Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (George Michael) achieved fame in the duo Wham! in his native U.K. in 1982. Through 1986, he and his partner, Andrew Ridgeley, scored hit after hit in a variety of styles from rap to up-tempo pop to slow ballads. As songwriter and lead singer, Michael gradually overshadowed the group, and sa pamamagitan ng the time they split, he was ready for a massively successful solo career. This began with the 1987 album Faith, which featured a series of chart-topping hit singles and sold madami than seven million copies. That Michael had not achieved a similar critical success was evident from the pamagat of his follow-up album, Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1, which must be considered a major commercial disappointment even though it sold a million copies, included two tuktok Ten hits, and hit number two. With Vol. 2 apparently shelved, Michael contributed several songs to the charity album Red Hot + Dance in 1992, and one of them, "Too Funky," reached the tuktok 20.
After the failure of Listen Without Prejudice, Michael engaged in a mapait legal battle with his record company, accusing them of not properly promoting the album and asking them to release him from his contract; he stated that he would refuse to release any records if he Nawawala the lawsuit. He lost. After losing an appeal, Michael bought his way out of his Columbia contract and signed with the music division of Dreamworks, a fledgling entertainment corporation founded sa pamamagitan ng Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. In 1996, he released Older, its sales clearly hampered sa pamamagitan ng his long hiatus away from performing. In 1998, Michael made tabloid headlines when he was arrested for lewd conduct in a men's public restroom at a park near his Beverly Hills home; following the incident, the singer appeared on CNN and publicly revealed his homosexuality. The covers collection Songs from the Last Century followed in late 1999. Five years later he returned with Patience, an ambitious album featuring the politically charged single "Shoot the Dog." The 2006 compilation TwentyFive was followed sa pamamagitan ng a world tour. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
After the failure of Listen Without Prejudice, Michael engaged in a mapait legal battle with his record company, accusing them of not properly promoting the album and asking them to release him from his contract; he stated that he would refuse to release any records if he Nawawala the lawsuit. He lost. After losing an appeal, Michael bought his way out of his Columbia contract and signed with the music division of Dreamworks, a fledgling entertainment corporation founded sa pamamagitan ng Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. In 1996, he released Older, its sales clearly hampered sa pamamagitan ng his long hiatus away from performing. In 1998, Michael made tabloid headlines when he was arrested for lewd conduct in a men's public restroom at a park near his Beverly Hills home; following the incident, the singer appeared on CNN and publicly revealed his homosexuality. The covers collection Songs from the Last Century followed in late 1999. Five years later he returned with Patience, an ambitious album featuring the politically charged single "Shoot the Dog." The 2006 compilation TwentyFive was followed sa pamamagitan ng a world tour. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide