George Michael Biography

- His friends call him ‘Yog’.

- Wham! was the first Western pop act to tour China, which they did in April 1985.

- George and Andrew, during their Wham! Days, admitted to putting shuttlecocks in their shorts to enhance their size.

- Boy George voiced his dislike of George Michael in the early 1980s by asking if a voice he had identified on a Band Aid track was Alison Moyet’s. When told it was George Michael’s, Boy George replied, “God he sounded camp, but then he is”.

- In mutual admiration of talent, Andrew Ridgeley’s wife, Karen Woodward of Bananarama, did a cover version of ‘Careless Whisper’ in 2000. George Michael worked on a dance remix of Bananarama’s ‘Tripping on Your Love’.

- The ‘Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael’ (1998) album sales doubled after he ‘came out’ as gay, in a Parkinson television interview.

- ‘Careless Whisper’, written when George was 17-years-old, was voted London’s favourite song of all time in January 1995 and was one of the most frequently played songs of the decade.

- George’s musical influences include: Queen, Marvin Gaye, and Elton John.