George Michael Facts That Hit Us like ‘Wham!'

George Michael was a significant icon of the MTV generation and created unforgettable music in his time.

By Toonacious

Published 2 years ago in Ftw

George Michael was a significant icon of the MTV generation and created unforgettable music in his time. Here are some unknown facts about him.

1
“George Michael donated money to a woman he saw on Deal or No Deal for IVF who could not get pregnant. She later discovered she was pregnant on Christmas day.” - u/The_Jizzbot

2
"The song "I Knew You Were Waiting For Me'' was supposed to be a duet between George Michael and Michael Jackson until MJ dropped out and then they tried to get Stevie Wonder, but due to the timing issue, that fell off until it went to Aretha Franklin." - u/Lower-Let3422

3
"The sax riff on George Michael's "Careless Whisper" was made unnaturally. While recording, the tape was slowed & the saxophonist played a semitone lower, then it was sped up for playback. 10 other sax players had tried playing it normally, but this was the only way that sounded right to Michael." - u/howmuchbanana
4
"George Michael was paid a reported £1.5m for an hour's concert at a Russian billionaire's New Year's party." - u/partsunknown99

5
"George Michael was the most played artist from '80s until mid 2000s in UK radio." - u/partsunknown99
6
"From 1977 to 1989, only 4 solo artists had an album spend 10+ weeks at #1 in the US – Michael Jackson with Thriller, Whitney Houston with both Whitney Houston and Whitney, Prince with Purple Rain and George Michael with Faith." - u/partsunknown99
7
"George Michael wrote his hit single “Careless Whisper” at 17 years old out of sheer boredom while riding the bus to work. Despite its success, he was not happy with the song and in a 2009 interview with the Big Issue, he said he was “a bit puzzled why it made such an impression on people”." - u/deleted

8
"In 1989, George Michael was the first white artist to win Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist at the American Music Awards. That win caused a huge controversy in the black music community." - u/partsunknown99
9
"George Michael's 'A Different Corner' was the first British No.1 hit that the artist was writing, singing, arranging, producing, and playing all the instruments on the song.'' - u/partsunknown99
10
"The phrase ‘doing a George Michael’ entered parlance to mean someone who was leaving a teen band to pursue a solo career. Amongst those who can have been considered to have been following his example are Justin Timberlake, formerly of N*SYNC and Robbie Williams." - u/partsunknown99

11
"George Michael was the first international pop star to perform in Paris' Opera Garnier, a venue more known as a stage for classical music and opera." - u/partsunknown99
12
"George Michael donated the song "Jesus to a child" royalties to the charity ChildLine (a child counselling charity) in secret." - u/DonKiddic
13
"Movie director David Fincher started his career directing music videos, including huge hits like Cradle of Love (Billy Idol), Express Yourself and Vogue (Madonna), Freedom (George Michael), Janie's Got a Gun (Aerosmith)." - u/dart_catcher

14
"DreamWorks had a music label from 1996-2006 and signed such artists as Papa Roach, Chris Rock, Rufus Wainwright, Elliott Smith, George Michael, and Nelly Furtado." - u/queen_oops
15
"George Michael co-wrote 'Careless Whisper' with his Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley when they were just aged 17." - u/partsunknown99
16
"George Michael used to smoke 25 joints a day." - u/honeypuppy

17
"George Michael won the American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, Pop/Rock Male Artist, Soul/R&B Male Artist. Beating the likes of Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown and Gladys Knight" - u/partsunknown99
18
"Rob Thomas originally had George Michael in mind as the vocalist for Santana's hit song "Smooth". However, when Thomas recorded a demo, Santana enjoyed it and decided to have him record the final version." - u/deleted
19
"Frank Sinatra was so pissed off at George Michael for lamenting the "tragedy of fame," he sent him a letter saying "The tragedy of fame is when no one shows up and you're singing to the cleaning lady" - u/holyfruits