This development led to cancellations and postponements of Michael's remaining 2011 performances, which had been scheduled mainly for the United Kingdom.

Michael spent most of his childhood in Kingsbury, London, in the home his parents bought soon after his birth; he attended Roe Green Junior School and Kingsbury High School.This single became the UK Christmas number one in December 1984, holding Michael's own song, "Last Christmas" by Wham! George had used sex to make it to the top: the “ I Want Your Sex” song and video, and the very gay iconography he employed for the Faith LP cover look — that biker, hyper-macho persona.

George knew how gifted he was, and he really struggled and labored over every one of those tracks because he knew what he wanted.One of my favorite music videos and recordings is of George Michael and Elton John performing a duet of "Don't Let the Sun go Down on me" in concert. In the case of George, I was learning the facts about all of these public humiliations and missteps and DUIs and ill behavior that happens under the influence of drugs. Jack Panos, born Kyriacos Panayiotou, was a Greek Cypriot immigrant with a deeply traditional worldview and an intolerance regarding homosexuality that shaped his gay son’s lifelong shame. And the depths of George’s self-hatred were such that he got there, he got what he wanted, and it only made him more miserable. You see the “I will show you” element that spurred him on, and you see the seeds of the self-hatred that snowballed to the point where George spent the first half of his life becoming George Michael and the second half of his life destroying George Michael.