He was addicted to drugs, his lover died..and he thought about suicide several times. What you do not know about the most famous pop singer in the world, George Michael

His talents as a singer, songwriter, and music producer have made George Michael one of the world's best-selling artists.
Thanks to his handsome appearance and melodious singing voice, his appearance on stage made him one of the most loved singers in concerts while he gradually transformed from a singer loved by teenagers to a real star.
After his early success with WAM, Michael went on to build a successful career as a solo singer that brought him a series of awards and made him a millionaire.
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But there were also occasions when his battle with drugs and his interactions with the police combined to lead to attacks by newspapers that threatened to overwhelm his musical talents.
George Michael, whose real name is Georgios Kyriakos Panayiotou, was born in north London on the 25th of June 1963 to a Cypriot father and an English mother. His father was a restaurateur who came to the United Kingdom in the XNUMXs, while his mother was an English dancer.
George Michael did not have a happy childhood, and later said that his parents were so busy working to improve their financial conditions that they had no time for emotions. My childhood was never the same (TV series) Little House.”
George moved with his family to Hertfordshire when he was a teenager, and there he met Andrew Wrigley, who was a classmate at the local school. The two discovered their common passion for music, and together with a group of friends, they formed a short-lived musical group.
In 1981, Michael and Wrigley founded Wham!, but their first single (Wam Rap!) failed to achieve any significant popularity, but their second single, Young Guns (Go For It) was credited with putting their feet on the first. The stairs of fame, after they were asked at the last minute to perform on the BBC's Top of the Pops singing program. The song reached number three on the UK charts.

When the duo began their path to fame, they gave the impression of chaos and revolution, as George and Andrew wore leather clothes when performing their first songs such as "Bad Boys", but they moved to a more appropriate image with the world of pop music when they released their famous song "Wake Me Up Before" You Go-Go) where they started wearing the most fashionable suits and outfits.
And since George Michael was undoubtedly the head of the duo, it was highly expected - indeed likely - that he would break up with Wrigley and chart his own path. The song "Careless Whisper", which was released in 1984 - although it was composed with Wrigley's participation - was Michael's first solo effort, despite its release under the name of the group (Wam!).
The two divorced permanently in 1986, and in the spring of the following year, George Michael released the song "I Knew You Were Waiting For Me" with famous American singer Aretha Franklin.
At this time, he began to have doubts about his sexual orientation. In a press interview he gave to The Independent newspaper at the time, he said that the depression he suffered after the separation of the (Wam!) team was caused by his awareness that he was not bisexual but gay.
legal battle
George Michael spent most of 1987 writing and recording his first solo groups. The collection, entitled Faith, was released in the fall of that year and went on to top the charts in Britain and the United States, selling more than 25 million copies and winning a Grammy in 1989.
In 1988, George Michael's status as a big star was confirmed through a world tour in which he performed many concerts, but the constant travel and pursuit of thousands of teenage girls who admired him exhausted him, which increased the bouts of depression that he began to suffer from continuously.

When he was performing in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in 1991, he met Michael Panselmo Philippa, who later became his lover, although Michael had not yet declared that he was gay. But their relationship was not destined to last, as Philippa died of a brain hemorrhage in 1993.
George Michael released his second group, Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1) in the early XNUMXs, intended for an audience much older than his first group. The second group did not achieve the same level of success as the first in the United States, but it surpassed it in Britain.
The project to release the second part of the group "Listen Without Prejudice" was canceled amid a legal battle with Sony Corporation, which was publishing his music. After a long and costly court battle, Michael cut ties with Sony.
In November 1994, Michael released the song "Jesus to a Child" dedicated to his former lover Philippa. Immediately upon its release, the song topped the list of sales in Britain, as well as included his lyrical group called "Older", which was released in 1996 after spending three years preparing and recording it.
recognition
The Older group was filled with sad and melancholy songs, and contained nods to his sexual orientation. During this period, Michael changed his appearance, shaving his long hair and beard and returning to wearing leather clothes.
The group achieved great success in the United Kingdom and Europe, but it achieved little success in the United States, whose audience seems to be still nostalgic for George Michael, the pop star rather than the more serious artist he aspired to become.

Michael was named Best Male Singer at the Brit Awards, and was named Best Songwriter for the third year in a row in the Ivor Novello competition.
His mother's death from cancer led to a new episode of depression, and he told GQ magazine that he contemplated suicide and was only deterred by encouragement from his new lover, Kenny Goss.
In April 1998, police arrested him in a public restroom in Beverly Hills, California, United States and charged him with an indecent act, fined him and 80 hours of community service.
That incident convinced him to reveal his sexual orientation and his relationship with Kenny Goss, a businessman from Dallas, Texas.
Michael continued to record songs, and in 1999 released a group titled (Songs from the Last Century), before spending two years writing and recording the group (Patience), which was released in 2004.
The new collection was seen by the public as an attempt to return to the original, and it achieved instant success in Britain and reached number 12 on the sales list in the United States, a market it seemed to reject.
After the latest collection was released, George Michael told the BBC he did not plan to release any new music collections for sale, preferring to make his songs available to his fans online and ask them to donate money to charities.
But his private life remained in the headlines. In February 2006 he was arrested and charged with possession of illegal drugs, and in July of the same year the News of the World newspaper reported that he was having sex in Hampstead Heath, north London. .
Michael threatened to sue the photojournalists for harassment, but admitted he had been out at night seeking "non-relationship sex."

In August 2010, the judiciary sentenced him to 8 weeks in prison after he confessed to driving while under the influence of drugs. He was released after 4 weeks.
Before George Michael gave a concert in Prague, he announced that he broke up with his lover Gus two years ago because of the latter's addiction to alcohol and his struggle with drugs.
George Michael was a man whose talent made him a world star, but he was never comfortable with this role. He once admitted that the character he was adored by thousands of fans was a made-up character that he used on stage to perform a certain duty.
George Michael struggled bitterly to be accepted as a serious composer and singer, successfully transforming his character to be accepted by a more mature audience while also grappling with depression and doubts about his sexual orientation.
But he will be remembered as one of the most enduring artists of the eighties generation.