Project Name page1

The boy who would become George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on June 25th 1963, youngest child of Jack and Lesley (pictured left).

Until her death in 1997, Lesley remained George's closest friend and the main influence upon his life. As her only son, she treated him with special affection and he returned it in full measure. It was his mother's love which inspired so many of his love songs. After her death, he would explain, "My mother's soul is in every song I have ever written."

In September 1975, the 12-year-old Georgios started to attend the Bushey Meads school. It was here that he met Andrew Ridgeley.
In 1979, they formed their own Ska band, the Executive. They recruited two school mates, Andrew Leaver and David Mortimer, and Andrew's younger brother Paul.
Despite working at it for two years, their demo tape was continuosly rejected by record companies and Georgios and Andrew soon realised their chosen path was as a duo.

In 1981 they formed what was to become the most commercially sucessful teen-orientated band of the 80's... Wham!
Georgios shortened his name to George and he liked Michael, his uncle's christian name, so became George Michael.
Within a year they had released their dedut single 'Wham! Rap', but it was their second single, 'Young Guns', which became the first in a string of Top 10 hits.
Their 3 albums, Fantastic, Make It Big and The Final all made it to the UK chart No.1 spot.
Discography

In the summer of 1984, George revealed a glimpse of what was to come by releasing the classic 'Careless Whisper'. His first solo single while still with Wham! became one of the signature tunes of the eighties and one of the most played radio songs of the decade.

In 1985 Wham! became the first western band to appear in communist China..

George then released his next solo single 'A Different Corner', another ballad and UK chart No.1.

A few months later, George and Andrew decided that Wham! should disband while at the peak of their career. This was followed by a final concert atWembley Stadium on June 28th 1986. It was an emotional farewell infront of a sell out crowd of 72,000.

In 1987, George became the first white male vocaist ever to duet with soul queen Aretha Franklin. Their single, 'I Knew You Were Waiting', went straight to the top of the charts worldwide.
This collaberation provided Aretha with her first US No.1 since the 60's (her first ever No.1 in the UK) and introduced George as a serious artist to the kind of audience, especially in America, who would have previously scorned his Wham! outpourings.

The same year, George started recording tracks for his debut album 'Faith'.

The Faith album was released, to instant adulation from the fans and mixed critical reviews, in November 1987, and showed immediate signs of becoming a landmark record.
Faith hit the US No.1 spot twice and spawned six massive US singles.
In Britain, the album went straight to No.1 and continued selling well for the next two years.
'Faith' recieved a Grammy award for the Best Album of 1988 and won George two Ivor Novello Awards for Songwriter of the Year and International Hit of the Year (Faith).
George also won American Music Awards for Favourite Male Vocalist (Pop/Rock), Favourite Male Artist (Soul/R&B) and Favourite Album (Soul/R&B).

The live 'Faith' tour followed in Feb 1988, opening in Japan and then onto Australia, Europe and North America.

George's second solo album 'Listen without Prejudice Vol 1' was released in September 1990.
As the album was being prepared for release, George began to differ with his record company over publicity for the album, infuriating them by refusing to take part in any of the promotional chores expected of an artist in selling a new album. Neither did George appear in any of the vidoes for the singles released from this album, saying that he didn't like the interpretational confines of videos, as they could so disservice to the metephors and sublety of his lyrics. "If my life goes the way I want it to, I would like never to step infront of a camera again" he said. "I'm sure everyone is terrified that all this is going to sabotage the album. But I honestly feel I am in a very privileged position because I have the luxury of knowing that simply because of the size of my last album, this album will be heard regardless of whether I make videos or not. I alos have enough faith in the songs to believe that if people hear the album, enough will like it."
The album was another British No.1.

In October the same year, George appeared in court against his record company Sony Music Entertainment, as he attempted to break free from the company he claimed no longer accepted his musical direction.
Nine months later, the judge found in favour of the record company. An appeal was issued, and was due to be heard in 1996.

George's first album for Virgin Records, 'Older', was released on May 13th 1996 and the worldwide sales were outstanding.
The album has already earned multi-platinum and/or gold status in 34 countries, including 5 x platinum in the UK.
'Older' features brand new tracks including international hits, 'Jesus To A Child', 'Fastlove' and 'Spinning The Wheel'.
The video for 'Fastlove' picked up the MTV Europe International Viewers Choice Award in September 1996. George was also voted 'Best British Male' at that awards ceremony as well as at the BRITs. At The Ivor Nevello Awards, he was awarded the prestigious title of 'Songwriter Of The Year' for the third time.

1997, George lost his mother to cancer in Febuary of this year.
As he nursed his mother through her last few weeks, George heard for the first time 'Waltz away Dreaming' a tender song written by Toby Bourke, the first artist signed to his new label, Aegean.
After his mother's death, george went into the studio with Bourke to record the song again, with george on backing vocals and Bourke singing an extra verse reflecting George's love for his mother.

At the end of the summer of 1997 George was preparing to release another single to be taken from the 'Older' album, 'You have Been loved'.
George Michael woke up on Sunday 31st August, 1997 to the news that Princess Diana had been killed in a motor accident in Paris. George had met Diana about a dozen times and could count himself among her friends.
Kensington Palace invited him to Diana's funeral, to be held at Westminster Abbey the following Saturday, and he accepted.
He later said of the Princes, "I pray that after time they will feel her presence in everything they do, and know their mother's love will never leave them. There are no words that can adequately describe the loss that Princess Diana's passing represents to the world. She was truly the greatest ambassador for compassion and humanity in modern times. We can only hope that her memory will inspire many of us to pursue those qualities in our own lives. I truly believe some souls are too special, to beautiful to be kept from heaven, however painful it is for the rest of us to let them go." He then dedicated his single 'You Have Been loved' to her.

In December Sony released a compilation album of Wham! chart-toppers. The album was reworked by George, who was anxious to ensure that the recordings were up to his standards. The album was called 'If You Were There - The Best Of Wham!', and included chart hits, 'I'm Your Man', 'Everything She wants','Club Tropicana', 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go', 'Freedom', 'The Edge Of Heaven', 'Wham! Rap', 'Where Did Your Heart Go' and 'Last Christmas'.
The album hit the No.1 spot in the UK album charts.

On Tuesday April 7th 1998 Georgios Panayiotou was charged by the Beverly Hils Police Dept. with 'lewd conduct' after an incident in the public restrooms of the Will Rogers Memorial Park.
On the Saturday George was interviewed by CNN reproter Jim Moray, saying, "I don't feel any shame, I feel stupid and I feel reckless and weak for having allowed my sexuality to be exposed in this way. But I don't feel any shame whatsoever and neither do I think I should. He described his experience as "humiliating, embarrassing and funny to a degree."
George also apologised to his fans and appealed to them to understand his state of mind. "I just want to tell my fans, who I feel to some degree I have, apart from embarrassing myself, I ave embarrassed them to some degree, and I just want to let them know I'm OK. I know a lot of them realise that I've had a very tough time over the last five or six years and I want to let them know this is not going to finish me off. This is really nothing compared to the beravements I've had to deal with, some of the other stuff, even compared to the legal situations I've had to deal with. This is kind of, I was going to say a walk in the park, but I don't think that would work too well."
When the case was heard on may 14th, George was fined $810 and sentenced to twenty-four months 'infomal probabtion'. He was also ordered to attend five one-hour sessions of sexual counselling and to perform eighty hours of community service in the Los Angeles area before November 1998.

November 1998 saw the release of 'Ladies & Gentlemen - The Best Of George Michael'.
The album soared to the top of the charts in the week of its release and remained at the No. 1 spot for eight weeks, selling over two million copies. The album also reached No.1 in the combined European Album Chart.
The album is made up of past George Micheal Hits, but also included two new singles, 'Outside', in which he pokes fun at his arrest including being dressed as a Los Angeles police officer in the video, which reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart and 'As', a duet with Mary J Blige, covering the Stevie Wonder hit.

'Songs from The Last Century' was released in Dec 1999. This album features songs written by some of the greatest composers of the last 100 years. It includes 'Roxanne' written by Sting, 'The First Time Ever I saw your Face' written by Ewan MacColl and the Frank Sinatra classic 'Where or When' written by Richard rodgers and Lorenz Hart.