2016 has been a cursed year for Hollywood and Music industry celebrities.If mother nature had ever hired a hitman to get rid of some of the most loved celebrities of all time, then the year 2016 would have been her agent.
David Bowie,Prince and probably the biggest shock of the year, George Michael..a young George Michael who was only 53 years old,passed away on Christmas day peacefully in his sleep.
Of all the people that passed away in 2016, George probably had the biggest fan base, was more charismatic and the only artist who captured the heart of the communist Chinese, back in the 80s.
Many pundits argue that George Michael’s death due to heart failure is caused by prolonged drug addiction but after looking at his pics taken hours before his death, some medics ponder if excessive drinking along with over weight contributed to George Michael’s sudden heart failure.
But confirmed medical statistics state that Cardiac arrest is the main reason of death for 70% of chronic heroin users.Fadi Fawaz a long time partner of Michael was the one who found him lying motionless in his bed at his cosy Oxfordshire home.
One can safely assume, that it was money that killed Michael,who gets millions of pounds per month just in royalty payments alone, forcing him to live a life of hedonism as he had no children, hence no commitments whatsoever.
Unlike Prince, Yog ( Yours Only George) never imposed any restrictions on his music videos in any online platforms including YouTube and has raised, donated millions of pounds to charity through his concerts (ex: 1984 Band Aid concert) and personal bank accounts.
Michael passed away on December 25th 2016,which would be his last Christmas,a bitter irony to his most popular holiday single “Last Christmas”.
Born on 25th of June 1963, to a Greek father and a British mother with Jewish roots, Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou aka George Michael was influnced by the socialism right from his school days and was an ardent supporter of the British Labour party and workers rights.
Infact, WHAM’s first album Fantastic (July 1983), which sold a million copies in the U.K..had more songs dedicated to the sufferings of the common man than the hedonistic numbers like “Club Tropicana”.
Michael who had many one-night stands with his female fans during the WHAM days, was never born gay nor had any hormonal disorder.To become gay was his choice,it’s just that he felt that he’s been using different women for sex every other night and letting them go in the morning without any sort of commitment whatsoever.
Only in an 1998 interview to CNN did George Michael come out as gay in-spite of practicing it since he was 19 years old.
In a 2007 interview, Michael finally revealed the reason why he had kept his sexuality a secret for more than 2 decades “My mother was still alive and every single day would have been a nightmare for her thinking what I might have been subjected to. I’d been out to a lot of people since 19. I wish to God it had happened then. I don’t think I would have the same career – my ego might not have been satisfied in some areas – but I think I would have been a happier man.”
Yog cared a lot about the people he loved, unable to bear their separations, Michael took to drugs to stay away from depression.It all started with Anselmo Feleppa, whose death in 1993 almost cost Michael his own life..when he collapsed and fainted because of high BP, after hearing of his demise.
In the winter of 1990, he met the Brazilian designer Anselmo Feleppa at a five-start Rio de Jenario hotel lobby. Yog who was 27 back then, had his heart finally sync with someone, it longed for..all these days.Feleppa was everything that Michael was looking for in a partner, someone who empathizes, a patient listener and the only person who talks to you hours on the phone, when you ring them up at 2:00 am.
When Feleppa died in the summer of 1993, it took more than 3 years for Michael to get over his death and he released “Jesus to a Child” in 1996 as a tribute to his only true love Anselmo Feleppa.
Michael went through a major transformation between 1993 to 1997, when he started using heroin on a day-to-day basis to get over Feleppa.But the worst was yet to come ..just as “Jesus to a Child” was climbing up the charts, Michael’s mom Lesley Angold Panayiotou lost her 4 year battle with cancer.
His mom’s death had left a huge impact on Michael’s personal and professional life.Unfortunately..he never ever recovered from his mother’s demise…as he was taken to ER..ever other day in London and other European hospitals because of Drug overdose.
The George Michael the world knows died in 1997 along with his mother, as his character deteriorated rapidly making him do things he would never ever done,..including the 1998 L.A toilet incident where he was arrested by an undercover cop, for committing a ‘lewd act’ in a public toilet.
Yog, who has had active sexual relationship with more than 500 people in a period of 7 years from 1986 to 1993, was hardly able to find a single true love in spite of his fame and popularity.Apart from Feleppa, Fadi Fawaz is one of the three men with whom Yog’s heart found peace with, Fawaz was Yog’s partner since 2011 till his death.
This 80s superstar had sold more than 100 million records, had more no.1 hits in the U.K than any other artist who had entered The Kingdom recently.With features of a Greek god true to his paternal origins, George OWNED the stage back in the 80s, as a leading member of the British group WHAM!
Formed in 1981 along with his childhood bestie Andrew Ridgeley, George was the face of WHAM!, the moment “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” took the U.K charts by storm, galloping to the no.1 spot in less than 7 days of it’s release.
It would also be Yog’s ( Yours Only George) first no.1 in U.S Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, as it would sell more than a million copies in the U.S, twice the amount it sold in his native U.K.
WHAM! never looked back since then and George Michael’s popularity was way above that of Andrew Ridgeley’s, as evident from the wild reception that Yog got..especially among the teen girls not only from the western world but in the remotest parts of interior China.
WHAM! had 3 more U.K no.1 hits including Freedom (1984), Im Your Man (1985) and Edge Of Heaven (1986). Michael was never satisfied with WHAM! and soon figured out Ridgeley would hardly be recognised without him.
True to his thoughts, Andrew Ridgeley became an invisible man ever since George Michael quit WHAM! in 1986.As George Michael’s debut solo album Faith released October 1987, sold more than 15 million copies across the globe eventually winning the coveted Grammy Awards Album of the Year in 1989.
George Michael was a beautiful person with a beautiful voice, a rare combination of genius that will never be born again. May his soul Rest In Peace.