Overview

George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image--that of a hypermacho sex god--loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid--for a time--the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry's most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world. Acclaimed music biographer James Gavin traces Michael's metamorphosis from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the swaggering, dominant half of the leading British pop duo of the 1980s Wham!; he then details Michael's sensational solo career and its subsequent unraveling. With deep analysis of the creative process behind Michael's albums, tours, and music videos, as well as interviews with hundreds of his friends and colleagues, George Michael: A Life is a probing, definitive portrait of a pop legend.

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Reviews

Paul Bellantoni's resonant, empathetic performance leaves nothing to be desired in this revealing, often touching biography of pop music giant George Michael.-- AudioFile A fascinating, heartbreaking bio. -- People A probing, definitive portrait of the equally gifted and tortured artist, charting his meteoric rise in the '80s through his public self-destruction and tragic death. -- USA Today Gavin's engrossing biography of the singer takes the measure of a gifted, tragic, and infuriating man. -- New York Times This revealing (and often shocking) portrait...draws on scores of published media features and hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and insiders...This biography is moving, eye-opening, and essential, even for readers with just a casual interest in pop culture. -- Bay Area Reporter

Author Information

"James Gavin is a writer and music biographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Time Out New York, and Vanity Fair. He is the author of Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, Is That All There Is?: The Strange Life of Peggy Lee, and Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne. He lives in New York City. Paul Bellantoni, a classically trained actor, is a former opera singer in the US and Europe. He voiced all the fight efforts for Wenwu in the Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and made his animated feature debut in the Annie Award-nominated Ruben Brandt, Collector. Thrilled to be narrating audiobooks, he excels in character voices, accents, and captivating passionate storytelling. He was the singing voice for the Cowardly Lion of Oz ornament from Hallmark, and is the voice for Uatu, The Watcher in the Marvel Super War videogame. He has voiced lead characters in the English versions of several Netflix and Hulu series, and has appeared in many videogame franchises, including Dungeons & Dragons, League of Legends, Hearthstone, Black Desert, Genshin Impact, and Shenmue. He sang lead roles in opera companies throughout the US and Europe for over a decade, appears on the cast recording of ""The Ballad of Baby Doe"" with Central City Opera, as well as a solo CD of arias ""Heroes & Villains"" with the Moravian Symphony. He made his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the Koussevitzky Prize."

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