George Michael, born as Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Greek: ???????? ???????? ??????????, 25 June 1963) is a two-time Grammy Award winning English singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the 1980s, when he formed the pop duo Wham! along with his school friend Andrew Ridgeley. His first solo single, "Careless Whisper" was released when he was still in the duo and sold about six million copies worldwide.