Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou George Michael was an English singer, songwriter and record producer, who had a string of hits in the 1980s as part of the duo, Wham!
In the 1990s, he embarked a successful solo career with 4 UK #1s and 16 UK Top 20 hits. The first of these was the duet recorded live in London with Elton John for "Don't let the sun go down on me" (1991), which was also a US #1. The second was another live collaboration at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert on April 20, 1992 with Queen and Lisa Stansfield on the "Five Live EP" (1993). The other two were the first two singles from the album Older, "Jesus to a child" and "Fast Love", which sampled and borrowed the words from Patrice Rushen's 1982 hit "Forget me nots".
In the states, "Praying for time" was a US #1 in 1990. George had a success on the dance charts as well with "Too Funky" reaching #1 on the Canada Dance chart and "Star People 97" #1 on the US Dance chart.
In 1998, he was arrested for public lewdness in a toilet in LA, which at the time that I did not believe and commented to friend, would the real George Michael please come out... A day later, George did come out... as gay! Anyhow, he beautifully parodied the whole situation in song and video on the UK#2 hit, "Outside".
Date UK Song Aug 1990 6 Praying For Time Oct 1990 23 Waiting For That Day Dec 1990 28 Freedom Feb 1991 31 Heal The Pain Dec 1991 1 Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me with Elton John Jun 1992 4 Too Funky May 1993 1 Five Live EP & Queen with Lisa Stansfield Jan 1996 1 Jesus To A Child May 1996 1 Fast Love Aug 1996 2 Spinning The Wheel Feb 1997 3 Older / I Can Make You Love Me May 1997 2 Star People '97 Jun 1997 10 Waltz Away Dreaming (Toby Bourke with George Michael) Sep 1997 2 You Have Been Loved / The Strangest Thing '97 Oct 1998 2 Outside Mar 1999 4 As (with Mary J Blige)
What happened next?
He continued his success into the millienium although "Amazing"ly not quite as successful with #4 being his highest chart position in the UK.
Tragically George Michael passed away on Christmas day, 2016 due to heart/liver problems. He had sold at the time 115 million records (including his work with Wham!) He currently has a total of 7 UK #1s, 36 UK Top 40 hits and 8 US #1s under his name. Not too bad, don't you think?
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