George Michael – successful pop singer

George Michael was a British singer, poet and composer of Greek origin. During his musical career (solo and as part of the duo Wham!) nearly 100 million copies of his records were sold. He is a winner of two Grammy awards – Album of the Year (Faith, 1988) and Best R&B duo (with Aretha Franklin song I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), 1987).
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (his real name) was born on June 25, 1963 in London.
His musical career began in 1981 when he and his school friend Andrew Ridgeley formed the band The Executives. The group wasn’t successful and Michael together with Ridgeley decided to perform as a duo called Wham!. Despite the huge commercial success of the songs Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Last Christmas, the group disbanded in 1986. Their singles Careless Whisper (1984) and A Different Corner (1986) were actually performed by George Michael.

Then Michael started his solo career. The song Freedom attracted worldwide attention to Michael as one of the most talented and fashionable figures of his generation. Fans eagerly waited for release of the first solo album of their idol. The album, entitled Faith, was released on October 30, 1987. More than 16 million copies were sold and Billboard magazine named it the best-selling disc of the year in the United States.
The second album Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 was much less commercially successful than Faith.
In 1996, Virgin Records released his third solo album Older.
In 1999, Michael released an album of cover versions of his favorite songs Songs From The Last Century.
In 2005, the documentary George Michael: A Different Story was premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. The singer wrote the screenplay himself.
On November 11, 2006 a greatest hits album, Twenty Five, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the singer’s creative activity was released.
On January 1, 2007, George Michael earned a record fee of three million dollars for just one concert at the Vladimir Potanin’s villa near Moscow.
In 2007, he first gave concerts in Moscow and Kiev.

In 2011, during the Symphonica Tour, George fell ill with pneumonia and was on the verge of life and death.
On August 12, 2012 Michael performed with the song White Light at the 30th Summer Olympic Games closing ceremony in London.
On March 17, 2014 the sixth solo album Symphonica was released.
George Michael died from heart failure on December 25, 2016 in Oxfordshire at the age of 53.
During his musical career Michael sold nearly 100 million records, thus becoming one of the most famous pop singers in the history of show business.

Personal life
Michael dated Anselmo Feleppa, designer from Brazil. They met at a rock concert Rock in Rio in 1991. Feleppa died in 1993 of a brain hemorrhage caused by infection.

In 1996, George had a relationship with Kenny Goss, a former athlete from Dallas.

In 2011, George began dating hairstylist from Lebanon Fadi Fawaz.

George Michael – successful pop singer