Hello George Michael fans we listed interesting, rare, amazing facts about legend George Michael, hope you like our list
1- George Michael, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on 25 June 1963 in the UK. Yes, he belongs to Cancer, the air sign. His dad, Kyriacos Panayiotou, was a Greek Cypriot restaurateur and his mum, Lesley Angold Harrison, was an English dancer. His maternal grandmother was Jewish.
2- His former Wham! colleague Andrew Ridgeley also turned fifty this year (January 26).
3- : He appeared on the inaugural MTV Europe Music Awards show in 1994.
4: “I Want Your Sex” was the first single from his debut solo album Faith released in 1987. It topped the charts in Ireland and the Netherlands.
5: In 1985 Wham! was the first Western pop group to tour in China, with a final concert held at the Workers’ Gymnasium in Beijing. The tour was documented in the film Foreign Skies: Wham! In China.
6- George Michael & Elton John
The ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ duet with Elton John was recorded live at a 1991 concert at Wembley Arena in London.
7. He met Andrew Ridgeley at school when Ridgeley volunteered to tutor him. They formed a short-lived ska band called The Executive and in 1981 they launched Wham! and big blow-dried hair for guys became fashionable. You know who you are.
8. Their first album, Fantastic scored #1 in the UK. Wham! was the first Western popular music act to tour China ever and their experience is documented in the film Foreign Skies: Wham! In China. Wham!’s second album, Make It Big (1984), made the duo international superstars and the new gods of pop worshipped by millions of teenagers worldwide. Unfortunately, they eventually went bam and called it quits in 1986.
9. In 1984, Michael was part of the first ever Band Aid concert and sang on the charity song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” for famine relief in Ethiopia. He is well known for his charity work but has yet to appear on the 46664 bill, we’re waiting George…
10. George Michael kicked off his solo career in 1987 with the Aretha Franklin duet “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” . The song co-written with Simon Climie of Climie Fisher shot to number 1 in the UK and USA and bagged him a Grammy Award in 1988 for Best R&B Performance.
11. In that same year (1987) Michael released his first solo album, “Faith” which he wrote and produced. “I Want Your Sex” the first single was banned but reached #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It is featured on the ‘Beverly Hills Cop II’ soundtrack and stars celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung. Kathy Jeung went on to become Michael’s girl friend when he cared to dabble in heterosexuality. It’s true!
12: He has been in a longtime partnership with Kenny Goss, with whom he runs the Goss-Michael Foundation, a nonprofit arts organization in Texas.
13: He is a southpaw, better known as left-handed.
14: His wedding gift to Prince William and Kate Middleton was a cover of Stevie Wonder’s 1972 song “You and I”, which was released in April 2011.
15: He once said: “I don’t want to look at other people my age in leather. Why would I put it on?”
16: This is Wham!’s debut on the long-running British music show “Top of the Pops”:
17. Second single, “Faith,” shot to #1 in the USA, and #2 in the UK. The video of him in shades, leather jacket and Levis has become iconic and a definitive image of the 80s music scene and fashion. Hands up on who wore torn jeans from then on.
18. In 1991 while on the Rio leg of his “Cover to Cover Tour” he met and fell in love with audience member Anselmo Feleppa. “Jesus to a Child” (1994) is a tribute to his lover who died in March 1993 of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage.
19. Michael and Elton John perform “Don’t Let the Sun go down on me” for the first time at Michael’s concert in Wembley in 1991. The song was the only #1 scoring single of the modern era to be recorded at an outdoors venue. Proceeds were divided among charities for children, AIDS, and education.
20. “Fastlove” (1996) is written about Michael’s brief love affair with city banker Brett Charles whom he met in Kazakhstan and appears on Older (1996), the third studio album of his solo career.
21. Though Kenny Goss has been his partner since 1996, Michael openly admits that he cruises for anonymous sex. He was busted in 1998, by undercover cop Marcelo Rodríguez for soliciting sex in a men’s loo. Naughty Rodriguez sued Michael for US$10 million for defamation but lost the case. Michael hit back with the single “Outside”. The video features men dressed as policemen kissing. The incident forced Michael to reveal publicly that he was gay.
22: He was the third performer on the 1984 Band Aid single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
23: He accidentally fell out of a car travelling on the M1 motorway in England and was airlifted to hospital. He has since been discharged.
14: He released three studio albums while a member of Wham! and five as a solo artist.
25: He has reportedly admitted that he called Justin Timberlake and invited him to recreate the Madonna/Britney Spears kiss. Timberlake hasn’t called back.
26: He was seriously considered as a replacement for Queen front man Freddie Mercury.
27: 1995’s “Jesus to a Child” not only gave him his first solo single to enter the UK charts at the top, but also the first solo number one from a studio album.
28: During his career, he has won 21 music awards from a grand total of 49 nominations.
29: He was born in East Finchley, north London, which has the postal code N2.
30: He has been in seven car crashes and is currently banned from driving.
31: Undercover cop Marcelo Rodríguez busted him in 1998 for soliciting sex in a men’s toilet, which led to Michael publicly revealing he is gay and mocking the incident in the music video for “Outside”.
32. By this time Michael had released his second album “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” (1990) which he refused to promote igniting his feud with Sony. A third solo album “Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael” followed in 1998 and “Patience” in 2004. He expressed his criticism about the Iraqi War in an animated music video for the single “Shoot the Dog” off this album in which Tony Blair is depicted as the “dog” that follows his “owner” George W. Bush everywhere.
33. His autobiographical film, A Different Story (2005), features artists like Sting, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Noel Gallagher, Simon Cowell, Geri Halliwell, Boy George and Andrew Ridgeley as themselves. Also check out his autobiography titled “Bare” (1991) which he co-wrote with writer Tony Parsons.
34. 2006 passed in a haze with Michael arrested for possession of drugs in February, an incident that he described as “my own stupid fault, as usual.” In May he collided with three cars in the street in which he lives. In October of the same year drug induced year his driving license was suspended for two years after being found unconscious in his car and causing an obstruction in a junction. His last arrest was in September 2008, in a London public toilet for possession of drugs.
35. On July 23, 2006 George Michael was again accused of engaging in anonymous public sex, this time at London’s West Hampstead Heath Park. The anonymous partner was later discovered to be 58-year-old Norman Kirtland, an unemployed van driver. Sis, man.
36: He shares his birthday with “Life of Pi” author Yann Martel, who also turns fifty.
37: His 1987 duet with Aretha Franklin on “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” gave the American singer her first and only UK number-one hit.
38: Some US radio stations refused to play “I Want Your Sex” because of its sexually explicit content.
39: His birth name in Greek is ‘Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου’.
40: “Last Christmas” is the UK’s bestselling song never to get to number one, kept off the top by “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
41: None of the singles released from Faith (1987) topped the UK singles chart.
42: 25 Live was his first tour in 15 years, with a total of 106 shows performed in 41 countries and grossing almost US$200 million.
43: Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin paid him US$3 million for an hour-long New Year’s Eve concert in Moscow 2007.
44: His father Kyriacos Panayiotou is a Greek Cypriot, while his late mother Lesley Angold was English.
45: His decision to sing “White Light” at the 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony was inspired by the fact he almost died from pneumonia a year earlier and the message of overcoming adversity fit the Olympic theme.
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46. He received £1.5 million (US$3 million) to perform a 1-hour concert in Moscow for the 300 guests of Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin on the Eve of 2007. Easy money.
47. During 2007, he sent the £1.45 million piano that John Lennon used to write “Imagine” around the United States on a “peace tour,” having it on display at places where violence had taken place, such as Dallas’ Dealey Plaza where U.S. President John. F. Kennedy was shot.
48. George Michael made his American acting debut (March 2008) by playing a guardian angel to Jonny Lee Miller’s character on Eli Stone, a US TV series. He featured as himself and as “visions” and each episode of the show’s first season was named after a song of his.
49. He also appeared on the 2008 finale show of American Idol in May singing “Praying for Time”. When asked what he thought Simon would say of his performance, he replied “I think he’ll probably tell me I shouldn’t have done a George Michael song.
50. On December 25, 2008 he released a new track “December Song” on his website for free. The song is not available anymore but can be accessed on file sharing networks (if you’re determined and tech savvy).
51. On June 9, 2009, Michael joined Beyoncé Knowles on stage during “If I Were A Boy” at the last UK show of her world wide tour I Am… Tour.
52. George Michael confessed that he would like to recreate Madonna’s infamous smooch with Britney Spears by swapping saliva with Justine Timberlake. He reportedly said “I’ve already called Justin but unfortunately he hasn’t called back”. There you go JT, if ever you’re in the mood.
53. He has no known children but we believe that Justin Timberlake’s his most direct pop ancestor. George is to Justin what Michael Jackson was to Usher (Who’s your father figure?).
54. He has sold over 100 million records worldwide, his debut solo album, Faith(1987) remins the poick of the pack boasting over 20 million copies sold worldwide. Plus four of his five solo studio albums have scored #1 on the UK charts.
55-‘I Want Your Sex’
‘I Want Your Sex’ was the first single from his debut solo album ‘Faith’ released in 1987. It went to number one in Ireland and the Netherlands.
Read more at https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/george-michael/11-interesting-facts-about-george-michael/george-michael-facts-three/#mPdF2ocXCU63oi2Z.99
56-George Michael & Aretha Franklin
His 1987 duet with Aretha Franklin on ‘I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)’ gave Franklin her first and only UK number one hit.
57-George Michael & MTV Europe Music Awards
He appeared on the inaugural MTV Europe Music Awards show in 1994
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Was Kathy Jeung really George Michael’s girlfriend or just a publicity stunt to cover his sexuality
Cancer the “Air Sign?”HARDLY!
This is an old story but it still infuriates me when people claim his maternal grandmother (Daisy by the way) was Jewish. She definitely was not. She can be traced back to 1700s to George Angold – family research and documents prove this.