LONDON—British pop star George Michael, who rose to fame with the band Wham! and sold more than 100 million albums in his career, has died aged 53, his publicist said on Sunday.
“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 publicist said in a statement.
Thames Valley Police said the ambulance service had attended a property in Goring in Oxfordshire, where the singer lived, at 1342 GMT on Sunday and a 53-year-old man was confirmed dead at the scene.
“At this stage the death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious. A post-mortem will be undertaken in due course,” the police said.
Singer Elton John published a picture of himself with Michael on his Instagram account.
“I am in deep shock. I have lost a beloved friend—the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist,” the British star wrote.
Madonna posted a video of herself presenting Michael with an award and wrote: “Farewell my Friend! Another Great Artist leaves us.”
Michael was due to release a documentary in 2017 after a period of living as a virtual recluse in which he hit the headlines for a series of bizarre incidents linked to drugs.
Earlier this month it was also announced that producer and songwriter Naughty Boy, whose real name is Shahid Khan, was working with Michael on a new album for next year.
Michael was best known for his 1980s hits “Last Christmas”, “Freedom”, “Careless Whisper” and “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” but his career spanned more than three decades.
He won a string of awards including two Grammies and three Brits.
His last album “Symphonica” (2014) rose to number one in the charts.
Many tributes to Michael referred to other music world deaths in 2016, starting with David Bowie in January and including Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt who died on Saturday.
“2016—loss of another talented soul. All our love and sympathy to George Michael’s family,” the band Duran Duran, which were 1980s contemporaries of Wham!, said on their official Twitter account.
Referring to him by his nickname “Yog” (Yours Only George), Wham! co-star Andrew Ridgeley said he was “heartbroken” by Michael’s death.
Canadian musician Bryan Adams tweeted: “I can’t believe it. Such an incredible singer and a lovely human being, far too young to leave us.”
Tributes poured in from outside the music world, too.
Football presenter and former England captain Gary Lineker tweeted: “No, not George Michael as well. Another musical great leaves us this year. 2016 can just sod off.”
“Star Trek” actor George Takei referred to some of Michael’s greatest hits in a tweet, writing: “Rest with the glittering stars, George Michael. You’ve found your Freedom, your Faith. It was your Last Christmas, and we shall miss you.”
Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou to a Greek Cypriot father and English mother in north London in 1963.
He met Ridgeley at high school and the pair went on to form Wham! in 1981.
With their good looks, perma-tans, highlighted hair and hedonistic image, the duo captured the go-getting spirit of the age and fast became one of Britain’s biggest pop acts.
In 1985, Wham! became the first Western pop band to perform in China as the country was slowly beginning to open up to the outside world under reformist leader Deng Xiaoping.
Following years of speculation over his sexuality, Michael came out as gay in 1998 after being arrested for committing a lewd act in the public toilet of a Los Angeles park.
It was the first of several incidents that were to overshadow his musical career in his later years.
He notched up police cautions for cannabis and crack cocaine possession and in 2010 was sentenced to eight weeks in jail after crashing his car into a London shop while under the influence of cannabis and prescription medication.
In 2011, he spent several weeks in hospital in Vienna after contracting pneumonia, later saying that he had been close to death.
There were fresh concerns in 2013 when he had to be airlifted to hospital after falling out of his chauffeur-driven Range Rover as it traveled at high speed on a motorway.
Pop superstar George Michael’s death over the Christmas holidays caps one of the most tragic years in memory for the music world which mourned a steady stream of top names.
Here are some of the prominent musicians who died over the momentous year:
• DAVID BOWIE. The rock icon’s fans were stunned by his death on January 10, just two days after releasing an acclaimed album, “Blackstar,” on his 69th birthday. Bowie, musically innovative until the end, had been battling cancer but his illness was known to few outside his immediate family.
• GLENN FREY. The co-founder and frontman of the Eagles died on January 18 at age 67 after years of poor health. With the massive success of tracks such as “Hotel California,” the country-tinged rockers were among the best-selling acts in US history.
• PAUL KANTNER. The co-founder and creative force of Jefferson Airplane, whose psychedelic sound was a soundtrack to the 1960s hippie era, died on January 28 at age 74 after a heart attack.
• MAURICE WHITE. The founder of Earth, Wind & Fire crafted tight pop songs out of funk, with the band becoming one of the top-selling acts of all time and among the first African American groups to win a wide white audience. The 74-year-old died on February 4 after suffering for years from Parkinson’s disease.
• KEITH EMERSON AND GREG LAKE. Emerson, one of rock’s original keyboard stars who infused concerts with on-stage theatrics such as playing upside-down, killed himself in his Los Angeles area home at age 71 on March 11. Bassist and singer Greg Lake, his bandmate in progressive rock trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer, died in London of cancer on December 7 at age 69.
• PHIFE DAWG: The snide rapper from A Tribe Called Quest, a group that brought a new artistic sensibility to hip-hop, died on March 22 at 45 after a lifelong struggle with diabetes.
• MERLE HAGGARD. The country music legend, a self-styled outlaw whose music gave voice to disaffected conservatives in the hippie era, died on April 6 on his 79th birthday.
• PRINCE. One of the most influential and successful artists of the 1980s, the “Purple Rain” star died on April 21 at 57 at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota from an accidental overdose of powerful painkillers. Prince, who popularized his own brand of sensual and danceable funk, was prolific in his output but also famously reclusive. With his marathon shows, he had appeared outwardly to be a model of health.
• LEONARD COHEN. The poet and singer, whose meditations on love and spirituality had won him an impassioned if niche audience, died on November 7 at 82, with his family quietly burying him in his native Montreal before announcing the news. In a parallel to Bowie, Cohen just weeks earlier had released an acclaimed album, ominously entitled “You Want It Darker.”
• SHARON JONES. The fiery soul and funk singer, who rose to fame at a late age and came to be called the female James Brown, died on November 18 of cancer at age 60.
• RICK PARFITT. The hard-charging, hard-living guitarist from Status Quo died on December 24 at age 68 following an infection.
• GEORGE MICHAEL. The singer, one of the brightest lights of giddy 1980s pop with the duo Wham! before a more introspective and troubled solo career, died at his home outside London at age 53, apparently on December 25. The “Careless Whisper” singer had numerous health scares and drug-related incidents late in his life.