Syed Mahmood Anwar

GEORGE MICHAEL

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One of the major international pop stars of the '80s, George Michael (b. Yorgos Kyriatou Panayiotou, June 25, 1963, Finchley, North London) ascended the pop ladder with the significant help of rock video, which--as its influence quickly spread throughout the world--consistently glued his pretty, deliberately stubble-faced mug to nearly every television screen in the Free World. Helping considerably, of course, was the singer's noticeable growth as both singer and songwriter since his earliest days in the pop duo Wham!--which began as a nondescript pop/dance group and quickly metamorphosed into a huge international hit machine.

Michael's entry into the music business came in the late '70s, when he and friend Andrew Ridgely, under the spell of such dance artists as Chic and Sylvester, began writing songs together. Soon fascinated by the music of the U.K.'s ska revival, the pair formed their own ska group, the Executives; by 1982, the duo had signed a deal with the CBS-distributed Innervision label as Wham!, and released their first single, "Young Guns (Go For It)," which swiftly became a club hit. A string of similarly successful singles, including "Wham Rap (Enjoy What You Do)," "Bad Boys," and "Club Tropicana," all shot to the U.K. top 10, and before long Wham! were teen-idol contemporaries of New Romantic sensations Duran Duran.

Enough of a buzz was felt in American clubs to send the duo's 1983 debut album Fantastic into the top 100, despite the comparative mainstream failure of their earlier singles. All that changed, however, with 1984's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," Wham!'s international hit, which climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for three weeks. An immediate MTV smash, the track merely opened the floodgates for hits to come. Next up was "Careless Whisper"--credited solely to singer Michael in the U.K., but to "Wham! featuring George Michael" in the States. In both countries, the lush, romantic track established Michael as a swoonworthy crooner of the first degree; like its predecessor, it held the No. 1 slot for another three weeks. Two more top 5 hits ("Freedom" and "I'm You Man") helped propel Make It Big to the top of the album charts and send it into quintuple-platinum territory.

Wham! became superstars of the highest order: Singer Michael duetted with Elton John at Live Aid, the pair became the first Western pop group to perform in China, and the antics of Andrew Ridgely, who drove racing cars for sport and often crashed them, made newspapers worldwide. Many wondered why Ridgely remained around: Since Michael wrote and sang virtually all the pair's hits (except the rhythm-heavy "Wham Rap" single), his pretty partner seemed largely expendable. Indeed, after the release of three more top 10 singles--"I'm Your Man" and "The Edge Of Heaven," both credited to Wham!, and "A Different Corner," released only under Michael's name--the singer pulled the plug in 1986, and Wham! was no more. A final album hodgepodge of new and old singles, Music From The Edge Of Heaven, commemorated the duo's demise and made the top 10 that summer.

George Michael's 1987 return to the spotlight remains his most impressive achievement to date: Faith was a royal tour-de-force for the singer, loaded with, unbelievably, a total of six top 5 hits, four of which ("Faith," "Father Figure," "One More Try," and "Monkey") went to No. 1. Establishing him as an extremely credible writer and singer, the album was No. 1 for 12 weeks and won the 1988 Grammy for album of the year.

Michael's ascension into the highest ranks of superstardom then led him to make a bold artistic decision for which he should be commended: He made himself scarce. Specifically, after recording his 1990 follow-up Listen Without Prejudice, he opted to refuse all interview requests and--much more courageously--not appear in rock videos promoting the album. The result? Listen peaked at No. 2, and bore only two top 10 hits--"Praying For Time" and "Freedom." Compared to Faith, which had sold over 15 million copies worldwide, it was a major commercial disappointment and sold barely a third of that figure.

Though Michael would later score hits in 1993 with Elton John ("Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me") and Queen ("Killer/Papa Was A Rollin' Stone"), his own recording career suddenly ground to a halt. Claiming his contract with Sony Music was grossly unfair, the singer filed suit against his label in British High Court in 1993. Among his complaints was that the company's U.S. division was "not prepared" to support the singer's change of career direction, as evidenced by their handling of Listen Without Prejudice. According to Michael's attorney, the singer's decision to not appear in his own music videos was a major factor in the suit: "Following the success of [Faith], Michael felt that he needed a change of direction--he wanted to concentrate on his music and play down the image of being a sex symbol...He was entitled by his contract to make these decisions, but at the same time he realized he needed the cooperation of the record company, and was anxious that it should support him...However, he felt that his record company in the United States was not prepared to do this."

Eventually Michael won his release from Columbia and became the first major signee to Dreamworks Records. How unsettling for all parties, therefore, when Michael's album Older--a surprisingly mature, nearly meditative work in parts--proved to be one of the major sales disappointments of 1996. Insult was added to injury when, on April 7, 1998, Michael was arrested and charged with committing a "lewd act" in a Beverly Hills park men's room. As the saying goes: Wham! Bam! Thank you, ma'am.

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