George Michael

[lego 44,165]

One of the best pop singers of all time. 

 

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (born 25 June 1963), better known by his stage name George Michael, is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Michael rose to superstardom during the 1980s and 1990s with his style of post-disco dance-pop. He has also been characterised as a blue-eyed soul singer, although his material draws more from middle-of-the-road pop than soul music.

As one of the world's best-selling music artists, Michael has sold more than 100 million records worldwide as of 2010. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, has on its own sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Michael has garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked Michael the 40th most successful artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists list.

Michael has won numerous music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.

In 2004, the Radio Academy named Michael as the most played artist on British radio between the period of 1984–2004. The documentary A Different Story was released in 2005; it covered his personal life and professional career. In 2006, George Michael announced his first tour in 15 years, the worldwide 25 Live tour, spanning three individual tours over the course of three years (2006, 2007 and 2008).

The beginning of his solo career, during early 1987, was a duet with Aretha Franklin. "I Knew You Were Waiting" was a one-off project that helped Michael achieve an ambition by singing with one of his favourite artists, and it scored number one on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 upon its release.

For Michael, it became his third consecutive solo number one in the UK from three releases, after 1984's "Careless Whisper" (though the single was actually from the Wham! album Make It Big) and 1986's "A Different Corner". The single was also the first Michael had recorded as a solo artist which he had not written himself. 

 

During the autumn of 1987, Michael released his first solo album, Faith. In addition to playing a large number of instruments on the album, he wrote and produced every track on the recording, except for one, which he co-wrote.

The first single released from the album was "I Want Your Sex", during the summer of 1987. The song was banned by many radio stations in the UK and US, due to its s-xually suggestive lyrics. MTV would broadcast the video, featuring celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung in a basque and suspenders, only during the late night hours. Michael argued that the act was beautiful if the s-x was monogamous. Michael even recorded a brief prologue for the video in which he said: "This song is not about casual s-x." One of the racier scenes involved Michael writing the words "explore monogamy" on his partner's back in lipstick. Some radio stations played a toned-down version of the song, "I Want Your Love," which was mainly the word "love" replacing "s-x."

When "I Want Your Sex" reached the US charts, American Top 40 host Casey Kasem refused to say the song's title, referring to it only as "the new single by George Michael." In the US, the song was also sometimes listed as "I Want Your Sex (from Beverly Hills Cop II)", since the song was featured on the soundtrack of the movie. Despite censorship and radio play problems, "I Want Your Sex" reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 in the UK.

The second single, "Faith", was released during October 1987, just a few weeks before the album. "Faith" would become one of his most popular songs. The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and maintained that position for four consecutive weeks. It also reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. The famous video provided some definitive images of the 1980s music industry in the process—Michael in shades, leather jacket, cowboy boots, and Levi's jeans, playing a guitar near a classic-design jukebox.

To date, global sales of Faith are more than 25 million units. The album was highly acclaimed by music critics, with AllMusic journalist Steve Huey describing "Faith" as a "superbly crafted mainstream pop/rock masterpiece" and "one of the finest pop albums of the '80s". In a review by Rolling Stone magazine, journalist Mark Coleman commended most of the songs on the album, which he said "displays Michael's intuitive understanding of pop music and his increasingly intelligent use of his power to communicate to an ever-growing audience."

 

In February 1989, Faith won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 31st Grammy Awards. At the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards on 6 September in Los Angeles, Michael received the Video Vanguard Award.

☆According to Michael in his film, A Different Story, success did not make him happy and he started to think there was something wrong in being an idol for millions of teenage girls. The whole Faith process (promotion, videos, tour, awards) left him exhausted, lonely and frustrated, and far from his friends and family. In 1990, he told his record company Sony that, for his second album, he did not want to do promotions like the one for Faith.☆

Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was released in September 1990. For this album, Michael tried to create a new reputation as a serious-minded artist; the title is an indication of his desire to be taken more seriously as a songwriter. Michael refused to make any kind of promotion for this album, including no music videos for the singles released. The first single, "Praying for Time", with lyrics concerning social ills and injustice, was released in August 1990 to critical acclaim. James Hunter of Rolling Stone magazine described the song as "a distraught look at the world's astounding woundedness. Michael offers the healing passage of time as the only balm for physical and emotional hunger, poverty, hypocrisy and hatred." The song was an instant success, reaching No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 6 in the UK despite the absence of a video.  A video was released shortly thereafter, consisting of the lyrics on a dark background. Michael did not appear in this video or any subsequent videos for the album.

"Freedom '90" was the second of only two of its singles to be supported by a music video (the other being the Michael-less "Praying for Time"). The song alludes to his struggles with his artistic identity, and prophesied his efforts shortly thereafter to end his recording contract with Sony Music. As if to prove the song's sentiment, Michael refused to appear in the video (directed by David Fincher), and instead recruited supermodels Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, and Cindy Crawford to appear in and lip sync in his stead. It also featured the reduction of his s-x symbol status.

 

 

[LORD GAGA 1,271]

i came in here expecting something very very different

 

[RAMROD 96,173]

 

 

 

[Prismatic 4,789]

PLEASE BE MY DADDY. 

[lego 44,165]

@RAMROD what was that? he's so cute omg

 

 

 

 

 

[lego 44,165]

 

 

 

 

 

[Creyk 16,836]

i thought this was going to be the daddy dj song lol 

[iloveit123 130]

Loved him in the 80's of course, but also loved the Patience album from later in his career..... I wanna post a pic of the cover but don't see the option for that any more? lol

 

 

[lego 44,165]

Loved him in the 80's of course, but also loved the Patience album from later in his career..... I wanna post a pic of the cover but don't see the option for that any more? lol

 

 

Finally someone!

You can post link of image and press enter. Try few times if it doesn't work.

[lego 44,165]

 

 

His dancing.  

[lego 44,165]

More live versions of one of the best song he ever created. 

 

 

 

 

 

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His voice is still so good.

[Miker 5,683]

George Michael is one of those artists that knew how to captivate his audience...good or bad.

 

[lego 44,165]

George Michael is one of those artists that knew how to captivate his audience...good or bad.

 

Can you imagine he wrote this song when he was only 17? He said something like, the song means so much to so many people, but he doesn't really connect to it, because he knew nothing about love at the time.

[lego 44,165]

He's Adele's hero. Collab pls.

Princess Di loved him. :'(

[RAMROD 96,173]

@RAMROD what was that? he's so cute omg

 

Why I just saw this reply?  

That was an UK comedy show, Little Britain. Had many sketches told in it.

That was Red Nose Day special episodes, also featuring Elton John, Robbie Williams and more on another sketches. 

Thought that was hilarious