Translation of George Michael's interview into Russian. George Michael: moments of life

In memory of George Michael, I decided to post my article about him from my own book (which is "GAYS: they changed the world"). In the end, there is not much biographical information about him on the Internet - let my article be available to anyone who wants to read about him. And goodbye, George. I will always love your songs.

George Michael: A Man Without Weaknesses
In one of the early songs of George Michael there is such a line If you "re gonna do it do it right (If you're going to do something, do it right). This principle can be safely called the musician's life credo. He rarely pleases fans with new albums , but they are always of the highest quality and certainly occupy the first lines in the national charts.His clips are invariably spectacular, perfectly directed and thought out to the smallest detail.And if he gets involved in a scandal, it must certainly be the loudest and grandest scandal, with the police, handcuffs, a court verdict - and a hit single at the exit.Definitely, George Michael cannot be called a man of half measures: everything he does, he does it right.

“My father came here for easy money. I guess the beginning of the game for mom was quite unfortunate. They started dating and she took his name. Here," is how the musician sings in the autobiographical song Round Here, dedicated to his childhood and the place in which he grew up - East Finchley in North London. Indeed, at the beginning of their life together, George's parents, Kyriakos Panayot and his wife, Leslie Angold Harrison, it was not easy.Kyriakos, a native Cypriot, arrived in England in the 50s with empty pockets in the hope of getting rich quick.After getting a job in a restaurant, he after some time opened his own eatery, which served the most common fast food in England living in an apartment building above the laundry, the family grew rapidly.First, two girls, Yoda and Melanie, were born, and the last, on June 25, 1963, a boy, Georgios Kyriakos.However, even his own mother could hardly pronounce the name Georgios correctly , not to mention the teachers and classmates, so he quickly turned into George.

The parents worked very hard and saved every penny to provide a decent future for the children, and when George was about a year old, the family moved into their own house in the same area. At the age of nine, the violin appeared in George's life. It is curious that up to this point the boy had shown absolutely no interest in music, but he was very interested in insects and could boast of pronounced mathematical abilities. Everything changed after he once fell down the stairs at school during a break and hit his head on the battery. Mathematical abilities disappeared without a trace, but the musical ones began to progress rapidly, and very soon music became George's main hobby. Contributed to this and the songs that he listened to. George recalls that the first two records that were given to him as a child for some holiday were compositions by Tom Jones and The Supremes - the boy listened to them to the holes. “And after all, in the end, I ended up somewhere between Tom Jones and The Supremes in terms of style,” he concluded already at the peak of his career.

Another fateful event happened to him at the age of twelve, when the family moved again, to the London suburb of Radlett, and at the new school, George was placed at the same desk with Andrew Ridgeley. The boys quickly became friends, and the active, groovy Andrew began to have a great influence on the quiet and inconspicuous bespectacled George. “Before we met Andrew, I never thought about my appearance, about manners and monstrous isolation,” recalls George Michael. “I was immediately struck by how cool he always looked, and this was the impetus for my reincarnation.” George himself doubts that he would have achieved worldwide success if not for Andrew. Having no special musical talents, he was very ambitious, punchy and always told a friend that they would certainly become famous.

And so it happened. At first, George and Andrew and a few other guys created the group The Executive, but it broke up very quickly, failing to interest any record company with their work. Then the friends decided that they did not need other musicians for their musical career - two of them would be enough. This is how the duo Wham! - in 1981, when the guys were eighteen years old. In 1982, their debut single Wham! Rap (Enjoy What You Do), dedicated to the problem of youth unemployment, and in 83, the first Fantastic! George later recalled how, after appearing on television, in the popular music show Top of the Pops, where Wham! hit by accident - instead of someone who canceled his speech, he walked up and down London's Oxford Street in the hope that someone from passers-by would recognize him.

After Top of the Pops, they really began to recognize them and Andrew, moreover, they turned into real idols of youth. Very young, cheerful and pretty, they literally attracted fans with their energy and released groovy, dynamic hits one after another. If their first album was an unconditional success in England, then the second (Make it Big) has already thundered all over the world, being in first place in the US chart. The duo went on a world tour, reaching China in 1985 - they were the first Western pop artists to find themselves in this country. Most of all, they remember in China the unusual silence during concerts, as well as the attempt of the host to pay them off with bicycles.

Roles in Wham! distributed perfectly. George completely took over the musical side - he wrote music and lyrics, played, sang. As he later said: “For a twenty-year-old guy, I did a lot: I was a producer, arranger; I knew how to make these records so they could play on the radio. But because I wore ridiculous shorts and earrings in my ears, no one wanted to notice it. Andrew was mainly required to dance and sing along to the beat, but he was the main image of the duo, on which the lion's share of their popularity depended. It was he who in 1984 insisted that the duo change the image of angry young people in leather jackets to fashionable and stylish playboys, which immediately began to frantically copy other youth pop groups. George believes that the success of Wham! was largely achieved due to the fact that the friendly relations that connected him with Andrew were real - and the audience felt it. They spoke the same language, they were amused by the same jokes, they understood each other perfectly - and this commonality gave George inspiration to write new hits with the same charge of energy.

Of course, later, when George stopped hiding his orientation, the question arose whether he and Andrew had something more than friendship. To this he always answered in the negative. “There is nothing less like the truth. And in general, Andrew is absolutely not my type. In addition, at that time, George still could not decide whether he was gay or still bisexual, and the tabloids were full of reports that he had affairs with Brooke Shields, model Cathy Jung and other women. Andrew began dating Bananarama band member Karen Woodward, with whom, by the way, he still lives.

Friends always told each other that they should leave at the peak of their careers - before they turn into a parody of themselves. They both understood that their duet was strictly limited to a youth audience - and did not have the opportunity to reach a more serious and adult level. In addition, it began to show more and more that only George was the real musician of the two of them. While still on the crest of popularity as part of a duet, he has already recorded two solo singles, one of which, Careless Whisper, which still sounds on many radio stations, was invented by him at the age of seventeen. Also, separately from Andrew, George sang a duet with Elton John the song of the last Don "t Let the Sun Go Down on Me at a charity concert in favor of the famine-stricken Ethiopia, and from him in 1985 he received an Ivor Novello statuette as an award, having been awarded the title "Best Author of the Year ". The breakup of the duo was a foregone conclusion, the only question left was when. As a result, they, as they were going to, left at the peak of popularity, recording the hit single The Edge of Heaven as a farewell and giving a concert at Wembley Stadium in the summer of 1986 for 72- thousandth audience.

For Andrew Ridgeley, this was a big blow - it is clear that he alone, without a gifted friend, did not have a successful musical career, which was proved by the unnoticed solo album that he released in 1990. However, he survived it with dignity, he did not break off relations with George - they still communicate warmly, and his photograph is on the mantelpiece at George's house.

For George, a new round of career began. To clearly draw the line between Wham! and his solo work, he recorded the song I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) in early 1987 with Aretha Franklin, becoming the first white performer to sing with this African-American soul diva. In the same 1987, his most commercially successful album, Faith, was released, which eventually reached the status of a diamond - to date, more than twenty million copies of it have been sold worldwide. The album was literally crammed with super hits, one after another soaring to the top of the charts; in addition, the image that George showed in the video for the song of the same name became one of the most recognizable and memorable images in pop music of the eighties: dark glasses, stubble, cross in the ear, leather jacket, cowboy boots, guitar and especially eye-catching Levi's tight jeans. “I knew that I was making more adult music, and I was mistaken, not thinking that I would become a sex idol for a new generation of young girls around the world. Although what I wanted was shaking my ass on the screen ... And my ass and really pretty,” recalled George in the documentary A Different Story.

Not without the first major scandal in George Michael's career. The text of the single I Want Your Sex turned out to be too shocking, especially for conservative America (how is it possible to sing directly that you want sex from someone; that “sex is natural and good”!). The song was refused play on many radio stations; MTV showed the clip only late in the evening and at night, and one of the presenters of this TV channel refused to say the name of the song out loud at all, calling it "George Michael's new single." George even had to shoot an intro to the video, in which he explained that we were not talking about promiscuous sex at all - and could well refer to monogamous relationships. However, all these obstacles did not prevent the single from taking second place in the US chart and third in English.

The Faith album brought George a huge number of awards, including the Grammy, made him even richer and more famous - the most popular pop artist in the world at that time. However, the popularity that soared to the skies did not bring him the main thing - happiness. On the contrary, he felt that the hype around him and the status of a superstar were driving him crazy, alienating him from friends, making him lonely and unhappy. “I was smart enough to realize that I chose the wrong path. If I wanted to find happiness, I definitely shouldn't have tried to follow in the footsteps of Madonna or Michael Jackson, which at that moment I definitely did, ”he recalls in the same A Different Story. - Oh my God, I thought then - I'm a megastar, and also, probably, a fag - and what should I do about it? It won't end well."

In the end, George figured out what to do with it. He decided, in his own words, to "take the back seat in the car": stop promoting his music with promotional tours and videos, do away with the image of a sexy unshaven guy in tight jeans. The only video that was shot in support of the single from the album released in 1990 with the telling title Listen Without Prejudice (“Listen without prejudice”) is the video for the song Freedom "90, in which George himself does not appear, but five are pleasing to the eye at once supermodels: Linda Evangelista, Cynthia Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Tatjana Patitz.

Sony, with which George Michael had signed a contract to record albums, was extremely unhappy with his decision to withdraw from personal participation in the promotion of the new album. A major conflict arose between the musician and the company: he believed that Sony was promoting him poorly and did not support his new creative aspirations; Sony countered that Listen Without Prejudice's poor (compared to Faith) sales were a direct result of his unreasonable behavior. However, in 1991, such a happy event happened in George's life that for a while he was not up to the conflict with Sony - the musician truly fell in love for the first time.

It happened at a concert in Rio de Janeiro. In the crowd of fans, right in front of the stage, he spotted a boy who seemed so cute to him that he moved to the other end of the stage - so as not to be distracted during the performance. Literally immediately after meeting, he felt something that he had never felt before: “Here is a person whom I could love, and not use my body for a while.” The name of George's first love was Anselmo Feleppa. He went with the musician to Los Angeles, where George lived at that time - and for the first six months the couple was uncloudedly happy. It was then that George realized an important thing for himself: “It is very difficult to be proud of your sexuality when it does not bring you any joy. Once it's associated with joy and love, it's easy to be proud of who you are."

Unfortunately, George and Anselmo's happiness did not last long. In the fall of 1991, due to increasing health problems, Anselmo was advised to take blood tests - and he flew to Brazil to do this. For several months, George was left in an oppressive state of limbo. In the spring of 1992, he performed at a grandiose concert in memory of Freddie Mercury, who died the day before - he sang the song Somebody to Love with the musicians of Queen. “I sang in memory of Freddie - and at the same time I prayed for Anselmo. No one knew that in my soul at that moment I wanted to die. Perhaps that is why this performance turned out to be the best in my life.

But the miracle did not happen - the results of Anselmo's tests for AIDS were positive. He returned to George - and he stayed with him to the end, trying to make the time allotted to him happy. “To leave him – I didn’t even have such a choice. Even if I wanted to, I'm not the kind of person who could then live with it." It was during this period that, in order to take out his grief and anger on someone, the musician began a lawsuit with Sony, trying to free himself from the contract that tied him to the company. The lawsuit dragged on for two years and ended in victory for Sony. However, after the victory in court, the company itself decided to release the musician.

Anselmo Feleppa died in March 1993, and George completely disappeared from the music scene for almost two years, plunging into grief. He appeared again in public at the end of 1994, at the MTV Music Awards concert, where he performed the new song Jesus to a Child, written in memory of a deceased loved one.

Words that you can no longer say
I will sing them for you.
And the love that we could have
stay with me
In every memory
What has become a part of me.
You will always be my love.
I was loved
And I know what love is.
And the lover I kissed
Will always be by my side.

Two years later, the musician's new album, Older, was released. “The optimism that permeates it is because I have tried to learn as many positive lessons as possible from the grief I experienced. And in the process of recording the second half of the album, I was again a happy person.” Happiness this time came to George in the form of Texan Kenny Goss, whom he met at a spa. “I wasn't even sure he was gay when I invited him to dinner,” George recalls. “But on the second day I was already sure, and on the third I realized that my life had again changed decisively.” Kenny appeared in George's life just in time - just before the next blow, which he again had to endure. In 1997, George's beloved mother died of skin cancer. “I remember being on a different planet for several weeks. I was completely unprepared for this, I was just heartbroken. Mom never commanded me and always believed in everything I do. She was very understanding. I still miss her terribly,” George recalled almost ten years after the loss. And again: “People are divided into two categories: those who have already suffered a loss, and those who have not yet. On the day of loss, you become truly adult.

For a year, the musician led the life of a recluse: he did not appear in public, did not give interviews, did not record anything; and when his name hit the papers again in 1998, it wasn't about the release of a new single or album: George Michael was caught in a Beverly Hills bathroom "for committing lewd acts" and was fined and sentenced to eighty hours of community service. Here is how he himself recalls the incident: “I was followed to the toilet, and then this policeman - well, then I, of course, I did not know that he was a policeman - began to play his game, which, I believe, is called: "I I'll show you mine, you show me yours, and that's when I'll grab you!" musician Elton John. And indeed, when the initial burning humiliation was over, it turned out that this story brought George Michael only good. It did not hurt the union with Kenny - they agreed from the very beginning that they would have an open relationship; now he no longer needs there was no one to hide and hide in front of anyone, and in addition, based on the toilet scandal, he released the super-successful single Outside, accompanied by a humorous video.The policeman who arrested George tried to sue the musician, stating that he ridiculed and slandered him in an interview, but the court lost.

The next scandal in which the musician was lit up broke out in 2002 - with the release of the new single Shoot the Dog, written as a protest against the war in Iraq, and the accompanying cartoon video, which maliciously ridiculed American President Bush Jr. and British Prime Minister Blair. “Let him do what he does best - perversions in men's toilets,” the newspapers wrote. The clip was banned from showing in the USA, as well as on many English TV channels. George was crushed by the harassment unleashed against him in the press, but this did not stop him from recording a new album in 2004 that returned him to the top of the charts in England and many other countries - Patience.

"If I were hit by a bus now, I would die a happy man - with the amount of quality music that I left to the world," George said in a recent interview. However, this does not mean that he is going to stop. According to him, he spends several hours in the studio almost every day - he writes music, which he does not want to talk about yet. He also regularly gives concerts that take place in huge stadiums, a lot and is actively involved in charity work - and he began to participate in this since the days of Wham !; devotes some time to the Goss-Michael Art Foundation, which he and a partner opened in 2007 in Dallas - the foundation not only hosts contemporary art exhibitions, but also encourages young talented Texas and British artists with scholarships. George Michael practically does not participate in social events and rarely gives interviews. When he nevertheless agrees to meet with journalists, he avoids talking about future musical projects, but speaks openly about drugs and sex. He regularly smokes marijuana, claiming that it "helps him stay sane and makes him happy", and occasionally goes to the local men's toilets for sexual adventures - fortunately England is not Hollywood, and they prefer not to arrest for it. “I don’t even consider it my weaknesses anymore,” he says. "It's just part of who I am."

53-year-old George Michael's heart stopped while he was peacefully at home in bed. The police who arrived called the cause of death "unclear but not suspicious." So 2016, as if planning to knock off the chessboard of world music as many big figures as possible, took one more victim - I would like to believe, the last one.

wham! "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go"

Georgios Kiryakos Panayiotou was born on June 25, 1963 in north London in the family of a Greek restaurateur and an English dancer who came to England from Cyprus. When his family moved to Hertfordshire, Georgios met Andrew Ridgeley at the new school. Together with him, they first formed a pop band with a strong ska influence. After a short time, the composition was reduced to a duet, called Wham! - so George Michael and big show business first met each other.

George Michael "Careless Whisper" - This song appeared on the album Wham! , however in the US it was signed as "Wham! featuring George Michael", and in other countries as his solo recording.

Wham Road! to success was not so long - after the appearance of the song "Young Guns (Go For It)" in the program "Top of the Pops" she hit the English charts. "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" became a worldwide hit. George Michael was the obvious leader of the duo, so starting a solo career looked like the next, absolutely obvious step.

George Michael "Faith"

wham! disbanded in 1986 when George Michael released his most successful album, Faith. 25 million copies of this record were subsequently sold worldwide. The combined circulation of George Michael and Wham! exceeds 100 million copies.

George Michael Freedom! "90"

Recordings with Elton John and Aretha Franklin, Grammy awards, huge sales - that's what his life consisted of in the late 80s and early 90s. He performed at Wembley with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert while the Iron Curtain collapsed to his songs. Residents of the USSR watched the clip “Freedom! 90 with supermodels Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford - and the advantages of the capitalist system and democracy over socialism became clear to them as daylight.

George Michael "Too Funky"

Despite the fact that his songs, as a rule, were about sexuality and passion, and his videos looked very vicious, George Michael had to hide his homosexuality for a long time. In 1998, there was a molestation scandal in a public restroom in Beverly Hills. The Latin American, to whom the singer showed his whistle, turned out to be an undercover police agent.

George Michael not only came out, but also filmed quite a landmark video "Outside" based on this scandal. The policeman tried to sue the singer for 10 million, but the court did not believe that the moral damage inflicted on him was so significant.

George Michael "Outside"

20 years ago, the album "Older" was released, perhaps the last solid and significant recording of George Michael. The record was rated much higher in Europe - but in America, George's star began its decline.

George Michael "Different Corner" is a solo song released in 1986 when Wham! was just about to give a massive farewell concert at Wembley Stadium.

After Older, George Michael repeatedly complained about the creative block and generally reduced his productivity quite a lot. Singles like "Shoot the Dog" against Tony Blair, George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq didn't resonate like they used to. His last studio album was released in 2004.

George Michael "Fastlove"

But the scandals didn't end there. In addition to the incident in the American toilet, there were others. He was arrested several times for drug offenses. He was stripped of his driver's license after his Range Rover rammed a London shop window - Michael was driving while intoxicated. Journalist Simon Hattenston, who interviewed Michael twice,

On December 25, in England, at the age of 54, a popular British singer, a former member of the duo Wham! George Michael. According to the BBC, he "passed away peacefully at home on Christmas Day". The police found no suspicious circumstances in the death of the singer. Presumably George Michael died of heart failure.

“The family asks that privacy be respected during this emotional and difficult time. At this stage, no further comments will follow. We ask that you respect our silence and do not disturb us," Michael Lippman, spokesman for Michael's family, said in a statement.

His colleagues Elton John, Mark Ronson, Liam Gallagher, Ryan Adams, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and leader of the British opposition Jeremy Corbyn have already expressed their condolences on the death of the musician, as well as millions of fans around the world.

Abroad recalled some interesting facts from the artist's biography.

Origin and pseudonym

The real name of the singer is Yorgos Kyriakos Panayiotou, and the first twenty thousand copies of his album Wham Rap! came out with his real name on the cover - George Panayiotu. However, later, according to the artist himself, he quickly realized that it was time to choose a sonorous pseudonym, and named himself after a certain Michael Mortimer, the father of his childhood friend, with whom he had a very warm relationship.

homophobic father

In one of his interviews, the singer admitted that he hid his orientation for a long time because of a difficult relationship with his parents: “My father, a Greek Cypriot by nationality, a man of the old school, would never have come to terms with the fact that his son is gay,” Michael stated.

As for the mother, according to the singer, all her life she was afraid that her only son had inherited the “homosexual gene” from his uncle named Colin, who committed suicide. “Feeling guilty, she allowed her father to be a terrible homophobe,” the singer admitted.

Early career and Last Christmas

In 1981, the singer, together with his school friend Andrew Ridgeley, decides to conquer the world stage and first create the group The Executives, which could not achieve success, and then a duet called Wham!. The group quickly became popular after the appearance of the song Young Guns (Go For It) in the program Top of the Pops. Other successful compositions include songs such as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, A Different Corner and Last Christmas. Moreover, the latter became an absolute Christmas hit and was covered by many artists. Remembering this song on the day of the singer's departure, many journalists noted that in some sense its title turned out to be prophetic - George Michael passed away on Christmas Day 2016.

First solo hit

The singer's first solo hit was the song Careless Whisper, released in 1984, which tells a touching story of love and betrayal. The composition was written entirely by George Michael but has also been performed by Wham! and was on their album Make It Big). In 1985, Careless Whisper was recognized as the best song and topped the charts in 25 countries with a total circulation of about 6 million copies.
As Michael himself said in an interview, he wrote this song at the age of 17, when he was traveling to work by bus. At that time, the singer worked as a DJ at the Bel Air restaurant near the town of Bushy in Hertfordshire. According to him, the song was born to him at the moment when he paid the fare.
“I remember that suddenly a melody came into my head, and then I sat on the farthest seat of the bus and began to come up with words for it.” At the same job, the singer first performed a demo version of the future hit.
“In the evening of my last working day, I played it and people came out to dance. They had never heard it before, but they went out anyway. I thought at the time that this was a good sign.” At the same time, according to Michael, the owner of the restaurant never liked his music and he forbade him to put his own compositions.

First album and first award

October 30, 1987 George Michael performed the song Faith, which was included in his first solo album of the same name. Already in the first week, more than a million discs were sold, which was an absolute record among the albums ever sold by a British pop artist. A year later, the composition became the best-selling single in the United States, and the disc was recognized as one of the most successful in the history of pop music and received a Grammy Award for the best album of the year.

In 1992, Roman Polanski chose Faith as the soundtrack for his film Bitter Moon.

open provocation

The singer has always loved to shock the audience: one of his most provocative compositions was the song I Want Your Sex from his first album, released in 1987. Due to the too frank name and text, it was banned from broadcasting on the air on the BBC radio during the day, and MTV completely edited the video for the song, cutting out almost half of the material.

“For a couple of weeks, I turned into the Antichrist,” said George Michael at the time.

Later, the singer explained that in this way he opposed the fact that people were afraid to have sex because of the fear of contracting AIDS.

First love

In January 1991, George Michael met the Brazilian designer Anselmo Feleppe, who, according to the singer, became his first serious love. This happened after the musician's performance in Rio de Janeiro at the Rock in Rio festival.

Three years after meeting Michael, Feleppe died of a brain hemorrhage caused by AIDS. The death of a lover greatly shocked the musician. For a year and a half, he did not write new songs, and only in the fall of 1994 did he write the song "Jesus to a Child", which he dedicated to Feleppa.

sex scandal

In April 1998, the singer was arrested in a public restroom in Beverly Hills for "obscene acts." This incident prompted Michael to openly admit his homosexuality. “I mean, I’m in a relationship with a man right now. I haven't dated a woman in over 10 years," the artist told CNN in an interview.

This statement had a negative impact on the artist's career: many fans were shocked that the fairy tale about the handsome groom collapsed. Michael's popularity fell along with the sales of his records, which caused the singer's creative crisis.

political satire

In the summer of 2002, George Michael released a song in an unexpected genre of political satire - "Shoot The Dog", in which he mocks George W. Bush and Tony Blair. In particular, Blair is depicted as a dog obediently fulfilling the wishes of the owner, the President of the United States.

most expensive clip

Freeek song! was written in 2002 and was included in the album Patience, which was released two years later. The composition quickly achieved popularity and topped the charts in the UK, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Denmark. The video for this song cost more than 1.5 million euros and is still considered one of the most expensive videos in the history of the music business.

"George Michael: Another Story"

In 2005, at the International Film Festival in Berlin, the premiere of the documentary "George Michael: Another Story" took place, in which the singer spoke frankly about his personal life and work.

The film also includes interviews with Andrew Ridgeley, backing vocalist for Wham! Pepsi and Shirley, as well as Sting, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Noel Gallagher, Geri Halliwell and Simon Cowell.

After the premiere of the film, the musician told reporters that it was important for him to explain himself to the audience who loved him before he left the stage, and added that he was going to leave the recording industry forever. “I’m leaving show business. I will not stop writing music - it is in me, I know how to make it and I will do it. I just won't sell it. New songs can be downloaded from my official website.”

Man of dreams

In 1996, George Michael began dating Kenny Goss, a businessman and former athlete from Dallas. At the end of 2005, the singer announced that he was going to legalize his relationship in the UK, but due to the negative public reaction, he decided to postpone registration until a later time. On August 22, 2011, during his performance on the Symphonica Tour, the singer admitted that they had broken up two years ago. As the Daily Mail wrote, citing internal sources, the singer considered Goss "the love of his life" and was very upset by the breakup. Their relationship lasted 13 years, and the main reason for the gap was the explosive nature of Michael and his addiction to drugs. As the Sun tabloid wrote, referring to the words of the singer's friends, after the breakup, Michael "dropped his hands and gradually became a shadow of himself."

"On the verge of death"

In 2011, the singer canceled his tour for the first time due to acute pneumonia. The performer underwent surgery and treatment in Vienna. After, in one of his interviews, the singer admitted that he was "on the verge of death." Having overcome the disease in the summer of 2012, George Michael recorded the composition White Light, in which he talks about his experiences during his illness and thanks everyone who prayed for his recovery. With this song, the artist performed on August 12, 2012 at the closing of the XXX Summer Olympic Games in London.

Drug problems

On July 4, 2010, George Michael, while under the influence of drugs, crashed his car into a photo shop in north London's Hempstead.

At the trial, which took place at the end of August, George Michael pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana, for which he was sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 2 months, as well as a fine of 1250 pounds. In October 2010, the singer was released after serving half of his term. But even after that, the singer could not overcome the addiction.

Almost a year before his death, George Michael underwent treatment for drug addiction at the Küsnacht Clinic in Switzerland.

Secret Charity

According to the ITV portal, George Michael secretly spent a significant part of his funds on charity. In particular, the singer made anonymous donations to children's charities such as Terrence Higgins Trust and Macmillan Cancer Support. And host Richard Osman said that one woman in the Deal Or No Deal program said that she needed 15 thousand pounds for artificial insemination, after which George Michael secretly called her and transferred the full amount to her account, asking in return only not to name him.

George Michael about himself and his work

“I believe with all my heart that music is one of the best gifts of God to man,” the singer said in an interview at the dawn of his career.

“I deserve my fans. They are the same type of people that I love, ”said George Michael, already a famous performer.

“If I died, I would be happy. Do you know why? I gave the world so much quality music that I can safely leave this world. My ego is in perfect order, ”the artist admitted in a 2009 interview with The Guardian.

The singer recalled how he felt after he found out that Anselm Fleppa had AIDS.

Photo: Legion-Media.ru George Michael