Michael spent most of his childhood in Kingsbury, London, in the home his parents bought soon after his birth he attended Roe Green Junior School and Kingsbury High School. In June 2008, Michael told the Los Angeles Times that his maternal grandmother was Jewish, but she married a non-Jewish man and raised her children with no knowledge of their Jewish background due to her fear during World War II.
His mother, Lesley Angold ( born Harrison, died 1997), was an English dancer. His father, Kyriacos Panayiotou (nicknamed "Jack"), was a Greek Cypriot restaurateur who emigrated to England in the 1950s. George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou ( Greek: Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου) on 25 June 1963 in East Finchley, London. The Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004. In 2015, he was ranked 45th in Billboard 's list of the "Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time". Michael won various music awards, including two Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, and six Ivor Novello Awards. He achieved seven number-one songs on the UK Singles Chart and eight number-one songs on the US Billboard Hot 100. Michael is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 120 million records worldwide. On 25 December 2016, Michael was found dead of heart disease at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He performed his final concert at London's Earls Court in 2012. Michael fell into a coma in 2011 during a bout with pneumonia, but later recovered. Michael's 25 Live tour spanned three tours from 2006 to 2008. The 2005 documentary A Different Story covered his career and personal life. His personal life, drug use, and legal troubles made headlines during the late 1990s and 2000s, as he was arrested for public lewdness in 1998 and was arrested for multiple drug-related offences after that time. Outside music, Michael was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser. Michael went on to release two more multimillion-selling albums, Older (1996) and Patience (2004). A 1991 live duet with Elton John, " Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", was also a transatlantic number one. It included the Billboard Hot 100 number-one " Praying for Time" and the worldwide hit " Freedom! '90". 1 (1990), sold approximately eight million copies and was a UK number-one. His second solo album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. Michael became the best-selling music artist of 1988, and Faith was awarded Album of the Year at the 1989 Grammy Awards. Globally it sold 25 million copies, and four singles from the album-" Faith", " Father Figure", " One More Try", and " Monkey"-reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Michael's debut solo album, Faith, was released in 1987, topping the UK Albums Chart and staying at number one on the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks. Before embarking on the production of his first solo album, Michael went on to release two more number-one singles, " A Different Corner" and the Aretha Franklin duet " I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". Michael's first solo single, " Careless Whisper", reached number one in over 20 countries, including the UK and US. Establishing themselves as a global act, Wham! toured China in April 1985 the tour was the first visit to China by a Western popular music act, and it generated worldwide media coverage.
Their hit singles included " Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and " Last Christmas". Forming the duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in 1981, the band's first two albums, Fantastic (1983) and Make It Big (1984), reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. īorn in East Finchley, North London, Michael rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! and later embarked on a solo career. Known as a leading creative force in music production, songwriting, vocal performance and visual presentation, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the MTV generation. George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter.