Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (June 25, 1963 – December 25, 2016), known professionally as George Michael

Michael was a singer, songwriter, and record producer, who rose to fame as a member (with Andrew Ridgeley) of the music duo Wham!. He was best known in the 1980s and 1990s with his style of post-disco dance-pop and has also been characterized as a blue-eyed soul singer, although his material drew more from middle of the road pop than soul music. Michael sold more than 100 million records worldwide. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Michael garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked Michael the 40th most successful artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All Time Artists list. Michael won numerous music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations. George Michael died at his property in Goring, Oxfordshire, England. At 22:59 GMT Christmas day. His publicist stated that he had "passed away peacefully" and Thames Valley Police said they were treating the death as unexplained but there were no suspicious circumstances. Further tests were carried out and in March 2017, a senior coroner in Oxfordshire attributed the death to natural causes as the result of a dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver.