59 Fun Facts About George Michael

George Michael was born in East Finchley in 1963 under what name?

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. The son of a Greek Cypriot restaurateur and an English dancer, he swapped it for the simpler George Michael as he and Andrew Ridgeley launched Wham!

At Bushey Meads School, where he met Andrew Ridgeley, George Michael went by which nickname?

Yog. The nickname lasted a lifetime: when Michael died in 2016, Ridgeley wrote that he was heartbroken at the loss of "my beloved friend Yog".

Before Wham!, Michael and Ridgeley played in a short-lived band called the Executive in which genre?

Ska. The teenagers formed the Executive on the heels of the 2 Tone revival led by the Specials and Madness, and their demo tape featured an original called 'Rude Boy'.

Which famous instrument did George Michael buy at auction for £1.45 million in 2000?

John Lennon's 'Imagine' piano. He called it a piece of history that should stay in Britain, and in 2007 he sent it on a peace tour of American sites scarred by violence.

Wham! signed their first record deal with which label after Ridgeley pestered its boss in a Bushey Heath pub?

Innervision. Mark Dean signed them in 1982 after Ridgeley kept handing him demo tapes at the Three Crowns, but the duo soon fought a legal battle to get out of the contract and moved to Epic.

Wham!'s 'Club Tropicana' video was filmed at Pikes Hotel on which Mediterranean island?

Ibiza. Pikes was a favourite haunt of Freddie Mercury, who celebrated his 41st birthday there, and the hotel still tells of Wham! shimmying around its pool for the video.

Which Wham! hit owes its title to a slip of Andrew Ridgeley's pen?

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. In a note asking to be woken, Ridgeley wrote 'up' twice by accident and doubled 'go' to match; Michael saw it on his friend's bedroom door and turned it into Wham!'s first No. 1.

Which designer created the oversized 'CHOOSE LIFE' T-shirts that Wham! wore in a 1984 video?

Katharine Hamnett. She saw slogan T-shirts as a way to broadcast a message, and Wham! made this one a craze: Queen's Roger Taylor wore CHOOSE LIFE in the 'Hammer to Fall' video.

Which hit did the teenage George Michael dream up on a bus?

Careless Whisper. The sax line came to him as he paid his bus fare, but the record took years: he scrapped a version made in Alabama with veteran producer Jerry Wexler and produced it himself.

George Michael sang 'These Are the Days of Our Lives' with which singer at the 1992 Freddie Mercury tribute?

Lisa Stansfield. Their duet came out a year later on the Five Live EP, which topped the UK chart and raised money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the AIDS charity launched after the concert.

In April 1985 Wham! became the first Western pop act to tour which country?

China. Manager Simon Napier-Bell spent 18 months winning permission, and later admitted he had steered officials away from Queen with a brochure showing Freddie Mercury at his most flamboyant.

Which Band Aid singer did Bob Geldof summon from New York by Concorde to record alongside George Michael?

Boy George. He made it to the studio in time to sing his lines, and the record became the fastest-selling single Britain had ever seen, spending five weeks at No. 1.

Which Elton John song did Michael sing with Elton at Live Aid in July 1985?

Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me. At Live Aid Michael was the guest on Elton's 1974 hit; when the pair released a live duet of it in 1991, it went to No. 1 in both Britain and America.

The 'Last Christmas' video was filmed at a ski resort in which country?

Switzerland. The video was shot in the resort of Saas-Fee with friends including backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie, and Wham! gave the single's royalties to Ethiopian famine relief.

Which actress co-wrote the 2019 film Last Christmas, inspired by the Wham! song?

Emma Thompson. She wrote it with Bryony Kimmings and plays the heroine's mother; the song itself needed 36 years to top the UK chart, getting there at last in 2021.

Wham!'s farewell concert, with Elton John dressed as Ronald McDonald, was billed as what?

The Final. Elton, a surprise guest in a floppy red wig and clown make-up, played piano for the 72,000 fans, as he had on the duo's farewell single, and came back for the encore.

Which Wham! farewell single reached UK No. 1 in June 1986?

The Edge of Heaven. Wham! had announced months earlier that it would be their last single, as Michael wanted to move on to more adult music, and it was No. 1 the week they played their farewell concert.

After Wham! split, Andrew Ridgeley moved to Monaco and tried his hand at what?

Formula Three motor racing. Living in Monaco in 1986, he competed in the French Formula 3 championship, but he met with little success and his career as a racing driver was brief.

Keren Woodward, Andrew Ridgeley's partner for more than two decades, sang in which group?

Bananarama. While Michael became a solo superstar, Ridgeley left pop behind and settled with Woodward for a quiet life in Cornwall.

Michael's 1987 duet 'I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)' paired him with which soul legend?

Aretha Franklin. For all her classics, the Queen of Soul had never topped the British chart until this duet, which went to No. 1 in both the UK and the US and won the pair a Grammy.

Which US radio host refused to say the title of 'I Want Your Sex' on air?

Casey Kasem. On American Top 40 he introduced it only as George Michael's new single, while other stations played a toned-down edit that swapped the word 'sex' for 'love'.

'I Want Your Sex' also appeared on the soundtrack of which 1987 film?

Beverly Hills Cop II. The film soundtrack carried the song months before the Faith album arrived, and although many stations refused to play it or aired it only late at night, it still made the top three in Britain and America.

In which Faith single's video does George Michael play a taxi driver involved with a model?

Father Figure. It began as a mid-tempo dance track, but when Michael muted the snare drum in the mix it turned into a gospel-tinged ballad, and it went to No. 1 in America.

The 'Faith' rhythm guitar part is built on a classic rock and roll rhythm named after which musician?

Bo Diddley. The song is said to have grown from Dick Leahy's suggestion that Michael write a rock and roll pastiche, a sharp turn for a singer trying to leave teen pop behind.

Which song gave the Faith album its fourth US No. 1 single?

Monkey. The album's first single had stalled short of the top amid radio bans, but four of those that followed went to No. 1, and this one completed the run.

Faith topped the Billboard 200 and made history by also reaching No. 1 on which chart?

Top Black Albums. No white solo artist had led it before, and Michael told Jet he was much happier with that No. 1 than with topping the pop chart, as it felt like more of an achievement.

Which Grammy did Faith win at the 31st Grammy Awards in February 1989?

Album of the Year. It capped his escape from teen pop: less than three years after Wham! split, an album he had written and produced himself took the Grammys' top prize.

Which 1990 George Michael single had a video showing nothing but its lyrics on a dark background?

Praying for Time. With Michael refusing to appear on screen, the album's lead single went out with a video that simply unrolled its words about poverty and injustice.

Which director made the 'Freedom '90' video, in which supermodels lip-synced instead of Michael?

David Fincher. Michael had grown weary of his pin-up image and refused to appear in videos for the album, so Fincher filmed five supermodels miming the words in his place.

In the 'Freedom '90' video, which three symbols of the Faith era are destroyed?

Leather jacket, jukebox and guitar. The jacket burns and the jukebox and guitar explode in time with the chorus: Michael was publicly torching the image that had made him a superstar.

The Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 cover shows Weegee's photo of a crowd at which seaside resort?

Coney Island. Weegee, a New York newspaper photographer, caught the packed beach in the 1940s, and Michael used a crop of it to retreat from his own album cover, as he had from its videos.

Michael's 1990 autobiography Bare was co-written with which journalist?

Tony Parsons. Though marketed as Michael's memoir, Bare was closer to an authorised biography: Parsons wrote it, weaving in the singer's own first-person recollections.

Which Queen song did George Michael perform to acclaim at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert?

Somebody to Love. He called it probably the proudest moment of his career, 'living out a childhood fantasy' of singing one of Freddie's songs, in a strange mixture of pride and sadness.

George Michael's 1990s lawsuit against which label led to Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2 being scrapped?

Sony. He sued in 1992, arguing the contract was a restraint of trade, and lost in 1994, yet still got his way: the following year two rival labels bought him out of the deal.

'Jesus to a Child' was a tribute to Anselmo Feleppa, Michael's partner, who came from which country?

Brazil. They met when Michael played Rock in Rio in 1991; Feleppa died two years later, and the grief left Michael unable to write for 18 months before this song broke the silence.

Which 1996 George Michael single spent three weeks at UK No. 1 with a futuristic virtual-reality video?

Fastlove. At the 2017 Grammys Adele sang a slowed-down version in tribute to him, halting it midway and starting again because she refused to get it wrong.

What did George Michael call the record label he set up in the mid-1990s?

Aegean Records. Its name sat on his own releases from 1996, and its first single of its own was 1997's 'Waltz Away Dreaming', a duet with Toby Bourke recorded in tribute to Michael's late mother.

Michael's April 1998 arrest for a lewd act took place in a public toilet in a park in which city?

Beverly Hills. He was fined and given community service, then turned the scandal on its head: he told the world he was gay, refused to be ashamed of it and sent the whole affair up in his next single.

In the 'Outside' video, satirising his arrest, Michael dances in a toilet dressed as what?

A police officer. The toilet turns into a glittering disco as he dances in uniform; the man who had arrested him sued for $10 million, saying the video mocked him, and lost.

Which George Michael hits set has discs titled 'For the Heart' and 'For the Feet'?

Ladies & Gentlemen. Ballads filled one disc and dance tracks the other, and he opened the dance disc with a brand-new single, 'Outside', written to send up his own arrest months earlier.

Michael recorded the 2000 single 'If I Told You That' with which American star?

Whitney Houston. The male part was first meant for Michael Jackson, but that never came off, so she recorded the song alone in 1998 and remade it with George Michael for her greatest hits.

In the cartoon video for 'Shoot the Dog', Tony Blair appears as which breed of dog owned by George Bush?

A poodle. The cartoon was a protest at Britain following America toward war in Iraq, casting the prime minister as the loyal lapdog of a gun-toting cowboy president.

Which Don McLean anti-war song did Michael record and perform in 2003 in protest at the coming Iraq war?

The Grave. McLean wrote it about Vietnam and said he was proud of Michael for standing up for life and sanity; Michael then clashed with Top of the Pops over an anti-war T-shirt when he performed it.

Which 2004 album was George Michael's first collection of new songs in eight years?

Patience. It went straight to No. 1 in Britain, and Michael then said it would be his last album for sale: he told the BBC he would give his music away online and ask fans to donate to charity.

At Live 8 in 2005, Michael joined Paul McCartney on which Beatles song?

Drive My Car. It was an unbilled cameo near the end of the day: Michael ran on as a surprise guest, to a gasp from the Hyde Park crowd, and harmonised with McCartney on the one song.

On 9 June 2007 Michael became the first artist to perform live at which newly rebuilt venue?

The national stadium at Wembley. He called it an amazing honour, saying he had felt a huge association with Wembley since childhood; the old ground was where he sang at Live Aid and at Wham!'s farewell.

George Michael made his American acting debut in 2008 in which US TV series?

Eli Stone. Its hero, a San Francisco lawyer, has visions scored by George Michael songs that only he can hear, and every first-season episode took its title from one of them.

Which comedian's 2011 charity sketch, singing in a car with George Michael, grew into a hit TV segment?

James Corden. When no musician would sign up for the American version, Carpool Karaoke, he showed the George Michael clip to Mariah Carey, and she agreed to be the first guest.

George Michael fell into a coma in 2011 after contracting pneumonia in which city on tour?

Vienna. He spent five weeks in hospital there, and when he came out of the coma he spoke for two days in a West Country accent, to the alarm of doctors who feared it might be permanent.

In 2010 Michael was jailed after crashing his car into what kind of Hampstead business?

A photo-processing store. He drove his Range Rover into a branch of Snappy Snaps while under the influence of cannabis; the court gave him eight weeks, of which he served four, and a five-year driving ban.

Michael reportedly paid for a contestant's IVF anonymously after seeing her on which TV game show?

Deal or No Deal. She had said on air that she needed £15,000 for the treatment; Michael secretly phoned the production team the next day and paid it, a story told only after his death.

Michael died on Christmas Day 2016 at his home in which Oxfordshire village?

Goring-on-Thames. He was found in bed there on Christmas morning, aged 53, and within days strangers were coming forward with stories of the secret gifts he had made to them.

Michael was buried beside his mother in which part of north London?

Highgate. The burial at Highgate Cemetery had to wait three months for the coroner to rule on his death, and its date was kept secret so that fans would not gather in large numbers.

George Michael joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023 alongside which British singer?

Kate Bush. Michael, who had died seven years earlier, was inducted by his old Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, in a class that also included Willie Nelson and Missy Elliott.

Which 1986 UK No. 1 did George Michael write, sing, arrange, produce and play entirely by himself?

A Different Corner. He wrote and recorded it in about 14 hours while still in Wham!, and it made him the first solo act to top the UK chart with each of his first two releases.

Which instrument's sound opens George Michael's album Faith, playing the Wham! hit 'Freedom'?

A church organ plays the old Wham! tune before the title track kicks in, but no pipes were involved: the authentic-sounding intro came from a cathedral preset on a synthesiser.

Which 1970s teen idol did George Michael cite as a major career influence and sing backing vocals for?

David Cassidy had the compliment repaid in 1985, when Michael sang on his hit 'The Last Kiss' and then interviewed him for Ritz Newspaper.

Kenny Goss, Michael's partner from 1996, came from which US city?

Dallas is where Goss, a former cheerleading coach turned art dealer, and Michael founded the Goss-Michael Foundation in 2007 to put their contemporary art collection on public show.

Which New Order song did Michael cover in 2011 for Comic Relief?

True Faith was not his first gift to the telethon: years earlier, out of the blue, he had handed Comic Relief all the proceeds of his 1999 single 'As'.