George Michael

The English songwriter who spent a decade becoming the biggest pop star in the world and the next decade trying to stop being one. Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was born in East Finchley on June 25, 1963, the son of a Greek Cypriot restaurateur, and formed Wham! with his schoolfriend Andrew Ridgeley in 1981. Fantastic and Make It Big topped the UK chart, the 1985 China dates made them the first Western pop act to tour the country, and Careless Whisper — released while the duo was still running — reached No. 1 in more than twenty countries. His solo debut Faith followed in 1987, sold 25 million copies, held No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for twelve weeks, sent four singles to the top of the Hot 100, and won Album of the Year at the 1989 Grammy Awards.

Then he walked away from the part of it he hated. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 arrived in 1990 with no promotional appearances and no artist in the videos — Freedom! '90 handed the song to a cast of models instead — and he sued Sony over a contract he described in court as professional slavery. Older, Songs from the Last Century, and Patience followed at long intervals, the last of them in 2004. He placed thirteen No. 1 singles in Britain and ten in America, and the Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio between 1984 and 2004. He died at his home in Goring-on-Thames on December 25, 2016, aged 53, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.