b. Georgios (Yorgos) Kyriacos Panayiotou, 25 June 1963, Finchley, London, England.
MICHAEL first served his pop apprenticeship in the million-selling duo WHAM!, the most commercially successful, teen-orientated group of the 80s.
His solo career was foreshadowed in 1984's 'Careless Whisper', a song about a promiscuous two-timer with the oddly attractive line: 'Guilty feet have got no rhythm'. By the time WHAM! split in 1986, MICHAEL was left with the unenviable task of reinventing himself as a solo artist. The balladeering 'Careless Whisper' had indicated a possible direction, but the initial problem was one of image. As a pin-up pop idol, MICHAEL had allowed himself to become a paste-board figure, best remembered for glorifying a hedonistic lifestyle and shoving shuttlecocks down his shorts in concert. The rapid transition from dole queue reject to Club Tropicana playboy had left a nasty taste in the mouths of many music critics. Breaking the WHAM! icon was the great challenge of MICHAEL's solo career, and his finest and most decisive move was to take a sabbatical before recording an album, to allow time to put his old image to rest. In the meantime, he cut the chart-topping 'A Different Corner', a song stylistically similar to 'Careless Whisper' and clearly designed to show off his talent as a serious singer-songwriter. Enlivening his alternate image as a blue-eyed soul singer, he teamed up with Aretha FRANKLIN for the uplifting 'I Knew You Were Waiting', a transatlantic chart topper.
Michael's re-emergence came in 1988, resplendent in leather and shades and his customary designer stubble. A pilot single, 'I Want Your Sex' was banned by daytime radio stations and broke his string of number 1s in the UK. "FAITH" followed, and was not only well-received but sold in excess of 10 million copies. The album spawned a plethora of hit singles in the USA, including the title track, 'Father Figure',
