{"id":279666,"date":"2016-12-26T07:44:54","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T07:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=279666"},"modified":"2016-12-26T07:44:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T07:44:54","slug":"george-michael-pop-superstar-dies-at-53","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=279666","title":{"rendered":"George Michael: Pop superstar dies at 53"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Singer George Michael has died at his home at the age of 53.<\/p>\n<p>The star, who launched his career with Wham! in the 1980s and had huge success as a solo performer, &#8220;passed away peacefully&#8221; on Christmas Day in Goring, Oxfordshire, his publicist said.<\/p>\n<p>Thames Valley Police say they are treating the death as unexplained but there were no suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>Former Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley said he was &#8220;heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Writing on Twitter and referring to Michael as &#8220;Yog&#8221;, a nickname for &#8220;Yours Only George&#8221;, he added: &#8220;Me, his loved ones, his friends, the world of music, the world at large. 4ever loved. A xx&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/0872\/production\/_93126120_ridgely.jpg\" alt=\"Andrew Ridgely tweet\" width=\"976\" height=\"260\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><span class=\"story-image-copyright\">TWITTER<\/span><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>On Instagram, Sir Elton John posted a photograph of himself with Michael, writing: &#8220;I am in deep shock. I have lost a beloved friend &#8211; the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist. My heart goes out to his family and all of his fans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Michael&#8217;s family announced news of his death in a statement issued through the singer&#8217;s publicist.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>South Central Ambulance Service had been called to Michael&#8217;s property at 13:42 GMT.<\/p>\n<p>Thames Valley Police said its officers also attended and Michael was confirmed dead at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>They added: &#8220;At this stage the death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious. A post-mortem will be undertaken in due course. There will be no further updates from Thames Valley Police until the post-mortem has taken place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His manager, Michael Lippman, gave the cause of death as heart failure.<\/p>\n<p>A small heart wreath and a rose are among the tributes that have begun to be left outside the front door of Michael&#8217;s home, a detached property by the River Thames.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Singer George Michael has died at his home at the age of 53. The star, who launched his career with Wham! in the 1980s and had huge success as a solo performer, &#8220;passed away peacefully&#8221; on Christmas Day in Goring, Oxfordshire, his publicist said. Thames Valley Police say they are treating the death as unexplained [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":279668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}