Last Christmas for George Michael, dies at 53

Tributes pour in for 53-year-old British singer who died of heart failure

London, Dec. 26: British pop star George Michael, who rose to fame with the band Wham! and sold more than 100 million albums in his career, has died aged 53, his publicist said on Monday.

Billboard magazine quoted Michael’s manager Michael Lippman as saying the singer had died of heart failure.

Singer Elton John published a picture of himself with Michael on his Instagram account. “I am in deep shock. I have lost a beloved friend — the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist,” the British star wrote.

Michael was due to release a documentary in 2017 after a period of living as a virtual recluse in which he hit the headlines for a series of bizarre incidents linked to drugs.

Michael was best known for his 1980s hits Last Christmas, Freedom, Careless Whisper and Wake Me Up Before You Go Go but his career spanned more than three decades.

He won a string of awards including two Grammies and three Brits.

Many tributes to Michael referred to other music world deaths in 2016, starting with David Bowie in January and including Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt who died on Saturday.

Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou to a Greek Cypriot father and English mother in north London in 1963. He met Ridgeley at high school and the pair went on to form Wham! in 1981. With their good looks, perma-tans and hedonistic image, the duo captured the go-getting spirit of the age and fast became one of Britain’s biggest pop acts. In 1985, Wham! became the first Western pop band to perform in China as the country was slowly beginning to open up to the outside world under reformist leader Deng Xiaoping.

Following years of speculation over his sexuality, Michael came out as gay in 1998 after being arrested for committing a lewd act in the public toilet of a Los Angeles park.