George Michael: Bad boy done good

Fan Nadine O’Regan reflects on the singer’s solo work, activism and philanthropy

George Michael performs at Palais Garnier in Paris in 2012 Pic: David Wolff/Getty

George Michael first came to my attention through a kind of osmosis. Even if you were extremely young, as I was, when his band Wham! formed with Andrew Ridgeley, arrived onto the pop music landscape, it was impossible not to pay attention to lyrics as smartly pert and cartoonish as “You put the boom-boom into my heart!” and to a band so devoted to fun that they had an exclamation mark in their ...