George Michael
- George Michael is also the name of a former radio DJ, and current sports presenter. See The George Michael Sports Machine
George Michael (born June 25, 1963) is a British pop singer/songwriter born in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
Wham!
Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, Michael began his career by forming the pop duo Wham! together with his best friend Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. The success was instant and within a year they had released their classic debut single, Wham Rap, while their second single, Young Guns (Go For It!) became the first in a string of Top 10 hits. They were rapidly followed by titles such as Club Tropicana, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Careless Whisper, Last Christmas, Everything She Wants, I'm Your Man, and many more.
Solo Career
Some of his biggest hit singles as a solo artist include the single "Faith", (taken from his debut album Faith that not only became No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic but also resulted in stunning 6 No.1 singles in America) and many more.
"Careless Whisper" (written when he was 17) 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", "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 "Shoot The Dog".
His work covers a variety of pop styles, from ballads to funky dance tracks. In a career spanning nearly 20 years, George Michael has been responsible for more than 75 million album sales.
Having decided to release his new material through a number of labels on a single-by-single basis, George found a home at Sony for his new, highly anticipated album Patience. It was released in March 2004 after two unstellar singles came out on Polydor and it debuted at number one on the UK album charts and number 2 in Australia.
Notoriety
Michael was involved in a court case concerning his record contract after his record company CBS was taken over by Sony.
Michael is also well known for his 1998 arrest for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public restroom in a Beverly Hills city park. He was arrested by an undercover Beverly Hills police officer 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] (http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/people/110998pe.htm)
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 restroom 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 filed a ten million dollar lawsuit in California against the singer. The court dismissed the case on the grounds related to the officer's status as a kind of public official, but an appeals court reinstated the case on December 3, 2002.
Future Career
George Michael announced that Patience will be the last record on sale to the public. He told BBC Radio 1 on March 10, 2004 that future music that he puts out will be available for download with fans encouraged to make a donation to charity. He said: "I've been very well remunerated for my talents over the years so I really don't need the public's money. I'd like to have something on the Internet which is a charitable download site where anyone can download my music for free. I'll have my favourite charities up there and people will hopefully donate to that."
He states that the decision will put less pressure to produce a new album every so often and allow him to have more of a private life.
Discography
Albums
- As part of Wham!
- Fantastic (1983) #1 UK, #83 US
- Make It Big (1984) #1 UK, #1 US
- Music From The Edge of Heaven (1986) #10 US
- The Final (1986) (compilation) #2 UK
- If You Were There (The Best of Wham) (1997) #4 UK
- As a solo artist
- Faith (1987) #1 UK, #1 US
- Listen without Prejudice, Vol. 1 (1990) #1 UK, #2 US
- Five live (with Queen & Lisa Stansfield) (1992) #1 UK (singles chart), #46 US
- Older (1996) #1 UK, #6 US
- Ladies & Gentlemen (Best Of George Michael) (1998) #1 UK, #24 US
- Songs from the Last Century (1999) #2 UK, #157 US
- Patience (2004) #1 UK, #12 US
Hit singles
- from Fantastic!
- 1982 "Young Guns (Go For It)" #3 UK
- 1983 "Wham Rap" #8 UK
- 1983 "Bad Boys" #2 UK
- 1983 "Club Tropicana" #4 UK
- non-album single
- 1983 "Club Fantastic Megamix" #15 UK
- from Make It Big
- 1984 "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" #1 UK, #1 US
- 1984 "Careless Whisper" (credited to George Michael solo) #1 UK, #1 US
- 1984 "Freedom" #1 UK, #3 US (1985 release)
- 1984 "Everything She Wants" #2 UK (double A-side with Last Christmas in the UK), #1 US (1985 release)
- from Music from the Edge of Heaven
- 1985 "I'm Your Man" #1 UK, #3 US
- 1985 "Last Christmas" (re-issue) #6 UK
- 1986 "The Edge of Heaven" #1 UK (double A-side with Where Did Your Heart Go in the UK), #10 US
- 1986 "A Different Corner" #1 UK, #7 US
- from Aretha (Aretha Franklin album)
- 1987 "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (with Aretha Franklin) #1 US, #1 UK
- from Faith
- 1987 "I Want Your Sex" #3 UK, #2 US
- 1987 "Faith" #2 UK, #1 US
- 1988 "Father Figure" #11 UK, #1 US
- 1988 "One More Try" #8 UK, #1 US
- 1988 "Monkey" #13 UK, #1 US
- 1988 "Kissing a Fool" #18 UK, #5 US
- from Listen without Prejudice, Vol. 1
- 1990 "Praying for Time" #6 UK, #1 US
- 1990 "Waiting for That Day" #23 UK
- 1990 "Freedom 90" #28 UK, #8 US
- 1991 "Heal the Pain" #31 UK
- non-album single
- 1991 "Don't Let the Sun Go down on Me" (with Elton John) #1 UK, #1 US
- from Red Hot + Dance various artists charity album
- 1992 "Too Funky" #4 UK, #10 US
- from Five Live EP
- 1993 "Somebody to Love" #30 US
- from Older
- 1996 "Jesus to a Child" #1 UK, #7 US
- 1996 "Fast Love" #1 UK, #8 US
- 1996 "Spinning the Wheel" #2 UK
- 1997 "Older/I Can Make You Love Me" #3 UK
- 1997 "Star People '97" #2 UK
- non-album single
- 1997 "Waltz Away Dreaming" (Toby Bourke feat. George Michael) #10 UK
- from Older
- 1997 "You Have Been Loved/The Strangest Thing '97" #2 UK
- from Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael
- 1998 "Outside" #2 UK
- 1999 "As" (with Mary J. Blige) #4 UK
- from Greatest Hits (Whitney Houston album)
- 2000 "If I Told You That" (with Whitney Houston) #9 UK
- from Patience
- 2002 "Freeek!" #7 UK
- 2002 "Shoot the Dog" #12 UK
- 2004 "Amazing" #4 UK
- 2004 "Flawless (Go to the City)" #8 UK
- 2004 "Round Here" #32 UK
External links
- Official website (http://www.aegean.net/)
- "George Michael faces $10m lawsuit (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/446721.stm)" - BBC News article, dated Tuesday, September 14, 1999
- "George Michael video case dismissed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/646004.stm)" - BBC News article, by Peter Bowes, dated Thursday, February 17, 2000
- "Officer allowed to sue Michael (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2542097.stm)" - BBC News article, dated Wednesday, December 4, 2002
de:George Michael nl:George Michael sv:George Michael zh:乔治·迈克尔