Biography
The legendary British singer, earlier than the participant of the group Wham! George Michael was born on June 25, 1963 in the UK, in Finchley, which is located in Northern London. In fact, the name George Michael is nothing but a scenic pseudonym, since in reality, the artist wore the name Georgios Kiriakos Panayota.
George's father, Kiriakos Panayota, was Cypriot, who in the 50s emigrated to Britain and took the Englishman - Leslie Engold Harrison. Father was engaged in the control of a small restaurant with Greek cuisine, mother was a dancer.
In addition to George in the family there were two more children - sisters Melanie and iodine, who were older than him. As a result, it was the sisters who were engaged in raising a child, as the parents had no time for this because of great employment at work.
The image-sex symbol in maturity goes against how the singer was in childhood - George Michael because of poor view was forced to wear glasses, the complex could not be called a sports, which is why he was constantly attacked by peers. All problems have been added to the need to study the game on the violin, which was not very liked by the future star.
Become a star Michael wanted since childhood, literally from 7 years old, while the game on the violin pleasure did not bring much, especially since he was left. At that time, George repeated or tried to reproduce all the melodies he heard on the radio. Father did not share his son's hobbies, unlike the mother, who had the strongest support in his career and presented the voice recorder with the recording function.
A strong influence on the singer and its further style was provided by the group Queen and Elton John. A sharp fracture in life came after moving to Herrtfordshire county, receipts to a new school and dating with Andrew Ryjley, who had Egyptian roots. The acquaintance happened in 1975, the Ridgeli specifically put to Michael so that he helped him to get comforted. This was a turning event in the life of the artist.
Music
The singer changed very much outwardly, stopped wearing glasses, lost weight. The revision of the relationship towards himself and the life caused that Michael had new hobbies, because of which there was no place to study.
Instead of lessons, Michael, Ridgeli and a common buddy David Austin gathered at the Metro station Green Park to entertain Passengers to Kaveveri on Beatles songs, David Bowie and his own creations. Gradually, it turned into the education of the group The Executive. In addition to those listed in the team consisted of Andrew Liver and Paul Ridge.
Especially this team was not famous, releaseing only one hit - Rude Boy. The group was not able to stay for a long time, but the participants managed to develop a foundation for the formation of Wham!, Since a lot of songs were created during work in The Executive for future albums Wham!.
Wham!
The famous pop duet was signed on a promising Label Innervision Records, it happened in 1982. In the same period, the alias "George Michael" was taken. The group's image is rich lifespans, respectively, their work was sent more to young people. This is confirmed by video clips to debut songs: "Club Tropicana", "Bad Boys", which have become a group business card.The first album was called Fantastic. After the initial success, it was decided to switch to the EPIC label, after the conclusion of the contract with which the participants of the group began to receive much more money from the author's fees than it was before.
A little break in the work happened at the end of 1983, and he lasted until May 1984. Until this time, a new image of the group was developed, and was also working on a new album, which was called Make IT BIG. It became popular and within the UK, taking first places in all sorts of charts. The best creation from the album has become a clip. We are talking about the clip "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go", which have become cult.
The next two years have become the most successful for the group, since it was during this period that such famous songs like "Careless Whisper", "Freedom" and of course "Last Christmas", which was a peculiar anthem of this holiday for a long time.
Solo career
The disagreements of George with the producers about the inconsistency of the image of a hooligan teenager imposed on him with his internal state of Romance led to the breakdown of the group, despite its peak of popularity. The collective albums ended on the "The Final" record, which broke all records of sales - they amounted to 40 million copies.
As a solo singer, Michael made his debut in 1984 with the song "Careless Whisper", but the full speeches began solo after the collapse of the group, in 1986. Then Faith album was released, which received all the significant musical awards of the year, including Grammy.
Not so lucky was the second album called "Listen Without Prejudice, Vol 1", even there were several famous songs. The artist considered that he was not to blame for failure, as a performer and author, but a record-label Sony, who, according to him, did not unwind the album properly. This led to lawsuits between the artist and the label, and due to the fact that the case was lost, Michael stopped creating until the expiration of the contract with Sony.
From this point on, the career has declined, and only six years later the Older plate came out, partially interested in listeners in Europe. The best songs that can be noted is Jesus to A Child and FastLove. Then there were only collections of the best songs like "Ladies AndGentlemen: The Best Of George Michael" in 1998 and as "Songs from the Last Century". It was in 1999.
The relative breakthrough after stagnation can be considered the exit in 2003 of the FREEEK scandalous clip!, Which was very expensive. The success of the video was the reason for the successful debut in 2004. Album Patience. In 2006, the singer for the first time in a half dozen years old went to the world tour with concerts. In 2014, the sixth and last album - "Symphonica", whose music pleased fans.
Personal life
Hints for non-traditional sexual orientation arose long ago. Michael said that he was afraid of how his family would react to it. In 1991, the singer had a novel with the Anselmo Falepp designer, from whom he picked up HIV.
The hints were indirectly confirmed in the album "Older". At about the same time, the image of Michael changed, he began to wear a short hairstyle and leather vestment. It was especially difficult in the mid-90s, when the mother left the life, and were attacked by the press.
In 1998, the singer decided to make a public statement that he is gay. He had a relationship at that time with a businessman from Dallas Kenny Goss. Unfortunately, later their photo in the tabloids became more interesting to people than songs, clips, albums or concerts.
Death
December 25, 2016 George Michael died in his own home, at the time of death he was 54 years old. It happened in the County of Oxfordshire. The cause of Michael's death is a heart attack.Discography
- 1983 - Fantastic
- 1984 - Make It Big
- 1986 - Music from the Edge of Heaven
- 1987 - Faith.
- 1990 - Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. one
- 1996 - Older.
- 1999 - Songs from The Last Century
- 2004 - Patience
- 2014 - Symphonica.