Famed singer George Michael — whose career ranged from squeaky clean pop hits with “Wham!” to repeated sex and drug scandals — died Sunday, according to reports out of Great Britain. He was 53.
In an eerie twist, his death came 32 years after Michael and former singing partner Andrew Ridgeley released the yuletide hit “Last Christmas,” which since then has repeatedly run up the charts in the UK.
Michael’s publicist said the artist “passed away peacefully at home,” according to the British Press Association.
An ambulance was called to a property in the village of Goring, about 50 miles west of London, around 8:45 a.m. EST, according to the BBC.
Cops don’t consider Michael’s death suspicious, the BBC said.
Michael, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, shot to fame as part of 1980s music duo “Wham!,” which scored a Number 1 hit with “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”
The song’s video featured Michael dancing in outfits that included blue-and-white short shorts, a long-sleeved pink T shirt and yellow, fingerless gloves.
He later launched a successful solo career, with edgier hits including “I Want Your Sex” and “Faith.”
But his image took repeated hits, including scandal over his bust for “engaging in a lewd act” in a Beverly Hills men’s room in 1998, which led him to reveal he was gay.
He was also arrested for drug possession in London in 2006, when cops found him slumped over the steering wheel of his car near the famed “Hyde Park Corner” in the city’s West End.
He was arrested again the following year for possessing crack cocaine while reportedly cruising for sex in London’s Hampstead Heath park.
In a 2009 interview with the Guardian — during which he repeatedly rolled up joints — Michael denied being a drug addict, but admitted: “I’m surprised that I’ve survived my own dysfunction, really.”
He said his 2006 driving arrest came because “I had a problem with sleeping pills for about a year and a half, and I f–ked up really badly.”
“I got in the car twice when I’d forgotten I’d already downed something to try to get me to sleep,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t deliberate — ultimately, I did it a second time, and I could have killed somebody.”
He also said he only went cruising for sex at Hampstead Heath — known in Britain as “cottaging” — on “the handful of times a year it’s bloody warm enough.”
“I’ll do it on a nice summer evening. Quite often there are campfires up there,” he said.
It’s a much nicer place to get some quick and honest sex than standing in a bar, E’d off your t-ts shouting at somebody and hoping they want the same thing as you do in bed. DyaknowhatImean?”
Michael also downplayed reports that fellow singing star Elton John had publicly fretted about his well-being, and said he embraced his flaws as proof of his humanity.
“People want to see me as tragic with all the cottaging and drug-taking… those things are not what most people aspire to, and I think it removes people’s envy to see your weaknesses,” he said.
“I don’t even see them as weaknesses any more. It’s just who I am.”
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