Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was born on the 25th June, 1963, in East Finchley, London, England, of part- Greek Cypriot (father) descent, and was a singer, musician, songwriter as well as record producer who was known worldwide under his stage name George Michael. The singer rose to fame in the 1980’s as half of the singing duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley, and then became popular as a solo artist. Over his career he sold more than 100 million albums as well as winning a number of awards, including four Ivor Novello, four MTV Video Music, three Brit, three American Music and two Grammy Awards among many others. George Michael accumulated his net worth being active in the music industry from 1981 – he passed away in December 2016.
How rich was this legendary singer? Authoritative sources estimate that his net worth stood at over $200 million, however, post-death calculations may vary this sum. Also, he earned $97 million from his “25” live tour alone, aside from earnings from albums, singles and other tours. Apart from the home In Oxfordshire where he died, Michael’s assets included the luxurious Victorian corner residence in South Kensington, London valued at $11 million as well as a Whale Beach house in Sydney, Australia valued at $6 million.
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George Michael Net Worth $200 Million
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To begin with, George attended Kingsbury High School, and then Bushey Meads School when his parent moved north of London, and where while still a teenager, George formed the group named The Executive with his childhood friend Andrew Ridgeley. In 1981 they began a serious musical career, renaming their band to Wham! They realised that their music was popular and attractive, as the band soon became successful. Up to 1986, the band released four albums, but their best known track was the single “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go!”, with “Last Christmas” released in 1984 also becoming one of the most popular festive songs. However, they decided to go their separate ways, and George Michael began a solo career; his net worth was already well established.
His debut solo album “Faith” (1987) achieved outstanding success, selling over 20 million copies and being inducted by Rolling Stone magazine into the list of top 500 albums of all time. Afterwards, his “Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1” (1990) album was known for songs featuring lyrical and dramatic direction and was very successful commercially, whereas the album title “Listen Without Prejudice” (Eng. Listen without a prior opinion) invited the audience to look at the creative work of George on the other, non-commercial side. “Vol. 1” gave birth to speculations that there would be a second part of the album, but “Vol. 2” was not released, if it ever existed. His net worth continued to grow.
In 1996, Michael released the album “Older” (1996) which caused a lengthy fight with the record label; according to Michael, the album was quite successful and widely advertised, but the label did not like the long time interval between the second and third albums. After a couple of years he released a double album, “Ladies and Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael” (1998) and a year later the cover album “Songs From The Last Century” (1999) which added huge sums to the outright size of George Michael’s net worth. The next album again took a while to produce, as it was released only in 2004, named “Patience”. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of his musical career, George released a best album tracks “25” (2006) and after a long gap in touring, over the next few years went on a concert tours in the UK, around Europe and the US, as well as Australia, proving as popular as ever, and significantly contributing to his net worth.
George Michael continued touring over the next few years, which also promoted continued sales of his albums, variously estimated at over 100 million, and over the years he also accumulated seven number one hits in the UK, and eight on the US Billboard chart.
Finally, in the personal life of the singer, he openly admits to being gay. He was in relationship with the dress designer Anselmo Feleppa in the early ’90s, and who died of AIDS in 1993. Later, he was in relationship with the sportswear executive and former flight attendant Kenny Goss; latterly he claimed to be single, but was actually in a relationship with celebrity hairdresser Fadi Fawaz from 2011. However, George was often in the news because of several brushes with the law involving drug use, or what was described as ‘lewd behaviour’, as well as health problems apparently related to his sexuality. He suffered a bout of pneumonia in 2011 so severe that he almost died, and he underwent a tracheotomy the same year.
George was often involved in charity work, being part of Band Aid and the Live Aid concert in the mid-’80s, plus donating the proceeds of several song sales to various charities, including from “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” to Elton John’s Aids Foundation, in collaboration with the singer himself.
George Michael died on Christmas Day 2016 at his home in Goring, Oxfordshire, England.
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