It was several years ago, he explained, on a Christmas eve in London, when he and a group of cheerily drunken friends trooped into the local church and sat giggling in the back row. That experience serves as an entry point into a political column about the state of religion in Britain. Although post-imperial Britain is a largely secular nation, Michael—whose partner, Kenny Goss, is an American from Texas—suggests that it might be time for his fellow Englishmen to start taking religion seriously again.

“The English are palpably losing their identity in a sea of reality shows and American business models, and somewhere in the distance I could swear I hear a bell ring. Or should that be toll?” he wrote. “So maybe those of us giggling in the back should shut up for a bit. The joke may be on us soon enough.”

Shortly after the column’s publication, the tabloids rushed to declare that Michael was urging gays and lesbians to become religious—a reinterpretation of his column at best. But the reaction to Michael’s latest career choice is not unexpected. Since his debut as half of 80s pop duo Wham! in 1982, Michael has been relentlessly followed in the press, most notably during his 1998 adventure in a Beverly Hills park restroom.

Looking back at his career, however, it’s clear that this recent decision to turn his pen to writing columns rather than pop songs is just another step along a relatively steady path. Ever since Michael left his Wham! days of teen-pop idol status behind, he has been struggling to emerge as a serious artist with real ideas—many of them political. He might never become the gay Bono, but Michael clearly has always had ambitions that reach beyond pop stardom.

Born on June 25, 1963 as Yorgos Kyratou Panayioutou (he changed his name after he joined Wham!), Michael was the youngest of three siblings; his father was a successful Greek-Cypriot restaurant owner. While growing up in the well-to-do London suburb of Bushey, Michael met Andrew Ridgeley, who would later become the other half of Wham!. In 1981, when they were both sixteen, they quit school and formed the short-lived band The Exclusive. But it wasn’t until they formed Wham! in 1982 that the duo was offered a recording contract with Innervision Records.

Wham!’s first album, Fantastic, was released later that year and included rap-style songs (“Wham! Bam! I am! A man!”) and the duo dressed in leather duds. Their ostensibly hard-core image was abandoned for their second album, Make It Big, when the duo were repackaged as prettyboy pop stars.

Make It Big included the unforgettable bubblegum pop tune “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” which went to the top of the charts around the world, and the sighing crooner “Careless Whisper,” whose video featured Michael’s feathered locks and gold hoop earrings. In 1985, Wham! became the first Western band to tour the People’s Republic of China, which was then just opening its doors to Western pop culture.

But despite such success—and the sex-infused excess that went along with it—Michael was unsatisfied with his pop career. He later told Rolling Stone, “I totally threw away my personal credibility for a year and a half in order to make sure my music got into so many people's homes…It was a calculated risk, and I knew I would have to fight my way back from it.”

Feeling constricted as an artist, Michael and Ridgeley disbanded Wham! in 1986, and soon afterward Michael recorded a duo with legendary soul diva Aretha Franklin, the 1987 hit “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” which won a Grammy Award. Later that year, Michael released his first solo album, Faith, which shot to the number one spot on the Billboard chart and eventually sold about 15 million copies.

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