Pop star and one-half of Wham!, George Michael, passed away at his home in Oxfordshire at the age of 53 on Christmas Day.

Michael died from what is suspected to be heart failure, his manager said, according to the UK-based Press Association.

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, he had 11 UK number ones and sold more than 100 million albums in an almost four-decade career. His last album, Symphonica, was released in 2014.

Here is the 2004 clip from the first-ever Singapore Idol audition, where a contestant, Patrick Khoo, did his evergreen rendition of Careless Whisper, a song by Michael from 1984:

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Christened the "Careless Whisperer", Khoo would go on to star in a 12-minute short film by Roystan Tan in 2005, parodying himself and basking in his post-Idol fame.

The film has been described as such:

Careless Whisperer

A memorable reject during the audition stages of the very first Singapore Idol, Patrick Khoo aka Mr Careless Whisper, shot to notoriety for his almost inaudible performance of George Michael's signature tune in the 80s. However, it's pretty amazing how Royston managed to weave a relatively adequate performance from this silent man, as a security guard who wants to impress a girl in his workplace with his singing.

The short plays with a mat-rocker styled narration to explain the hilarious visuals of the life of Patrick, which included sight gags of his guy and girl friends, one pair who is played by Don Richmond, who contributed the song "You'll Never Have To Fear", which Patrick sings at the end, audibly, though I'm not sure if the production team had to increase any volume to its maximum. The finale, with the crane shot and special effects, plays like a typical music video about love.

Khoo was later written about academically as an anti-idol who couldn't resist being commoditised.

For a more serious dissertation of Careless Whisper, read American news monthly Atlantic's take on it yesterday:

"George Michael’s crooned tale of getting cuffed then dumped happened to be set around Yuletide, but it could have taken place at any time of the year...

Released in 1985 and blocked from the No. 1 charts spot by “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” “Last Christmas” also stands as one of the few canonical Christmas songs minted after the Baby Boom—it’s basically ’80s New Wave’s only popular entry. "The Glorious Bitterness of ‘Last Christmas’", The Atlantic "

RIP George.

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