25 June 1963 · East Finchley, London — 25 December 2016 · Goring-on-Thames
One of the best-selling recording artists of all time — songwriter, showman and secret philanthropist. The boy from East Finchley who made the whole world stop and listen.
In numbers
0M+
Solo records sold worldwide
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US Billboard Hot 100 No.1s
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UK No.1 singles
0M+
Copies of debut album Faith
0
Grammy Awards (8 nominations)
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Ivor Novello Awards (Songwriter of the Year, 3×)
Counting Wham!, his record sales are estimated at 100–125 million. The Radio Academy named him the most-played artist on British radio of 1984–2004.
01 · Origins
Long before the arena spotlights, he was simply Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou — a boy from a Greek-Cypriot family in North London with an English mother and an ear for everything.
Born on 25 June 1963 in East Finchley, he grew up above and around his father's restaurant trade, while his mother — a former dancer — filled the house with music. At Bushey Meads School in Hertfordshire he met Andrew Ridgeley; together they would reinvent British pop. By 17 he was working as a cinema usher and club bouncer — and quietly writing a song called Careless Whisper.
As fame approached he changed his name by deed poll — swapping the intimidating Panayiotou for the friendlier, chart-friendly George Michael.
02 · The Wham! years
In 1981 Michael and Ridgeley formed Wham! — a duo that moved from bedroom ska to global pop domination in a matter of years. Fantastic topped the UK album chart in 1983; Make It Big conquered America in 1984, powered by Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, a No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic.
Between them came the song that first proved the quieter, deeper writer underneath the fun: Careless Whisper, credited to Wham! in America but released as his debut solo single almost everywhere else — a No.1 in nearly 25 countries.
03 · The story so far
The life of George Michael, era by era — from a North London schoolboy to a solo phenomenon who topped charts in four decades.
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou arrives in East Finchley, London, on 25 June — the second child of a Greek-Cypriot father and an English mother.
With schoolfriend Andrew Ridgeley he forms Wham!, changing his name by deed poll as fame arrives. Debut album Fantastic hits UK No.1 in 1983 after early singles such as Young Guns (Go for It!).
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go tops the UK and US; Careless Whisper — his first solo single — reaches No.1 in nearly 25 countries. Winter brings Last Christmas, Band Aid and a UK Christmas No.1.
He sings at Live Aid (including alongside Elton John), takes Wham! to China as the first Western pop group to play there, then bows the duo out with The Edge of Heaven (UK No.1) and a sell-out Wembley finale.
His debut solo album becomes one of the best-sellers of all time — over 25 million copies. The title single is the year-end US No.1 of 1988; Faith, Father Figure, One More Try and Monkey all top the US chart.
A world tour grosses $17.7 million — the second-highest of 1988. He performs at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at Wembley and wins the first of two Best British Male BRITs.
Faith wins Album of the Year at the Grammys. Exhausted by mega-stardom, Michael begins the retreat from celebrity that will define his next chapter — and receives MTV's Video Vanguard Award.
A serious, song-driven follow-up to Faith — No.1 in the UK, where he deliberately refused to promote it, choosing instead to let the music do the talking.
The supermodel video for Freedom! '90 becomes a pop-culture landmark. Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me with Elton John tops the UK and US. At the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert his Somebody to Love with Queen stops the show.
He wins his landmark High Court battle against his record label Sony — a case that reshaped how the music industry treats its artists.
Jesus to a Child — his tribute to partner Anselmo Feleppa, who died in 1993 — enters the UK chart at No.1, followed by Fastlove. The Older album produces a record six UK Top-3 singles, and he is named Best British Male once more.
After a 1998 arrest he addresses his private life head-on, coming out publicly — and turns the moment on its head with the defiant, playful single Outside. The best-of Ladies & Gentlemen becomes another multi-million seller.
His first album of new songs in eight years returns him to the top of the UK chart, led by the single Amazing.
A three-year anniversary world tour — his most extensive in years — celebrates the songs fans grew up on, backed by the Twenty Five retrospective.
Struck down by pneumonia in Vienna, he falls into a coma and is saved by an emergency tracheotomy. He returns to the stage for the London 2012 Olympic closing ceremony and his final concerts at Earls Court.
His orchestral live album Symphonica hits UK No.1 — chart-topping albums in the 1980s, '90s, 2000s and 2010s.
George Michael dies peacefully at home in Goring-on-Thames, aged 53. The coroner rules natural causes — dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver.
He is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — presented by Andrew Ridgeley, the friend he started it all with.
04 · The music
Each era of his songwriting — from the swagger of Faith to the bruised honesty of Older — spins a different side of the same artist.
1987
Studio album · debut
The album that made him a global superstar — a masterclass in pop-soul swagger that AllMusic still calls one of the finest pop records of the 1980s.
Key tracks — Faith · Father Figure · One More Try · I Want Your Sex · Monkey
1990
Studio album
Frustrated by image-making, he refused to promote this one — and let songs like Praying for Time and Freedom! '90 speak instead. It spent 88 weeks on the UK chart.
Key tracks — Praying for Time · Freedom! '90 · Waiting for That Day · Heal the Pain
1996
Studio album
Written after grief — partner Anselmo Feleppa and then his mother — Older is quiet, gorgeous and mature, and produced a record six UK Top-3 singles.
Key tracks — Jesus to a Child · Fastlove · Spinning the Wheel · Older
1999
Studio album · covers
A hushed, orchestral set of twentieth-century standards — proof that his taste ran as deep as his voice, from jazz ballads to Bono's Miss Sarajevo.
Highlights — Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? · Miss Sarajevo · Roxanne
2004
Studio album
Eight years after Older, a fleet return — upbeat, playful and unmistakably him, with the irrepressible Amazing at its heart.
Key tracks — Amazing · Flawless (Go to the City) · Round Here
2014
Live album · orchestra
Recorded across his 2011–12 orchestral tour and released to a UK No.1 — 27 years after Faith.
Highlights — Let Her Down Easy · A Different Corner · One More Try
05 · In pictures
Click any photograph to view it full-size.
06 · The heart nobody saw
Some of his charity was very public — most of it, we only learned about after he was gone.
He joined Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? in 1984 — and quietly donated the royalties from his own Last Christmas to the cause. A year later he was on the Live Aid stage, singing beside Elton John.
The proceeds of his No.1 duet Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me and the Five Live EP went to AIDS and children's charities; the latter benefited the Mercury Phoenix Trust. He performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute and Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute — and raised for HIV/AIDS causes throughout his life, supporting the Terrence Higgins Trust among others.
Stories that emerged only after his death: phoning a TV show's production team to anonymously fund a contestant's £15,000 IVF treatment; tipping a debt-ridden student nurse who was working as a barmaid £5,000; paying for a stranger's IVF after seeing her on This Morning.
For a decade he anonymously funded Highgate's village Christmas tree, its festive lights and the annual Fair in the Square — signing every donation simply "a local resident".
Waterlow Park memorial bench · Hwyaden fach · CC BY-SA 4.0
And after he left us
In 2019 his personal art collection was auctioned for £11.3 million — the entire sum donated to the philanthropic organisations he had supported in life. His £97 million estate went largely to family and friends — and the tributes left at his grave and the memorial bench in Waterlow Park show his fans are still giving theirs.
07 · Legacy
“George Michael was the best. There's a certain note in his voice when he did Somebody to Love that was pure Freddie.”
“A superbly crafted mainstream pop/rock masterpiece.”
“No-one had ever seen anything like that before. All the young people were amazed and everybody was tapping their feet…”
“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart —
but the very next day, you gave it away.”
Wham! · Last Christmas (1984) —
On 25 December 2016, the world gave its heart right back.
Rest in peace
Every December, Last Christmas climbs the charts again — and for a few weeks every year, it feels like he never really left.
A fan-memory archive
Find your night. Share what you remember. You don't have to remember the setlist — tell us what YOU remember.
08 · The forum
A friendly corner for fans of every era — Wham!, Faith, Older and everything in between. Sign in with Google to start a thread or join one already going.
Keep the music playing
From the Wham! anthems to Faith and Older, the songs are waiting for you.