His Last Christmas …

English singer, songwriter, and record producer George Michael, who rose to fame with the group Wham!, passed away on Christmas Day of a heart failure. He was 53.

In a statement to the BBC, the star's publicist said: “It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period. The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage.”

Both as a solo artist and with Wham!, Michael collected 10 No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including “Faith”, “Father Figure”, “One More Try” and “Careless Whisper”. The latter cut was credited to Wham! featuring Michael, while Wham! notched two more No. 1s: “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Everything She Wants”.

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in London on June 25, 1963, Michael showed his musical aspirations early on while attending schools in the towns of Bushey and Kingsbury in the United Kingdom. It was at the former where he would meet future Wham! band-mate Andrew Ridgeley. The two would form a ska band called The Executive, though it was short-lived. Michael also spent time busking on the London Underground, where he performed songs by Elton John, David Bowie and The Beatles.

Michael and Ridgeley formed Wham! In 1981 and released their debut album, “Fantastic”, in July 1983, which quickly shot up to the top of the British charts.

The follow-up album “Make It Big” was released on Oct. 23, 1984, and reached No. 1 in the US, UK, Japan and multiple territories with lead track “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” sitting at the top spot on the US Hot 100 chart for three weeks. That album also included the singles “Freedom”, “Everything She Wants” and the ballad “Careless Whisper”, a quantifiable smash that reached No. 1 in the US and stayed there for three weeks.

Other major Wham! feats include a history-making tour of China in 1985, marking the first time a western act performed in the country. Wham! officially split in 1986, releasing a farewell single, “Edge of Heaven”. Also in 1986 came the mega-hit “Last Christmas” from the band's last album, “Music From The Edge of Heaven”.

Michael's solo endeavors extended beyond Wham! to include an appearance on the all-star charity single “Do They Know It's Christmas?” in 1984 and a duet with Aretha Franklin, “I Knew You Were Waiting” in 1987, which won a Grammy Award in 1988 for Best R&B Performance – Duo or Group with Vocal. But it was his first solo album “Faith”, which was released in 1987, which catapulted him to a virtually unprecedented level of fame.

The “Faith” title track would lock in what would later become one of the best-selling albums of all time. George Michael sold an estimated 20.7 million albums in the US over the course of his career -- combining both his solo work and that of Wham! The album spent 51 non-consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, eventually selling more than 10 million copies in the US, and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1989.

Appearances on UK television shows with the likes of Elton John (like on the duet “Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me”) kept Michael in the public eye for the rest of the 1990s and into the 2000s. In 2006, Michael embarked on his first world tour in 15 years, called “25 Live”. It coincided with a two-disc album called “Twenty Five”, released in 2008.

Michael would become more reclusive as the years went on, but his pop culture relevance would not dissipate. Throughout his life, Michael remained active in many charities, performing concerts to raise money a myriad of causes, including HIV research.