George Michael to be honoured with huge public mural four years after his death
12 August 2020, 11:26 | Updated: 12 August 2020, 15:48
George Michael is to be memorialised with a nine-metre high mural in London to celebrate all he did for LGBTQ rights.
The singing sensation will be given a permanent tribute in the London next month.
The mural in the borough of Brent, where George Michael grew up, will be unveiled as part of Brent Borough of Culture 2020 in September.
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British artist Dawn Mellor has been commissioned to create the nine-metre high piece to go on display in Kingsbury.
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According to The Guardian the mural will be part of Studio Voltaire elsewhere, a series of artworks due to be unveiled across London.
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Dawn Mellow has previously painted prestigious portraits of The Queen and Karl Lagerfeld and her painting of George Michael will be the artist's first public permanent work.
George spent most of his childhood in Kingsbury, Brent and attended Kingsbury High School before moving to Radlett in his early teens where he met future Wham! bandmate, Andrew Ridgeley.
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Speaking to The Sun about his upbringing before his 2016 death, George reflected on the clashes between his mother and father's cultures.
Born on June 25, 1963 in East Finchley, London, George Michael was the third child of his Greek Cypriot father Kyriacos Panayiotou, a restauranteur known as 'Jack' and his English mother Lesley Angold, a dancer.
Read more: 8 times George Michael stunned strangers with private acts of charity
Announcing our next commission: Artist Dawn Mellor will create their first permanent public artwork: a nine-metre high mural in Kingsbury, Brent, celebrating the life of local hero George Michael, who lived and went to school in the area. https://t.co/jWaFEU6dvA pic.twitter.com/aB4Tw5tX4V
— Studio Voltaire (@StudioVoltaire) August 11, 2020
“My father was the archetypal 1950s immigrant from Cyprus, very determined, and every single member of his family made something of themselves in this country," George Michael said.
“They’re a typical immigrant family that worked their ar*es off and reaped the rewards."
Brent is the Mayor of London's Borough of Culture 2020 and will be showcasing the area with events including film screenings, poetry readings, workshops, exhibitions and much more for a year from September 2020.
For more information on the project and for how to attend in person or online, visit here.
