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60 free George Michael trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
George Michael wrote Careless Whisper on a bus at 17, took Wham! to China, and then made Faith, the album that won a Grammy for Album of the Year and made him the biggest pop star on the planet. This quiz follows the whole story: Bushey Meads School and the nickname Yog, the ska band the Executive, Innervision Records, Choose Life T-shirts, the Wembley farewell, and a solo career that swung between the leather-jacket-and-jukebox era and the man who refused to appear in his own videos. Expect questions on the supermodels in Freedom! '90, the fight with Sony, the tribute to Anselmo Feleppa, Fastlove and Older, the Beverly Hills arrest and the Outside video that answered it, Shoot the Dog, Patience, the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, Carpool Karaoke, the coma in Vienna, and the strange afterlife of Last Christmas, which reached number one 36 years after release. His quiet philanthropy, his final concert and his 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction are here too. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on George Michael, Wham! and the individual songs and albums, so the chart positions, dates and names will satisfy the most devoted fan.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01George Michael was born in East Finchley in 1963 under what name?
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou
His father Kyriacos 'Jack' was a Greek Cypriot restaurateur; his mother Lesley was an English dancer.
Q 02At Bushey Meads School, where he met Andrew Ridgeley, George Michael went by which nickname?
Yog
The two shared an ambition to be musicians and first played together in a ska band called the Executive.
Q 03Before Wham!, Michael and Ridgeley played in a short-lived band called the Executive in which genre?
Ska
Their demo included a ska version of 'Für Elise' and 'Rude Boy', the first Michael-Ridgeley composition.
Q 04Which Queen song did the teenage George Michael busk on the London Underground?
'39
He would sing it again with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992.
Q 05Wham! signed their first record deal with which label after Ridgeley pestered its boss in a Bushey Heath pub?
Innervision
Mark Dean of Innervision was the man cornered at the Three Crowns.
Q 06The 'Club Tropicana' video was shot at which Ibiza hotel, a favourite of Freddie Mercury?
Pikes
The song reached No. 4 in the UK in July 1983.
Q 07The title of 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' came from what?
A note Ridgeley left his parents with a word repeated by mistake
He wrote 'up' twice by accident, then doubled 'go' on purpose.
Q 08The oversized 'CHOOSE LIFE' T-shirts in the 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' video were designed by whom?
Katharine Hamnett
The video started a craze for slogan tees.
Q 09George Michael wrote 'Careless Whisper' at what age, on a bus to his DJ job?
17
Ridgeley wrote the chord sequence on the Telecaster he got for his 18th birthday.
Q 10Who played the famous saxophone part on 'Careless Whisper'?
Steve Gregory
Michael composed the sax line himself and auditioned several players before he was satisfied.
Q 11In April 1985 Wham! became the first Western pop act to tour which country?
China
Manager Simon Napier-Bell had spent 18 months persuading officials to allow it.
Q 12On the original Band Aid single, Michael sang his lines third, after Paul Young and which other singer?
Boy George
He also donated the profits from 'Last Christmas', stuck at No. 2 behind Band Aid, to the same cause.
Q 13Which Elton John song did Michael sing with Elton at Live Aid in July 1985?
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
A 1991 live duet of the same song at Wembley Arena went to No. 1 in the UK and US.
Q 21Which US radio host refused to say the title of 'I Want Your Sex' on air?
Casey Kasem
Some stations played a toned-down 'I Want Your Love'; the video had Michael writing 'explore monogamy' in lipstick.
Q 22'I Want Your Sex' also appeared on the soundtrack of which 1987 film?
Beverly Hills Cop II
It reached No. 2 in the US despite radio bans.
Q 23The 'Faith' single stayed at US No. 1 for four weeks and became the best-selling US single of which year?
1988
The video's shades, leather jacket, cowboy boots and jukebox became defining 1980s images.
Q 14The 'Last Christmas' video was filmed at a ski resort in which country?
Switzerland
Saas-Fee, with backing singers Pepsi & Shirlie among the friends on the trip.
Q 15'Last Christmas' finally reached UK number one on New Year's Day 2021, how many years after its release?
36
It was a chart record until Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' took 37 years in 2022.
Q 16Roughly how many people saw Wham!'s farewell concert, 'The Final', at Wembley Stadium in June 1986?
72,000
The show included the world premiere of the China film Foreign Skies.
Q 17Which Wham! farewell single reached UK No. 1 in June 1986?
The Edge of Heaven
The compilation The Final came out at the same time.
Q 18After Wham! split, Andrew Ridgeley moved to Monaco and tried his hand at what?
Formula Three motor racing
His 1990 solo album Son of Albert failed to reach the UK top 75.
Q 19Ridgeley's long-term partner from 1990 to 2017, Keren Woodward, was a member of which group?
Bananarama
His brother Paul was an occasional percussionist for the same band.
Q 20Michael's 1987 duet 'I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)' paired him with which soul legend?
Aretha Franklin
It was the first solo release he had not written himself, and won them a Grammy.
Q 24The 'Faith' rhythm guitar part is built on a classic rock and roll rhythm named after which musician?
Bo Diddley
Hugh Burns played it on a metal-bodied acoustic guitar over a two-bar LinnDrum loop.
Q 25How many singles from the Faith album reached No. 1 in the US?
Four
'Faith', 'Father Figure', 'One More Try' and 'Monkey'.
Q 26Faith was the first album by a white solo artist to top which Billboard chart?
Top Black Albums
It also won Album of the Year at the 1989 Grammys and went Diamond in the US.
Q 27Which Grammy did Faith win at the 31st Grammy Awards in February 1989?
Album of the Year
He also picked up the MTV Video Vanguard Award that September.
Q 28The 1990 video for 'Praying for Time' was notable for what?
It showed only the lyrics on a dark background
Michael did not appear in any video from Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1.
Q 29Which director made the 'Freedom! '90' video, in which supermodels lip-synced instead of Michael?
David Fincher
Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz and Cindy Crawford took the verses.
Q 30In the 'Freedom! '90' video, which three symbols of the Faith era are destroyed?
Leather jacket, jukebox and guitar
The jukebox and guitar exploded at each 'freedom' in the chorus; the jacket simply burned.