Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

George Michael, Pop Star With Jewish Roots, Died Of Natural Causes

Pop star George Michael died of natural causes, a British coroner said on Tuesday, finding that heart failure and liver disease caused the pop star’s death on Christmas Day last year.

The coroner said that there was no need for further inquiries into the death of Michael, 53, whose grandmother was Jewish. He rose to stardom in the 1980s with Wham! before a successful solo career.

“As there is a confirmed natural cause of death, being Dilated Cardiomyopathy with Myocarditis and Fatty Liver, the investigation is being discontinued,” Darren Salter, the Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire, said in a statement.

Dilated cardiomyopathy is a heart condition that impairs the pumping of blood around the body.

The initial autopsy into the singer’s death had been inconclusive, though his manager had said previously that he had died of heart failure.

“Wham! were one of the most successful pop duos of the mid 1980s, with singles such as “”Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” “Last Christmas,” “”Careless Whisper,” and “Young Guns (Go For It!).”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.