On 16 May 2013, Michael sustained a head injury when he fell from his moving car on the M1 motorway, near St Albans in Hertfordshire, and was airlifted to hospital. [212] [213] [214] On 29 May, Michael's publicist confirmed that he had left the hospital and that his injuries were superficial. [215] Because Michael was in the closet, he led a tortured life. I can’t imagine what it was like living a lie for so long, especially to his very traditional Greek father. He was a genius, but a tortured one. Isn’t that always the case? As he craved and then received fame and adulation, his perfectionism and fright at his sexuality being found out put a huge strain on Michael. But the other side of Michael’s coming out was something more tragic: In the early ‘90s, he was in a relationship with Anselmo Feleppa, a Brazilian fashion designer he met while in Rio for a concert. Feleppa was Michael’s first live-in partner, the first serious relationship of his life. Six months after getting together, Feleppa discovered that he was HIV-positive. Pandemic Playlist: George Michael's songs on sexuality will keep you pumped through Pride Month 2020 By 1998, Michael had already lost a long legal battle with Sony in which he sought release from a contract he called “professional slavery.” Later, his then-manager Rob Kahane told Billboard that “the trigger that set George off” was Columbia’s Don Ienner allegedly using a slur to refer to Michael, calling him “that f—-t” client of yours,” in an argument with Kahane.

Ridgeley, Andrew (8 October 2019). Wham!, George Michael and Me: A Memoir. Penguin. pp.120, 136, 141. ISBN 978-1-5247-4531-8. When Michael's fifth studio album, Patience, was released in 2004, it was critically acclaimed and went to No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart. [13] The album became one of the fastest-selling albums in the UK, selling over 200,000 copies in the first week alone. [109] It reached the Top 5 on most European charts and peaked at No. 12 in the US, selling over 500,000 copies to earn a Gold certification from the RIAA. [14] " Amazing", the third single from the album, became a No. 1 hit in Europe. [110] When Michael appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on 26 May 2004, to promote the album, he performed "Amazing", along with his classic songs " Father Figure" and " Faith". [111] On the show, Michael spoke of his arrest, the public revelation of his homosexuality, and his resumption of public performances. He allowed Oprah's crew inside his home outside London. [112] The fourth single taken off the album was " Flawless". It was a dance hit in Europe as well as North America, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play and becoming Michael's last No. 1 single on the US Dance chart. [13] Twenty Five is Michael's second greatest hits album, celebrating the 25th anniversary of his music career. [113] Released in November 2006 by Sony BMG, it debuted at no. 1 in the UK. [114] Michael onstage in Munich, 2006 Michael's father was a communist. At the age of fifteen, Michael joined the Young Communist League, under his Greek name. [218] During the time of Margaret Thatcher as the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom throughout the 1980s, Michael voted Labour. [217] In September 1984, Wham! performed at a benefit concert at London's Royal Festival Hall for the striking UK miners. [219] The author talks about his mysterious death and it seems to be believed that he committed suicide on his late mother's birthday. His shady ass boyfriend later declared that George had been HIV+ and also admitted that he took PHOTOS of George's dead body before calling 999, over an hour after he found him. WTF. With the success of Michael's solo singles, " Careless Whisper" (1984) and " A Different Corner" (1986), rumours of an impending break up of Wham! intensified. The duo officially separated in 1986, after releasing a farewell single, " The Edge of Heaven" and a farewell compilation, The Final (their third album Music from the Edge of Heaven was released in North America and Japan), plus a sell-out concert at Wembley Stadium that included the world premiere of the China film. [46] The Wham! partnership ended officially with the commercially successful single "The Edge of Heaven", which reached No. 1 on the UK chart in June 1986. [47] Solo career 1987–1989Gavin's book also details these struggles, tracing the star's transformation from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the superstar he became. It also delves into Michael's self-destructive nature. A tough and heartbreaking read that does true justice to its incredible subject and also to the larger problem of homophobia in America, then and now — this is a beautiful and heartfelt work by James Gavin.

Overall I would say this is definitely interesting for fans of Michael, however the reader should take much of Gavin's writing with a pinch of salt. I would not recommend this to someone new to Michael, as it's both a slog and gives a very one-sided impression of a very complex character. Michael's homosexuality became publicly known following his April 1998 arrest for public lewdness. [178] In 2007, Michael said "that hiding his sexuality made him feel 'fraudulent', and his eventual outing, when he was arrested [...] in 1998, was a subconsciously deliberate act." [179] In 2012, Michael entered a relationship with Fadi Fawaz, a Lebanese-Australian celebrity hairstylist and freelance photographer based in London. [180] [181] It was Fawaz who found Michael's body on Christmas morning 2016. [182] [183] Legal troubles Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was released in September 1990. The title is an indication of his desire to be taken more seriously as a songwriter. [69] The album was released in Europe on 3 September 1990, and one week later in the US. It reached No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart [13] and peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200. [14] It spent a total of 88 weeks on the UK Albums Chart and was certified four-times Platinum by the BPI. [70] The album produced five UK singles, all of which were released within an eight-month period: " Praying for Time", " Waiting for That Day", " Freedom! '90", " Heal the Pain", and " Cowboys and Angels" (the latter being his only single not to chart in the UK top 40). [13] Michael refused to do any promotion for the album. [68] At the 1991 Brit Awards, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 won the award for Best British Album. [71] I never had a moral problem with being gay", Michael told her. "I thought I had fallen in love with a woman a couple of times. Then I fell in love with a man, and realised that none of those things had been love." [163]Wham! performed their hits with scantily clad dancers and strobing disco lights. According to Napier-Bell, Michael tried to get the crowd to clap along to "Club Tropicana", but "they hadn't a clue – they thought he wanted applause and politely gave it", before adding that some Chinese did eventually "get the hang of clapping on the beat." [44] A UK embassy official in China stated "there was some lively dancing but this was almost entirely confined to younger western members of the audience." [44] The tour was documented by film director Lindsay Anderson and producer Martin Lewis in their film Wham! in China: Foreign Skies. [45]