George Michael: The Generosity He Kept Secret
He sold millions of records and packed stadiums. But what surprised the world most only came out after his death.
His name was Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, and he was born in London in 1963. The world knew him as George Michael: first in Wham!, the duo he formed with his friend Andrew Ridgeley in 1981, and later as a solo artist.
In 1984 came “Careless Whisper,” with that saxophone everyone recognizes in two seconds flat. In 1987 he released Faith, an album that sold more than 25 million copies and won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
He died at home on Christmas Day 2016. He was 53.
And then the stories started coming out. People and organizations shared what he had asked them to keep quiet: for years, he had given away large sums of money, almost always anonymously. Among other things, he donated the proceeds from his song “Jesus to a Child” to Childline, a helpline for children in the UK. The charity’s founder described him as a philanthropist of extraordinary generosity who insisted that no one find out.
Smaller, more personal gestures came to light too, like huge tips for people going through hard times and free tickets for nurses.
He could have turned all of it into a PR campaign. He chose silence. Maybe that’s why, when the world found out, it was so moving.
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