His biggest problem: the image he would project to the world. As Wham!'s music increasingly became a revival of soul tracks from the ’60s and the cheerful Motown groups, George retreated into a suffocating image that he anxiously tried to impose outwardly. Gay activism was just beginning to spread – originating from New York – and becoming internationally known, but George was still too innocent to be informed about it. In fact, he didn’t even dare to think about it. Facing as a totem that caused fear his father, a hard-working Cypriot who wanted to succeed in a foreign country, George tried to earn his father’s love while at the same time trying to get rid of the DNA that made him have rich, Mediterranean body hair.

George’s eyebrows, thick and almost joined, were responsible for his “aggressive” look, which he tried to soften by plucking them, hiding behind sunglasses with cleverly chosen frames, posing to show only his left profile, and hysterically controlling every single frame in music videos or movies, any photo released to the public. In the final phase of his career, he tried to gain control over every photo and visual material of his image circulating on the internet. But it was as difficult to control as to stop the thousands of camera flashes – which had now become objects that fit in your pocket or even your palm – from capturing him at every moment: when he swept across the stage dancing; when he signed autographs on the street, smiling with teeth like a toothpaste commercial; when he went out to clubs always accompanied by the “gay cover,” as girls who play the role of “relationship” in boys who want to appear straight say in slang.

The more George wanted to hide his image, the more – almost clumsily – he exposed it to the tabloids. Unable to keep his mouth shut in the face of the whirlwind of publicity, he played roles or pretended ignorance, until at a critical turning point in his life and career he “came out of the closet” with a deafening sound, like Lazarus resurrected. Love was what set him free. But also great pain.