George Michael

 

Singer George Michael has had more than his fair share of scandal in his life. Yet he has weathered each of the many storms that have come his way with surprising honesty, in most cases admitting candidly to the accusations raised against him. In 1998, after being arrested in a public toilet for ‘lewd behaviour’ by an undercover policeman, he came out about his homosexuality. Since then, he has remained unapologetic about the incident, even going so far as to make a video about it. In addition, he has been open about his problems with depression and drug abuse, admitting his weaknesses rather than being ashamed of them. Interestingly, the fact that Michael has been so straightforward about these issues, refusing to lie about them, has meant that the scandals surrounding his behaviour have had little overall effect on his career. He has shown by his example that if the person at the centre of a scandal is honest, much of the shock value of the sordid details are lost. What the tabloids and, increasingly, the quality newspapers seek is to expose the bad behaviour of someone who presents a respectable image to society, and in this way, try to reveal their hypocrisy. However, when the person they are hounding refuses to play this game, and is open about their sexuality and their problems, in many cases the story ceases to be so much of a scandal, and can be tackled in a more serious, thoughtful way that raises issues for everyone about the way we live in modern society.

 

International superstar

 

George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley, North London. His father was the manager of a Greek Cypriot restaurant, and his mother was a dancer. The family was socially diverse; one of his grandmothers was from a wealthy Jewish family, while one of his grandfathers came from a poor, working-class background. Michael grew up in North London and attended Kingsbury High School, along with his sisters. As a teenager he formed his first band The Executive with his friends Paul and Andrew Ridgeley, David Austin and Andrew Leaver. In 1981 he went on to form a duo with Andrew Ridgeley, and it was then that his group, now named Wham!, hit the charts.

The pair released an album which gave rise to a string of hit singles on the British charts. Their image was one of two best friends, ‘young guns’ as they called themselves, out on the town looking for love, laughter and a good time. They often used female backing singers and dancers to emphasise their masculinity. The upbeat style of music, their 1980s’ fashion sense, their good looks and their energetic dancing made them one of the most popular acts of the day, so much so that their second album became not only a British bestseller, but a worldwide hit.

As well as touring America, Wham! became the first Western pop group to tour China, and Michael went on to become an international superstar. The following year, however, tensions began to develop between Michael and Ridgeley as a result of the attention being lavished on Michael, and Wham! split up. Their farewell show at Wembley Stadium attracted thousands of fans, and it was clear that Michael had a brilliant career still ahead of him.

After the break-up of the group, Michael became a huge solo act, and his debut album Faith charted at number one both in the United States and Britain. Hit single after hit single followed, and many of his songs, such as ‘Careless Whisper’, became timeless classics. Still at a young age, Michael seemed to have achieved everything that any singer could possibly want.

However, trouble lay ahead as he began to argue with his new record company bosses at Sony, who had taken over CBE, the record label that had pioneered his career up to that point. Michael accused the enormous new corporation of mishandling his career, and indeed many pop acts were critical of the way they were treated as commodities by the new Sony management. In particular, Michael was angry about some homophobic remarks made by one of the executives at the company, which he overheard on the phone one day, in which he was referred to as a ‘faggot’.

 

Scandal breaks

 

Everyone who knew George Michael personally realised that he was gay. However, at this stage Michael had still not come out in public about his sexual orientation for fear of harming his career. As far as most members of the public were concerned, he was a poster boy for heterosexuality; girls swooned over him, and he traded on the image of himself as a young man about town who lived for the high life of wine, women and song. To keep this image alive, there were constant rumours in the tabloids about him dating female film stars, dancers and other women in the entertainment world, but his close associates knew that for many years he had been having a stable relationship with a male Brazilian designer, Anselmo Feleppa. Sadly, Feleppa died in 1993 of a brain haemorrhage, prompting a deep emotional crisis for Michael, which was made more severe by the death of his mother from cancer four years later. The death of these two loved ones had a sobering effect on Michael, who later dedicated his album, Older to Feleppa. In his music, he acknowledged the changes that the death of his lover and his mother had made in his life, but he continued to keep his private life a secret, away from the prying eyes of his fans.

In reality, however, he was in a state of emotional turmoil, and matters reached a head when on 7 April 1998 he was arrested for masturbating in a public toilet in Beverly Hills, California. The man who arrested him was an undercover policeman, who Michael claimed had encouraged him in the act and had also joined in the sexual behavior. However, the courts did not believe him and Michael was fined and sentenced to community service. Afterwards, he was unrepentant and made angry comments to the press. He felt that he had been conned and accordingly made a video for his next single, ‘Outside’, in which two men dressed as policemen were seen kissing. After this, the policeman sued Michael for a huge sum of money. The whole affair blew up into a huge scandal, but Michael continued to maintain that he had done nothing wrong, and for the first time openly declared himself to be a homosexual. He began to be seen in public with his partner Kenny Goss, a former coach and sports clothing executive, and spoke openly about their relationship in interviews.

 

A life in turmoil

 

From this point, it seemed that Michael might have reached a new period of stability in his life. In 2006, however, scandal broke once again when Michael was arrested for possession of minor drugs. There followed a number of incidents in which Michael was seen driving cars under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and on May 2007 he pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of drugs. The following month his partner Goss checked into a rehabilitation clinic because of his problems with dependence on prescribed drugs. It became blatantly obvious that Michael’s life was still in turmoil, or at least that the pressures of stardom never receded very far away.

However, despite all the bad publicity and inner turmoil, Michael has continued working and today continues to tour the world, reaching an ever-increasing army of fans worldwide. In the new millennium he is still regarded as one of the major stars of popular music, despite the many scandals that have at times threatened to ruin his career. Today, he is widely respected among the gay community and other groups for his courageous, honest stance about his sexuality, and his refusal to be intimidated by the authorities in the case of the incident at the public toilet. As a result, the affair has now largely been forgotten, and he remains one of the best loved acts in the pop world to this day.