George Michael was not exactly a controversial figure when his dazzling white teeth and big gold earrings first blazed on to the world's screens as the useful half of pop group Wham! Although he allowed Andrew Ridgeley to share the stage and wield a guitar, it was clear that Michael was the one with the talent.Wham! had hits with Young Guns and Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, but in 1986 Michael let Ridgeley go. He embarked on a solo career with the 1988 album Faith, which sold 10 million copies.Michael's first brush with notoriety came soon after he abandoned the big hair, to emerge in designer stubble and dark glasses: his video for the single I Want Your Sex was banned when censors decided the writhing bodies were too explicit.Born Georgios Panayiotou, he grew up in Finchley, north London, the son of a Greek-Cypriot waiter and English mother. By the age of 27 he had a fortune estimated at $100 million, and millions of fans.In a 1990 interview, he admitted he had set himselfthe goal of Michael Jackson-status celebrity, but when he reached it, he found the life a ``complete nightmare''.As he became more famous, he became increasingly reclusive, living alone in his Hampstead, north London mansion. He exercised total control over his public image, refusing most requests for interview and vetting every published photo of himself.His sexuality was always ambivalent, deliberately so: he never attended premieres without a glamorous woman clamped to his arm, but never denied he was bisexual. The first stirrings of trouble came with his support of an AIDS charity. Michael claimed his involvement with the album Red Hot and Dance, an AIDS charity fund-raiser, was not approved by his record company.He later accused Sony of failing to back the project. Relations between Michael and Sony did not improve when, during the launch of his 1990 album, Listen Without Prejudice, he declared he would no longer appear in videos of his music, or give interviews. Then he clashedwith Sony again when they delayed release of his live duet with Elton John singing Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me.Michael's disappointment with sales of Listen Without Prejudice turned into a legal battle when he accused Sony of failing to promote his work. In 1993 he made a dramatic bid for release from his ten-year contract with the recording giant.Michael, who portrayed himself as the tortured artist on the conveyer belt, and described himself as Sony's `slave', said if they would not release him, he would never make another recording.In court, he accused Sony of refusing to allow him artistic maturity, and claimed they tried to force him to keep his sexy image. The legal battle ended in a crushing defeat, and huge costs, for Michael. His position looked bleak until he was bailed out by Virgin and Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks, who paid Sony $40 million to release him.The first time he spoke openly about his sexuality was when he talked about his great love in an interview forThe Daily Mirror in 1997. The death of Anselmo Feleppa, his Brazilian lover, inspired his 1997 album Older.Michael wrote the album in a deep depression caused by the deaths of Feleppa and his mother, and the critical reception was perhaps appropriately muted.
