A year of grief in the music world

Pop star George Michael’s death during the holiday season—as his perennial “Last Christmas” saturated the radio airwaves—continues an unprecedented year of grief in the music industry, with David Bowie, Prince, and Glenn Frey among those dying this year before age 70.

Michael, who was 53, was born Georgios Panayiotou in the East Finchley area of London to a Greek-Cypriot restaurateur and an English dancer. Though his mother was Jewish, Michael was exposed to Protestant Christianity during his school years.

“I wanted to be loved,” said Michael of his start in the music field. “It was an ego satisfaction thing.” Michael played DJ at local clubs and sang Queen’s songs for tips on the London Underground before he and schoolmate Andrew Ridgeley formed a ska band called the Executive. They were 16. After a few gigs, the group folded, but Michael and Ridgeley moved on to form the duo WHAM! in 1981.

One of the giants of ’80s and ’90s music and an early idol for the MTV generation, Michael enjoyed immense popularity from the start with hits such as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” '”Freedom,” and the worldwide 1984 hit “Careless Whisper”—Michael’s first single as a solo effort. WHAM! announced their breakup in 1986.

Michael’s first solo album, 1987’s Faith, sold more than 20 million copies and generated several hit singles including the sensual “I Want Your Sex,” which was helped immeasurably by a provocative video on MTV.

The song was controversial not only because of its explicit nature and lyrics (“I don’t need no Bible”) but also for promoting immoral and reckless sexual behavior. Michael and his management tried to counter this view through two moves. First, Michael recorded a brief prologue for the video in which he said, “This song is not about having casual sex.” Second, he wrote “Explore Monogamy” on the leg and back of a model in the video. American Top 40 host Casey Kasem refused to say the song’s title, referring to it only as “the new single by George Michael.”

The second single from Michael’s solo debut was the titular “Faith,” which became one of his most popular songs, spending four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

As a solo artist, he developed into a more serious singer and songwriter, lauded by critics for his powerful vocal and expressive range. He sold well over 100 million albums globally. Despite commercial success, Michael agonized over being a celebrity, especially after the grueling concert and publicity tours to support Faith. His public withdrawal earned Michael a rebuke from one aging crooner who thought he was behaving like a fool: In a 1990 public letter, Frank Sinatra advised Michael to “loosen up” and “swing, man.”

Throughout his career, Michael’s drug use and sexual conduct brought him into frequent brushes with the law, most infamously in 1998 when he was arrested for lewdness in a Beverly Hills public bathroom after soliciting a male undercover officer. He went on to release a single and video, “Outside,” that made light of the charges against him and mocked the Los Angeles police who had arrested him. Michael was arrested on similar charges eight years later in London’s Hampstead Heath park.

During Michael’s 2010 Symphonica Tour, he collapsed with a nearly fatal bout of pneumonia and was hospitalized in Austria for five weeks. While recuperating in a Viennese hospital, Michael lashed out at a group “who call themselves ‘Christians for a Moral America’ who were actually taking the time to pray for me to die.” In his Twitter response, he added, “Now don’t get me wrong, I know for a fact that many devout Christians, such as the ones I work, rest, and play with on a daily basis, are truly wonderful, kindhearted men and women who take the best parts of that religion and live admirable, generous, and loving lives.” He wrote the single “White Light” about the experience.

Michael announced earlier this year his intent to release a second documentary on his life called Freedom in March 2017.

Michael is among a host of musicians who died in 2016, including Joey Feek (one half of the husband-wife country duo Joey + Rory); Denise Matthews (formerly known as “Vanity”); Maurice White (founder of Earth, Wind & Fire); counterculture legend Leonard Cohen; Frank Sinatra Jr.; Keith Emerson (of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer); Cliff Barrows (music director for Billy Graham); Christina Grimmie (The Voice star murdered during an autograph signing); country music icon Merle Haggard; and legendary Beatles producer George Martin.

Some of those artists made professions of Christ. Some didn’t. For many, it’s unknown. However, the transient nature of fame wasn’t lost on Michael. In a 1990 quote that likely earned him the rebuke from Old Blue Eyes, Michael said, “I’m not stupid enough to think I can deal with another 10 or 15 years of major exposure.” He added, “I think that’s the ultimate tragedy of fame, people who are simply out of control, who are lost. I’ve seen so many of them, and I don’t want to be another cliché.”