http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38432862

WTF IS WRONG WITH 2016?!

Exactly this. 2016? GTFO.

I have to admit I initially didn't think much of him or his music. Throwaway bubblegum pop for teenage girls who cared more about his jawline than the bassline.

Then, there was this...

Freedom 90

Not only is it an almost perfect pop song (just listen to that piano hook for pity's sake), it's also an incredibly brave song - to come out and do/say that given his position was eye-opening to say the least. OK, the supermodel-stuffed video is a bit idiotic but the song itself is absolutely honest and entirely self-aware. He didn't have the critical credit or stature to do it, but he did it anyway.

I#ve liked some of his stuff since, I've thought some of it was indifferent, and some of it was, well, poor. But I'd always respected him, because he stood up and made that statement, he made that choice and stuck to it, when he could have just carried on doing the same old thing and nobody would have blinked. And kudos for that.

"Sometimes the clothes do not make the man."

secret society celeb blood sacrifices obviously, 2016 is the year for that

A weird one for me, this. I never liked his music - but I am obviously not oblivious to the fact that a lot of people did. He was 53 (the same age as James May, FWIW), which puts him only a few years older than me. The thing is that the school he went to was pretty close to the one I went to - we could, had slightly different choices been made), have been to the same school. I do know that the guitar teacher I had also taught at George Michael’s school, which means that if he had guitar lessons there, that we had the same teacher. Clearly my guitar skills have not lead to the same dizzying heights of success that his did.

To be fair, it wasn't the guitar playing he was famous for

lives (Lived) just a village away form me

I was at the Wham Final and saw him perform after they split too. Amazing man and performer and from what we've been hearing he was very generous too

Tabloid still trying to spin that we was somehow up to no good because he was gay.