George Michael, who was born as Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou June 25, 1963 is a British pop singer/songwriter, who began his career by forming the popduo Wham together with his best friend Andrew Ridgely in the early 1980s. The succes 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 and was rapidly followed by titels such as Club Tropicana, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Last Christmas, Everything She Wants and many more.
Some of his biggest hitsingels as a solo artist include the singel Faith, (taken from his debutalbum Faith that not only became No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic but also resulted in stunning 6 No.1 singels in America) and many more.. Careless Whisper (written while aged 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) , Father Figure, One More Try, Freedom90, 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, and in a career spanning nearly 20 years George Michael has been responsible for more than 75 million album sales so far but thats not all since the brand new and long awaited album named "Patience" is to be released in early 2004 according to the official George Michael Website!
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He was involved in a court case concerning his record contract after his record company CBS was taken over by Sony.
He 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]
After pleading "no contest" to the charge, Michael was fined $810 and was given 80 hours community service. After that incident, he became openly homosexual. 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 against the singer. It was originally dismissed by a court in California on the grounds that public officials such as police officers were not entitled to sue, but this decision was overruled by an appeals court on December 3, 2002.
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Albums
As part of Wham!
As a solo artist
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