As the year 2016 draws to a close, the world mourns the death of another legendary music icon: George Michael.
The British pop star and gay rights advocate "passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period," his family and friends confirmed in a statement released by Thames Valley police in the UK.
Although police earlier said the cause of his death is "unexplained but not suspicious," Michael's manager Michael Lippman said the celebrity had died of heart failure. The singer was 53.
George Michael: British Pop Icon, Gay Rights Champion
Michael is best remembered for the songs "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" and "Freedom" as one-half of the duo Wham! and for the smooth ballad "Careless Whisper" in 1984. He later went solo, releasing the album Faith in 1987, a smash hit selling more than 10 million copies.
Wham!'s Christmas classic "Last Christmas" also reached No. 16 on the UK Singles Chart this week.
In a career spanning more than three decades, Britain's biggest pop star of the 80s sold more than 100 million albums and won two Grammys.
Andrew Ridgeley, the other half of the hit duo, tweeted how he was "heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend." Sir Elton John also expressed grief over the death of his friend, whom he called "the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist."
But it wasn't simply Michael's dance tracks and ballads that cemented his status as a pop culture icon. Following his arrest in 1998 for lewdness, he not only openly admitted he was gay but also celebrated it.
"I never had a moral problem with being gay. I thought I had fallen in love with a woman a couple of times," the singer said. "Then I fell in love with a man, and realized that none of those things had been love."
The death of George Michael follows the demise of other influential musicians this year, namely David Bowie, who passed away in January, and Prince, in April. The streak of celebrity deaths is now being called online as "the curse of 2016."
David Bowie's Death
To some pop music fans, this year's so-called curse may have begun with the death of David Bowie. The music icon lost his battle with cancer a mere two days after he released his album Blackstar on his 69th birthday.
But Bowie's influence continued to live on: his supporters viewed his Vevo channel 51 million times within the first 24 hours following his death, and his songs dominated U.S. and global streaming charts that same week. All this proves just how legendary the singer was.
Prince's Death
The death of Prince only a few months later rocked the music world once again. It came to light that Prince had been battling painkiller addiction.
But just as the singer had electrified the stage throughout his career, so too did his fans electrify their tribute. Not the least of which was NASA's tweet of a purple Crab nebula in honor of Prince's timeless album (and later, film) Purple Rain.
