Post by Jesse Cooke

63 years ago on June 25, 1963, George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in London. He was 20 when Wham!’s debut album ‘Fantastic’ reached No. 1 in the UK in 1983 and he became an international star the following year with ‘Make It Big’ (1984), which featured Wham!’s first US No. 1 hit, ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.’ The ‘Careless Whisper’ single was credited to him and made for his hugely successful transition to solo artist. Here’s the story of George Michael’s first love. Why? Because it’s Pride Month. And because it’s 2026, for crying out loud. If this feels in any way uncomfortable, please read it over and over. George Michael met Brazilian fashion designer Anselmo Feleppa when Michael performed at the Rock in Rio II Festival in Rio de Janeiro in 1991. “We had about two or three days on the island… and we got it together. And within days I outed myself to just about everybody in that circle of friends, work colleagues and stuff. It was very immediate.” “By the time I met Anselmo, I had made the decision to jump off the merry-go-round. And I was already in the early stages of my confrontation with Sony, but for 6 months I was happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life. Fame, money all the things you know. Everything else just kind of paled by comparison. To finally at 27 years old, waking up in bed with someone who loves you, you know, and Anselmo was absolutely that.” The morning after Freddie Mercury died on November 24, 1991, Feleppa tested positive for HIV. About the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992 at which George Michael performed a show-stopping rendition of ‘Somebody to Love,’ he said: “Anselmo was there and I was dying inside…I went into another place. This was the loudest prayer of my life…it’s not an accident that the performance, probably most well-known in my career, was sung to my lover who was dying.” Feleppa died 11 months later on March 26, 1993 at the age of 36. “…the day after he died I wrote my parents a letter. It was such an easy letter to write. I felt that when he died he was passing a gift, saying, ‘I introduced you to yourself, and I opened you up to everyone you loved except your mom and dad. And you have to deal with that.’ So I wrote them a letter and saw them as soon as I got home after I’d been to Anselmo’s funeral in Brazil. And everything was fine; it was wonderful. Of course, they were more concerned that I had just lost my partner than that I’d actually finally said what they already knew.” George Michael wrote ‘Jesus to a Child’ in Feleppa’s memory and dedicated to him the whole album ‘Older’ (1996). In 1997, he said: “Older is my greatest moment, in my opinion. And as I’ve said before I don’t ever want to be that inspired again.” George Michael died on December 25, 2016. He was 53 years old.