George Michael

Singer and musician George Michael was born as Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on June 25, 1963 in London. He started his music career in popular duo Wham! aimed at youth audience. This group had an immense commercial success, but in 1984 George Michael left it to start a solo career. His first single A Different Corner, 1986, was recorded in the same manner as the Wham!'s music. The song topped the UK charts and revealed Michael's both outstanding vocal skills and significant song-writing talent. The same year, Michael was prized with prestigious Grammy award for the song I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me). The follow-up single I Want Your Sex was prohibited from daily radio broadcasting, and yet it earned Michael another first position in charts. Michael's first solo album Faith reached the tops of charts in many countries with over 10 million copies sold. All singles featured on the album (Father Figure, One More Try and Monkey) became hits in the USA and the UK.

The next LP Listen Without Prejudice, released in 1991, was Number 1 in the UK charts as several million of copies were sold. The first hit from this record was Praying For Time to win the first position in the American charts and a place in the first ten of the UK charts. The duet of Michael George and Elton John Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me topped the charts both of the UK and USA. In 1993, Michael participated in Freddie Mercury's Tribute Concert together with Queen on Wembley Stadium in London. George invited Queen for recording Five Live EP the same year. Within the following two years, Michael was mostly involved in the hearings against Sony Records initiated because of an extremely unsatisfactory contract. In 1996, he released a new album under the title Older, a record very remarkable for the unsurpassed performance and profound lyrics. In April 1998, Michael got involved into a scandal after being arrested in the public restroom in Beverly Hills for "lewd behavior", and confessing to his homosexuality. Yet it did not affect his popularity. In October 1998, he recorded single Outside, and then collection Ladies & Gentlemen which did not leave the first place of the UK charts for eight weeks and became a bestseller. At the end of 1999, George released a collection of covers titled Songs From The Last Century, which was highly acclaimed by the critics. In 2002, he was asked to write a hymn to the Olympic Games in Athens.

Patience, released in March 2004, was the first album recorded in five years. This album was a good seller and had a warm welcome among the audience. Michael again reminded of his controversial reputation with the video for Shoot the Dog, one of the album's singles, depicting Tony Blair as a faithful puddle to George Bush. In summer 2005, Michael participated in famous charitable concert Live 8, but due to the cold he did not give a full-length performance. He only backed Paul McCartney singing Drive My Car. It turned out to be just a first step in their cooperation. Later, in 2006, they decided to record another song, Heal the Pain. In the fall of 2006, Michael launched a large tour called 25 Live to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his music career. Double CD Twentyfive, featuring Michael's best and some new songs, including Heal the Pain with Paul McCartney, was released in 2008. Since then Michael has been actively touring all over the world.