George Michael

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, the man known to the world as George Michael served a highly successful apprenticeship in Wham!. The pop duo were one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, notching up a string of hits between 1982 and 1986.

After Wham! broke up, George Michael released five studio albums beginning with Faith in 1987. This massively successful album was #1 in both the UK and the USA, selling over twenty million copies world wide. The singer was no one-hit wonder; all his albums were Platinum sellers. Part of Michael’s success was his skill at producing engaging videos; he was a major player in the MTV scene.

Outside music, George Michael was a campaigner for LGBT rights and strongly politically motivated as well. Personally, he struggled with health issues and, for a period, with substance abuse. When he died at the distressingly young age of fifty-three, Elton John paid tribute. "What a singer, what a songwriter. But more than anything as a human being he was one of the kindest, sweetest, most generous people I've ever met."