{"id":34011,"date":"2016-12-27T13:57:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T19:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=34011"},"modified":"2016-12-28T14:00:22","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T20:00:22","slug":"british-pop-star-george-michael-who-had-jewish-roots-dies-at-53","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/british-pop-star-george-michael-who-had-jewish-roots-dies-at-53\/","title":{"rendered":"British pop star George Michael, who had Jewish roots, dies at 53"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 British pop singer George Michael, who disclosed a decade ago that he had Jewish roots, died unexpectedly. He was 53.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34012\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/george-michael.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34012\" class=\"wp-image-34012 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/george-michael-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"LONDON - JULY 02:  Singer George Michael performs on stage at &quot;Live 8 London&quot; in Hyde Park on July 2, 2005 in London, England.  The free concert is one of ten simultaneous international gigs including Philadelphia, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Barrie, Tokyo, Cornwall, Moscow and Johannesburg. The concerts precede the G8 summit (July 6-8) to raising awareness for MAKEpovertyHISTORY.  (Photo by MJ Kim\/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** George Michael\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/george-michael-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/george-michael.jpg 880w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34012\" class=\"wp-image-34012 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/george-michael-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"LONDON - JULY 02:  Singer George Michael performs on stage at &quot;Live 8 London&quot; in Hyde Park on July 2, 2005 in London, England.  The free concert is one of ten simultaneous international gigs including Philadelphia, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Barrie, Tokyo, Cornwall, Moscow and Johannesburg. The concerts precede the G8 summit (July 6-8) to raising awareness for MAKEpovertyHISTORY.  (Photo by MJ Kim\/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** George Michael\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/george-michael-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/george-michael.jpg 880w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-34012\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Michael performing at \u201cLive 8 London\u201d in London\u2019s Hyde Park, July 2, 2005. (Photo by MJ Kim\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Michael died at his home in England of heart failure, his publicist said. His family asked for privacy.<\/p>\n<p>Michael first achieved fame as one of two members of the popular 1980s band WHAM! before beginning his solo career, where he was known for his catchy dance tunes and provocative lyrics.<\/p>\n<p>In a June 2008 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/la-et-georgemichael14-2008jun14-story.html\">interview,<\/a> Michael told the Los Angeles Times that his maternal grandmother was Jewish, but she married a non-Jewish man and raised her children with no knowledge of their Jewish background due to her fear during World War II.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe thought if they didn\u2019t know that their mother was Jewish, they wouldn\u2019t be at risk,\u201d Michael told the newspaper. His mother attended convent school, losing any shred of memory of her mother\u2019s Jewishness.<\/p>\n<p>Michael acknowledged his homosexuality in 1998 after being arrested for public lewdness in Los Angeles, where he attempted to pick up a man in a public bathroom.<\/p>\n<p>His first solo album, 1987\u2019s \u201cFaith,\u201d sold more than 20 million copies, and he had several hit singles including \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d \u201cFather Figure,\u201d \u201cOne More Try\u201d and \u201cPraying For Time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael was born\u00a0Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in 1963 to Greek Cypriot parents in London.<\/p>\n<p>Police said in a statement that the death was \u201cunexplained but not suspicious,\u201d and his publicist said he had not been ill.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"British%20pop%20star%20George%20Michael%2C%20who%20had%20Jewish%20roots%2C%20dies%20at%2053\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7137],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34013,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34011\/revisions\/34013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}