Name	George Michael
Height
Naionality	London
Date of Birth	25-06-1963
Place of Birth	Edgware, North London
Famous for	"Careless Whisper" and "Faith"

He attended the Bushey Meads School where he became best friends with Andrew Ridgeley. They formed their first band whilst still at school, the short-lived The Executive. Following that they created Wham! in 1981.

The duo’s pretty-boy looks and catchy lyrics meant they were an instant success with their first singles ‘Wham Rap (Enjoy What You Do)’ and ‘Young Guns (Go For It!)’ (1982). Wham’s debut album, ‘Fantastic’ (1983), had the hit single ‘Club Tropicana’ (1983) with the memorable video, shot in Ibiza. Rapidly following was the album ‘Make it Big’ (1984) with hit singles ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’, ‘Careless Whisper’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Everything She Wants’. Wham! toured China in April 1985 and received much media coverage around the world. Their fame was starting to spread.

The album ’Music from the Edge of Heaven’ (1986), with hit singles ‘I’m Your Man’ and ‘Last Christmas’, made Wham! the most successful pop act of the 1980s. In 1986, after nearly five years of dominating the charts, touring the world and being poster pinup heartthrobs, Wham! decided to part ways. In 1986, they released their farewell single ‘The Edge of Heaven’ and played to a capacity crowd for their final concert at Wembley Stadium, London. Andrew then settled in Cornwall and George began to pursue a solo career.

A year later, George released his debut solo album ‘Faith’ (1987) to a resoundingly enthusiastic response. It sold over 7 million copies and was number one in both the US and the UK. Memorable singles from the album were ‘Faith’, ‘Father Figure’, ‘Kissing A Fool’ and ‘I Want Your Sex’. Three years later, the release of the album ‘Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1’ (1990) was the start of George’s dispute with record label Sony. He claimed that the album’s poor sales were due to Sony’s poor marketing. In 1993, George entered into a court case with Sony over his record contract, which cost him millions and which he eventually lost. DreamWorks bought George out of his Sony contract and released the more sombre album ‘Older’ in 1996. The next two albums were the greatest hits compilation ‘Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael’ (1998) and ‘Songs from the Last Century’ (1999) which received a lukewarm response from critics.

After all the years of privacy regarding his sexual orientation and rumoured relationships with various women, George was finally out of closet. On 7 April 1998, he exposed himself to an undercover policeman in a Beverly Hills park toilet, was arrested for lewd behaviour, fined $180 and given 80 hours of community service. In a rebellious retort, George released a video to his single ‘Outside’ which featured policemen kissing. It became known that George’s lover of two years, Brazilian Anselmo Feleppa, had died in 1993 of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage and the song ‘Jesus to a Child’ from the ‘Older’ (1996) album was a tribute to him. George was also finally able to publicly acknowledge his relationship with Kenny Goss from Dallas, Texas, a former cheerleader coach and later an Adidas sports clothing executive. In 2005, the couple opened the Goss Gallery for contemporary art in Dallas. They own homes in Hollywood and Dallas and have an £8 million mansion in Highgate, North London.