The singer, who by 1988 had become the world’s best-selling artist thanks to his debut solo album Faith and previous huge success with Wham!, will always be remembered for his music. He was a songwriter with the gift of creating an earworm and a remarkable, soulful voice, as well as good looks and wit. a perfect pop star package that won him the admiration of millions around the world. But for too long, the real George Michael hid behind a sex-god image. And in his later years, history with the law, health problems and drug use threatened to overshadow his talent. Despite his eventual openness about his sexuality and the fact that he enjoyed casual sex – after years in the closet before his very public coming out – he was still a rich source of delightful headlines. Michael’s death aged 53 at Christmas 2016 – as thousands heard his younger self sing a heartbreak between Slade and Mariah Carey on holiday playlists – stunned the world and soon shrines of flowers, candles and tributes to the singer were built outside his houses. Along with the tributes and visits to his back catalog came the stories of George Michael the philanthropist, a man who is said to have quietly donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to charities, secretly funded a woman’s IVF treatment after seeing her on TV and offered anonymously at a homeless shelter. There were many sides to the star, and his story is currently being told in a new biography as well as a re-released uncut documentary, which is Michael’s story in his own words. Leaving puns based on songs, stories of tragedy or headline-grabbing offenses behind, music biographer James Gavin simply chose George Michael: A Life for the title of his in-depth book. He says he decided to include everything, positive and negative, after talking to nearly 250 people who knew or met the singer at different times in his life. “George, despite all the sadness in his life, was not perceived that way, he is not perceived that way,” he says. “People don’t see him as a tragic figure. Yes, he died at the age of 53. It shouldn’t have happened. It did. And yet I think George Michael, his name and his music make people instantly happy.” Michael’s music made millions happy, and still does – whether you discovered him dancing to the carefree pop of Wham!, being blown away by Faith, embracing change with Freedom! 90, or cheered as he apologized in the lead-up to his exit — he was arrested for an “obscene” act in a public restroom after an undercover police sting in LA in 1998 — with Outside, a song about sex outside space? Michael, dressed as a police officer in the video, dances and swings a cane next to a row of disco-decorated urinals. As Gavin puts it, he was a musician who had “a talent for taking messy, conflicted lives of struggle and high achievement and turning it into beautiful and often sad music.” The project Michael was working on before he died Image: Pic: AP Photo/Irina Kalashnikova Shortly before his death, Michael told broadcaster Kirsty Young that he hoped a break from music would “result in something spectacular” and later wrote of their interview that he felt he “had a lot of hope that good things was ahead.” Unfortunately, it was not to be. While he’s been involved in a few singles in recent years, he hasn’t released an album of new material since his fifth studio album Patience in 2004. However, he was working on a project before he died – the documentary Freedom, which was re-released in cinemas in June and featured footage of his conversation with Young. Directed by Michael himself alongside long-time friend David Austin, as well as lighting his music, it is also a deeply personal and moving account of the star’s struggles with sexuality, fame and industry bosses, as well as the grief that follows. the death of his first love, Anselmo Feleppa, who had AIDS, and his mother from cancer. However, it doesn’t really touch on the more turbulent period of his later years. Michael talks about being a teenager and his “desperate ambition to be famous, to be loved and respected,” but then discusses his struggles with the spotlight: “I know the need for a persona, and my real personality I’m not really willing to give.” Gavin’s book also describes these struggles, tracing the star’s transformation from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriakos Panagiotou to the superstar he became. It also delves into Michael’s self-destructive nature. “George took far less joy in being George Michael than we did in George Michael” Image: Photo: AP Photo/Alistair Grant He says he wanted to tell Michael’s story honestly. “I’m fascinated by both the bright, bright, triumphant moments of life and the really low moments of life. And I think that artists like George – like all of us, but especially artists of this depth – are defined by everything. this happened to them ». Michael was “tortured” for much of his life, says Gavin. “I came to discover that George had taken much less joy out of being George Michael than we had taken out of being George Michael. And that’s the case with so many superstar lives.” The star also felt misunderstood, he says. “Unfortunately, the circumstances of George’s life were such that he handed the scandal to the press on a silver platter and it was easy for people to perceive him, in my opinion, badly, as a spoiled superstar who had gone off the rails and which had destroyed all his immense privileges and achievement. “And that’s not untrue. But what I tried to convey… is the fact that he was a man underneath it all. He was a guy in trouble who was struggling with self-hatred to a high degree. Her first half of George Michael’s life was about building and creating George Michael’s character. The second half was about tearing that down.” George Michael: A Life, by music biographer James Gavin, is available now. The George Michael Freedom Uncut documentary is also out now
