INTERNATIONAL superstar George Michael, who sold over 100 million albums, across the world, has died aged 53.

The former Wham! lead singer died in his home on the River Thames yesterday (Christmas Day) by what was believed to have been heart failure.

The Careless Whisper singer's premature death brings to a close an unprecedented 12 months of musical stars dying - David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen and Glen Fry all played their last tune this year.

Mr Michael's family said in a statement: "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.

"The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage Thames Valley Police said South Central Ambulance Service attended hid Goring property 1.42pm.

A force spokesman said: "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."

George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in North London on 25 June 1963, the son of a Greek Cypriot restaurateur and english dancer.

He and a schoolfriend Andrew Ridgeley set up a ska band in the early 1980s and soon morphed into one of the biggest bands on the planet.

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Club Tropicana and Careless Whisper were all giant hits and Wham! only missed out on the Christmas number one in 1985 with Last Christmas due to Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas Time - which George also performed on.

With the good looks and great voice George Michael had millions of devoted female fans across the world, even in C, with Wham! being the biggest Western pop band to play in Communist China.

When the band split up in 1986 they played an unprecedented run of concerts at Wembley Stadium with the national stadium being tranformed inton a sea of white t-shirts worn by tearful women.

Andrew Ridgeley walked off into the sunset and into relative obscurity as a record executive whereas George had an incredible start to his solo career but having to deal with the pratfalls global fame brought with it.

For a few years after Faith, which saw his sunglasses and leather jacket image imprinted on popular culture, he had the golden chart touch, clocking up 100m sales worldwide.

His videos, many of which he directed himself, were a who's who of the world's most beautiful women, supermodels knew they had made it when they were hearing George shouting action.

The heartthrob faced constant questions over his sexuality, eventually coming out in 1998 after being arrested in LA for soliciting sex in a public toilet.

He famously lampooned the LAPD in his video Outside which included camp gyrating officers in a toilet.

Like Prince, who also died this year, he battled with his record company Sony over contracts and creative control.

Just as his music matured, his album Older was a masterful take on manhood, so did his world view.

He was the biggest star in the world to speak out against the Iraq war and suffered commercially because of it, especially in America.

Several high profile arrests for drug possession, cannabis and crack, and crashing into a camera shop high, meant he was never far from the headlines as his star waned.

However, in recent years his work with symphonies proved his talent from songwriting to arranging could not be denied.

His death on Christmas Day, the same date as one of his musical heroes James Brown, ensured wall to wall coverage of his death across.

A week after 2016 started the world lost David Bowie and now, a week before the year end, it is bookended by George Michael's sudden death -  us with a body of work which will live forever.