Lesser Known Fact About George Michael

Many a Christmas after he stole our hearts, pop sensation George Michael quietly breathed his last even as the world reveled in the joy of Christmas. The irony is life’s second name, I guess. On the morning of December 26, the pop superstar’s publicist issued a statement that read: “It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother, and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period.” Possibly, due to heart failure. He was 53.

The news of the singing sensation’s sudden and untimely death has left his fans and admirers across the world shocked and heart-broken. As a last tribute to the great artist, ShoutLo brings to you a rundown some lesser-known facts about the life of a man who ruled millions of hearts with his melodies:

1. He started his career with the release of Wham! In 1984. In 2004, Britain’s Radio Academy conferred on him the distinction of being the most-played performer on British radio for two decades straight, from 1984 to 2004.

2. He was left-handed.

3. He once fell out of a moving car on the M1 motorway in England and was airlifted to a hospital.

4. In a career spanning over three decades, he has won a total of 17 awards, including 2 Grammys, and earned a whopping 49 nominations for his music.

5. His was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in 1963 in East Finchley, London.

6. He dragged record label Sony to court over his frustration at the marketing approach for his album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1. He lost the court case.

7. He survived seven car crashes in his lifetime and was banned from driving.

8. He came out of the closet about his homosexuality in 1998 after being busted by an undercover cop for seeking sex in a men’s toilet. He turned the incident on its head by sticking his neck on homophobia in the music video ‘Outside’. The said cop even sued Michael for this music video for $10 million but the lawsuit wasn’t successful.

9. His music track ‘I Want Your Sex’ was so heavily laden with explicit sexual content that several radio stations across the world, including the US, refused to play it.

10. His masterpiece, Careless Whisper, remains one of the most-watched videos on YouTube. It has garnered over 161,698,288 views in over seven years since it was first uploaded on the site.

11. He went on record to confess having smoked a whopping 25 spliffs – marijuana cigarettes – in a day in an interview with The Guardian in 2009.

12. Drug abuse seemed like a perpetual troubled spot in the singer’s life. In 2006, he pleaded guilty for driving when unfit to do so due to the influence of drugs and was issued a warning for being in possession of several class A drugs, which included crack cocaine.

13. He was arrested a total of five times. Four times for being in possession of marijuana and once for public indecency. In September 2010, he even received an eight-week sentence for crashing his Range Rover into a shop in London.

14. He won a whopping 32,000 pounds on a British reality show, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, along with singer Ronan Keating in the year 2003 and donated the entire amount to a charity.

15. Did he have a crush on Justin Timberlake? We can’t say for sure but he did go on record to say that had invited his younger contemporary to recreate the magic of the iconic kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears. Reportedly, Timberlake did not respond to the invitation.

16. There are more than 400 published covers of his famous song Last Christmas, which continues to be a holiday season hit even more than 30 years after its release. Despite its popularity, the song failed to make it to the top spot on the UK music charts.

His life may have been a bit of a roller-coaster but his music will continue to be the balm that the smitten and heart-broken long for. So long then, George. Thank you for such soul-stirring euphonies.