George Michael's last Christmas

On 25 December 2016, Fadi Fawaz found his partner George Michael lifeless in bed. The singer had died at his country house in Goring-on-Thames, aged only fifty-three. At Christmas, of all times. He of all people, whose voice rings out every year anew through department stores and radio stations with "Last Christmas".

As the frontman of Wham!, Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou had become a teen idol in the eighties, and as a solo artist he later sold more than a hundred million albums. He kept quiet about his love life. He had confided in friends and a sister early on, but not in his parents or the public. The fear of being branded a gay pop star in the middle of the AIDS crisis ran deep.

In 1998, a plain-clothes policeman took the decision out of his hands. Michael was arrested for a "lewd act" in a public toilet in Beverly Hills, and the tabloids went into overdrive. But instead of hiding, he sat down in front of CNN's cameras, spoke openly about his relationship with a man and made clear that he was ashamed of nothing. Shortly afterwards, "Outside" was released. In the video, the toilet became a disco and two policemen kissed. The humiliation became one of the cheekiest responses in pop history.

From then on, he was open about who he was and quietly supported AIDS organisations and children's charities with large sums. He never quite got rid of his own demons. Drugs, accidents and severe pneumonia marked his final years.

After his death, there was speculation for weeks. In March 2017, the coroner found that Michael had died of natural causes, from heart disease. By then, mountains of flowers had long been piled up outside his homes in London and Goring. Obituaries honoured him not only as an exceptional voice, but as an icon of the queer community who had not chosen his coming out himself but had borne it with remarkable dignity.