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The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
George Michael (born 25th June 1963) is a British
pop singer/songwriter of English and Greek descent who (as a solo artist and
half of the duo WHAM!) has sold an estimated total of 80 million records.
****
Background information
Birth name Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou
Born 25th June 1963
Origin London, United Kingdom
Genre(s) Pop
Years active 1981–present
Website GeorgeMichael.com
****
Early
life
George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos
Panayiotou in East Finchley, London, to a Greek Cypriot father and a British
mother. He began his career by forming a short-lived band called The Executive
together with his best friend Andrew Ridgeley, a fellow pupil at Bushey Meads
School.
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 an instant success, 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 were rapidly followed by titles such as Bad Boys, Club
Tropicana, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Freedom, Last Christmas/Everything She
Wants, I'm Your Man and a second album, Make It Big. 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. He also added
background vocals to David Cassidy's 1985 hit The Last Kiss.
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 George 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 an ever-widening awareness of Michael
as a personality.
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,
The Edge of Heaven and album, plus a sell-out concert at Wembley Stadium that
included the world premiere of the China film.
Solo
career
Some of his biggest hit singles as a solo artist
include the single "Faith," taken from his debut album Faith. The album not only
became number one on both sides of the Atlantic but also resulted in four number
one singles in America. In 1986 he dueted with both Aretha Franklin and Jody
Watley. In 1989 he again sang backing vocals on a record called Heaven Help Me
with longtime friend Deon Estus. The song was written by both of them, and just
missed out on the British the top 40, reaching #5 in America.
"Careless Whisper" (written when he was seventeen)
became one of the most played songs of the decade and voted Londoner's favourite
record of all time in January 1995, in a competition run jointly by the
capital's leading evening newspaper and radio station. He was then also voted
Best Male Singer by the same radio station and by the readers of a national
newspaper. Some of his other hits include "Father Figure", "Kissing a Fool",
"One More Try", "Freedom 90", "Fastlove", "Jesus to a Child", "Don't Let the Sun
Go Down on Me" (a duet with Elton John), 2002's "Freeek!" and the controversial
song and video "Shoot the Dog" which is a commentary on Tony Blair's partnership
with George Bush in Bush's 'War on Terror' .
His work covers a variety of pop styles, from
ballads to funky dance tracks. In a career spanning more than twenty years,
George Michael has been responsible for more than 80 million album sales.
Having decided to release his new material through
a number of labels on a single-by-single basis, Michael found a home at Sony for
his new, highly anticipated album Patience. It was released in March 2004 after
two popular singles released through Polydor Records. Patience debuted at number
one in the UK album charts and number two in Australia.
During the 2005 event Live 8, George Michael joined
Paul McCartney on stage, harmonizing on "Drive My Car". He couldn't perform a
separate set himself because of a head cold. At the event, Michael told BBC
Radio 1 that he was writing and recording music at home and hinted that was
considering a tour in 2006.
It was announced on 21st April 2006 that he would
embark on a 50-date tour in 2006 called "25 Live" to commemorate 25 years of
being in the music business. The tour is set to kick off 23rd September 2006 in
Barcelona, Spain. A new greatest hits package will be released to coincide with
the tour. The new album will feature four new tracks.
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".
Michael has also stated that he's recording a new
version of "Heal the Pain" with Paul McCartney. "We're doing some recording
later this week actually. We're gonna do another version of one of my old songs
called "Heal the Pain" – which I wrote as a tribute to him and so I'm incredibly
honoured that he's gonna sing it for me," Michael said.
Publicity, notoriety, & depression
Michael's lover of two years Anselmo Feleppa died
of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage in 1993 (Michael's single Jesus To A Child
is a tribute to Feleppa).
Michael was involved in a 1993 court case
concerning his record contract after his record company CBS was taken over by
Sony. Amongst 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. The case was heard in London and 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.
Michael is also well known for his 7th April 1998
arrest for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet in a park in Beverly
Hills, USA. 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!'"
[1]
After pleading "no contest" to the charge, Michael
was fined $810 and sentenced to 80 hours of community service. After that
incident he became open about his homosexuality.
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 ten million dollar court case in California
against the singer. 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 3rd December 2002.
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 number one position in the UK music charts over
Christmas 1984, holding Michael's own song, "Last Christmas" by Wham!, at number
two. 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, George Michael was very critical of
Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government and its cruise missile alliance with
the USA. 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.
In December 2004 Elton John stated in an interview
that he believed George Michael should "get out more". As both John and Michael
were openly gay and seemingly friends, many were surprised at the public spat.
In an open letter response in "Heat" magazine, Michael claimed he and John were
not good friends and that John had little knowledge of his personal life other
than what he might glean from gossip (or the "gay grapevine", as Michael termed
it).
In July 2005 it was reported that the two had ended
their nine month feud over a dinner at Michael's North London home (apparently
prepared by "celebrity chef" Gordon Ramsay). The two singers further agreed that
John will re-release their 1991 duet "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" on a
forthcoming album.
This was not the first time that George had a
negative camaraderie with fellow gay artists. During the early '80s singer Boy
George was rather vocal in his dislike of George Michael, some of which is
caught on video during the filming of the Band Aid collaboration. While
recording harmonies, Boy George questioned the studio engineers whether one of
the voices he heard on the vocal track was "Alf" [British singer-songwriter
Alison Moyet, who did not participate in the charity single]. When the engineer
indentified the voice as that of Michael, Boy George replied, "God, he sounded
camp. But then he is." The singer Morrissey has also been critical of Michael,
stating that he is "not impressed".
George Michael was also engaged in more controversy
when he shut down his online Official Forum/Message Board because he did not
like the petty bickering about his cousin. Also, the moderating/webmaster team
were not doing their job properly. This alienated and polarised his fanbase and
many fans dispersed to new online fan communities.
Although Michael had tried to escape from his
problems and depression by taking Prozac, smoking pot, and buying a Labrador
Retriever that died in the Thames, he appears to have risen from his depression
through his relationship with Kenny Goss, his partner for nearly a decade. In
late November 2005 it was reported [2] that Michael and Goss would, in the
following year, register their relationship as a Civil Partnership in the UK. It
was announced on 26 February 2006 that George had been 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 let go. [3] [4].
In July 2006 Michael was photographed by UK tabloid
newspaper News of the World reporters, emerging from the bushes on Hampstead
Heath, apparently following a sexual tryst with Norman Kirtland, who they called
a "pot-bellied, 58-year-old, jobless van driver."[5] Michael then hit back at
the newspaper, by announcing on BBC News 24 that he was suing the photographers
for harrassment and possibly libel, and suing Kirtland himself. (he is to take
legal action against a man who claimed he had a gay encounter with the singer).
On BBC News 24, he stated that he would not sue the
newspaper that printed the allegations about him, a newspaper that is owned by
Rupert Murdoch. He also said in the same interview that cruising was defacto
private because it was taking place at 2am [6].
Future
career
In a recent interview with Michael Parkinson on
Britain's ITV television channel, Michael announced his intention to tour for
the first time in 15 years.
He announced that he would embark on a 50-date
European tour entitled 25 Live beginning in Barcelona on 23rd September 2006,
and ending up at Wembley Arena in London in December.
He also confirmed his intention to form a Civil
Partnership with long-time partner Kenny Goss. He told Parkinson "they will do
the legal formal thing, then 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" will be released on 9th Nov 2006, including four new
songs. The lead single "An Easier Affair" debuted on radio on 24th May 2006 and
was released by Sony BMG as a download on 19th June and as a CD release on 26th
June. This new single became a no. 1 in the UK dance charts and reached no. 13
in the UK singles chart upon physical release (download entered the charts at
no. 74).
Due to an overwhelming response by fans to his
recently announced tour celebrating 25 years in the music industry, George
Michael, as stated by his publicist, is considering a North American tour.
George is set to release a new single with ex-Sugababe
Mutya "This Is Not Real Love", sometime in November 2006.
Trivia
George Michael was one of several remixers
commissioned to work on dance mixes for Bananarama's "Tripping on Your Love".
Bananarama later covered "Careless Whisper" in 2000 and released it as a single
(Keren Woodward of Bananarama is Andrew Ridgeley's partner).
****
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
October 2006
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