George Michael has died at the age of 53, his publicist has confirmed.
The out singer, who launched his career as the front man of ’80s duo Wham! and went on to a successful solo career, is said to have died “peacefully at home.”
Michael came out as gay publicly in 1998. “This is as good of a time as any,” he told CNN‘s Jim Moret at the time. “I want to say that I have no problem with people knowing that I’m in a relationship with a man right now. I have not been in a relationship with a woman for almost 10 years.”
He was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in north London, and over the course of his four-decade strong career sold upwards of 100 million albums.
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It’s a sad day for music, amidst a year that has seen one beloved musician after another give their final encore.
In a statement, the star’s publicist said: “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.
“The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage.”
Michael struggled with some highly publicized health problems over the years, including addiction.
Earlier this month, it was reported that he was teaming up to create a new album with producer and songwriter Naughty Boy.
Tributes to the singer are sure to be shared in the coming days, so in the mean time we’ll leave you with this:
Poncho Sanchez
Last Christmas I gave u my soul, the very next day, it floated away…..RIP, George.
George Michael appeared on two of the top 10 selling Christmas songs….Last Christmas and Feed the World (Band Aid)
linnie_yiediterrianyanne
Beginning of 2016: the loss of David Bowie
End of 2016: the loss of George Michael.
R. I. P.
They were such iconic performers, artists and entertainers.
🙁
brianrio66
Sad loss
Prinny
Meh.Just another person dead
Brian
George was so talented, one of the few pop performers you could call that. He had the voice of an angel.
Xzamistletoe
Wow… another great one bites the dust.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
I was tempted to say I can’t believe it but..
Extremely sad. Putting aside the distracting tabloid fodder, he was incredibly talented songwriter with many modern-day classics under his belt. With his passing his artistry will be reassessed and his legacy is secure.
Fuck. I want a round the clock guard on Sade. You can’t take her. Not when there’s Sting
MikeM
Do They Know It’s Christmas?
Low Country Boy
@Prinny: Keep that snarky, bitchy comment in mind when one of your loved ones goes. If you even shed a tear when it happens, you are the biggest hypocrite on the planet.
Daniel-Reader
Very talented performer. He left a wonderful legacy of music.
Prinny
@Low Country Boy: I never shed a tear for anyone.Not one person in my life is worth a single tear.So yawn to your answer
Paco
A great talent has moved on to the next level of existence. He will be missed.
ErikO
🙁 Rest in peace. Thank you for the music.
orjeffy
I’m giving a big middle finger to 2016. Can’t wait for this year to get flushed down the toilet.
Kangol
A saddening loss. RIP, George Michael. This year can take a hike, and thankfully, in a few days, it will.
Billy Budd
It is about time science finds a cure for hiv. Enough is enough.
OrchidIslander
Another musical icon taken far too soon. George Michael and Prince, music of my wayward youth. Loved the era. RIP.
DMRX
@Billy Budd: He didn’t doe from HIV, moron. No one does.
Realitycheck
…and unlike Trump’s inauguration, Michael’s funeral will be a venue where celebrities and artists willingly show up to perform and pay respect.
RIP George Michael, I LOVED you man!
DCDawg
@DMRX: Hey ass-hat… he didn’t say he died of HIV. He just said find a cure for it. If you want to cure AIDS and related illnesses, you have to find a cure for HIV. Why don’t you find something useful to do with your life?
Neonegro
@ Realitycheck
Trump’s inauguration is serious business and no place for entertainers.
Masc Pride
Wow. RIP. Was just singing parts of Last Christmas today on my way to dinner.
Goforit
@Prinny: ‘I never shed a tear for anyone.Not one person in my life is worth a single tear.” I suspect that everyone in your life and certainly everyone that has to suffer your comments on this site, feels the same way about you. What a heartless pig you are.
ChrisK
@Prinny: You sound like a sociopath.
ChrisK
@DCDawg: He died of heart failure.
ChrisK
@Neonegro: Lol. You’re right. It’s a serious disaster and no serious entertainer wants to be a part of that.
Jack Meoff
@Prinny: I feel sad for you. You are going to die sad and alone with that attitude.
GameBoy
Can we talk about the amount of classics this guy had
Club Tropicana, Last Christmas, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Faith and the list goes on..
Such a legend, he will be missed.
ChrisK
I grew up with the guy. I think I’ve wore out the listen with prejudice CD. I’m going to have re download it and listen with tears in my eye this time.
Jack Meoff
George Micheal was the background music (along with other 80’s icons) of my teen years and into my 20’s. His music always has a nostalgic affect on me and always will. An amazing talent who brought us some ground breaking video clips for their era.
GameBoy
It Just a shame to lose another gay music legend, Troye Sivan, Sam Smith, MIKA, Frank Ocean and Adam Lambert better take notes…..
broadshoulder
A terrible shame. This man took forever to come out. He did it in the notorious eighties with everyone trying to “out him” but he did it in his own time
The man was a gay man who stood up for himself and everyone around him
The man is a legend
ppp111
@Prinny:
With all due respect, I think that says more about you than anything else. But hey, we’re all entitled to our views.
@Jack Meoff:
Following his logic, that means no one will be mourning for him when he passes which is also sad but that’s me. Anyway, I think it’s also sad that he passed away so young. I still remember a lot of his music.
iranardo_dasilva
So sad that it had happened to him. He died young, at only 53-years-old and it is a great loss for those who admired him in their whole life. Many people have had their life’s soundtrack based on his songs, they have cried or laughed, but his songs were always a expression of what we humans feel every time and everywhere.
He had the guts to come out as a gay man and that should be respected and followed by all those who feel this way, whether he may be younger or even for the older.
He always be a legend, especially for the emotional and introspective ones.
iranardo_dasilva
@broadshoulder: That is true. Not many people have the guts to do it, nowadays.
Chris
“Heart failure” can be due to many things.
One of my uncles died of heart failure, brought on by pneumonia due to Parkinson’s.
A cousin died of heart failure, brought on by pneumonia due to late stage AIDS.
A heart attack can cause heart failure.
So this is really a vague cause of death.
Having said do, he was a very talented man. May he RIP.
Miles
It is annoying that so many news articles have written paragraphs about his arrests in bathrooms by police officers pretending to be gay.
inbama
@Prinny:
And we won’t even say THAT for you.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTacNBS23Fw
Self of hunour. What a top bloke.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
* humour
Above: Ricky Gervais in bed with George Michael
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Damn this is so heartbreakingly sad and yet hopeful. (If only he had made good on his promise to his dead gay uncle to live that happy life for him) Not many top sellers were doing this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_69zDl_xYFk
Louis
He will be missed great talent good man and despite his mistakes he was a human being all of us are flawed and imperfect in this world.
RIP George always.
Sluggo2007
@Prinny: Too bad it wasn’t you instead.
Brian
George Michael had a very heterosexual image in his youth. That’s because he had to market his talent towards females who find male homosexuality desires quite threatening if they exist in men whom they perceive to be strictly heterosexual.
Women are very intolerant of male bisexuality because it ruins their business model as women.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Test to see if will will embed
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_69zDl_xYFk&app=m&persist_app=1
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Fuck how do you embed shit on this fucking broken ass site
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: I can’t do it. Shame. Cuz It deserves to be seen.
My Mother Had A Brother — a song about his gay uncle who committed suicide around the time George was bor because the world was not ready or willing to offer men like him love and respect or hold out any hope of a happy fulfilling future ; George aware of his advantages from the progress won a generation later promises to llife and love to the fullest and happiest in part as testimony to his uncle’s memory.
If only he took the words to heart.
Prinny
@Sluggo2007: Your words warm my heart
DarkZephyr
@Prinny: you have a heart?
broadshoulder
@Brian: Very true Brian
Realitycheck
>>>Prinny wrote: I never shed a tear for anyone.Not one person in my life is worth a single tear.So yawn to your answer
@Prinny: That would be the classic symptom of a serious mental disease.
Not a cry for help but serious need for strong medications…..get help.
dwbyers1960
Good lord people, everyone dies of heart failure.
Louis
@Prinny: You sound like a sociopath.
MediaGuy
It wasn’t very big news here in the states but a couple of years ago, Gerogie Puddin’and Pie was out of his minds on booze and drugs and drove into the front a Snappy Snaps photo shop. London roared with laughter. So did he, it was FAF, Another thing to be grateful for. hahahaahah. So now, Snappy Snaps is safe, at last. hahahahaha.
DISQUS
I am extrememly sad to know about George Michael’s passing. I grew up with his music. I am the same age as George. His music was always at the discos, fans always eager to hear a new song from George. Our generation is passing away. Our movie stars musicians, and those who are unknown by the media. I will light a candle today for George.
DISQUS
@Billy Budd: Amen to that
DISQUS
@Low Country Boy: Country Boy. This person obviously thinks the world revolves around them, and is craving attention because they probably don’t get enough attention. Just ignore them, that’s the best thing. With their attitude, they will probably be ignored when they die.
DISQUS
@Realitycheck: RC Prinny is just craving attention because they probably only get attention by writing thoughtless things on the internet. They probably don’t even know who George Micheal is. What comes around goes around. So, Prinny can expect that no on will cry when they die, or even miss them because they have no feelings and live in a negative space of self centered psychotic space.
DISQUS
@Prinny: This is a tribute to George Michael. Because of your negativity and self centeredness, you are turning it into comments about Prinny. Do us a favor and take your negative comments off, and for us, who are showing RESPECT and feelings of mourning. Sad that you are so miserable, that you want others to be miserable that you want attention and you have to turn it around to be about you because you don’t get enough attention in reality.
Arconcyyon
The is destiny etern peace is peace the very peace spiritulity the you angles in angles angles music the music peace the you ! Good Thanks .
abnerb
When I was 14 to 19 years old from 1984 to 1989, I liked listening to Wham! In 2016, I listen to Ariana Grande, Meghan Elizabeth Trainor, Justin Drew Bieber, Zayn Javad Malik, Fifth Harmony, Taylor Allison Swift etc. as music is best when it comes out first time.
With George Michael or Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, he had sex in a public bathroom for which he did jail time for and he was a drug junky. Yes, George Michael or Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou has died. Was George Michael or Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou a victim of gay pedophiles which possibly caused his homosexuality and drug problems?
abnerb
No, George Michael or Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou didn’t do jail time but community service for soliciting undercover cop in bathroom. But chances are that he had sex in public bathrooms before, only that time he got caught soliciting undercover cop. Public bathrooms aren’t the place for sex. If you want to have sex (straight, lesbian or gay) with a knowing & willing adult, then do that in your own house. With could George Michael or Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou been a victim of gay pedophiles as a boy? We don’t know his childhood but if it’s true, then it wouldn’t be surprising.
I have thought about this & don’t think any1 can rebut conclusion that childhood sex abuse victims of gay/lesbian pedophiles have more risk of turning out gay/lesbian by copying the conduct they learned because think you know that conduct incl. sexual conduct can be learned. Think you know it is possible for people who are victims of same sex molestation (such as victims of gay pedophile priests) to copy this sexual conduct and do gay conduct in adulthood incl. turn out to be gay pedophiles.
When I was 14 to 19 years old from 1984 to 1989, I liked listening to Wham! In 2016, I listen to Ariana Grande, Meghan Elizabeth Trainor, Justin Drew Bieber, Zayn Javad Malik, Fifth Harmony, Taylor Allison Swift etc. as music is best when it comes out first time.