Japanese and the US charts. Its success was largely due to the massively popular hit single, Wake Me Up Before you Go Go.
In 1986 the third and last album ‘Music From The Edge Of Heaven’ was released, which was followed only by a Best-Of album called The Final, before the band broke up that same year.
One year later, Micheal had a sensational breakthrough as a solo artist with his album Faith. No less than 4 of its singles reached the top of the US charts: Faith, Father Figure, One More Try and Monkey. The album sold over 20 million copies and got several awards, including Album Of The Year at the Grammys. It made George Michael a superstar of the 80s.
In autumn 1990 he released his second solo album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1. Even though it was praised by the critics, it wasn't as commercially successful as its predecessor and “only” sold about 8 million copies. It included the hit singles Praying For Time and Freedom!90.
After releasing his third album Older in 1996, Michael made headlines, by coming into conflict with the law. He had been caught “cruising” on a public toilette in LA. Nevertheless he went on releasing another 5 very successful albums before his death in 2016. He died on the 25th of December at the age of 53 in his house in Oxfordshire.
A post-mortem was undertaken and the coroner attributed the death to natural causes; the result of a dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver.
Over the course of his career, George Michael sold in excess of 100 million albums. His most popular hit will remain Wham!'s Christmas hit ‘Last Christmas’ released in 1984.