timster
11-18-2003, 08:14 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - British singer George Michael has signed a new global recording deal with Sony, the company from which he battled to free himself in the early 1990s.
"Sony Music UK today announced that it has signed a new worldwide record deal with George Michael," the company said Monday on its Web site www.sonymusic.co.uk.
It said Michael was finishing recording "Patience," his first album of original material since 1996's "Older," and the new album would be released early next year.
"We are delighted to be working again with one of the greatest recording artists this country has ever produced, who has made another classic album," said Rob Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony Music UK.
The statement said that in a career spanning nearly two decades Michael had sold more than 75 million records.
Michael, who leaped to fame in the early 1980s with Wham!, lost a long legal battle in 1994 to break out of his contract with Sony, which he said was stifling him and preventing him maturing from a teen idol to an adult star.
Rival record companies Virgin and DreamWorks bought out his contract the following year, but his sales have since been lackluster.
In 1998 Michael was fined for lewd conduct after being arrested in a public toilet -- an event that prompted him to acknowledge publicly that he was gay.
Sony gave no details of the new recording deal.
"Sony Music UK today announced that it has signed a new worldwide record deal with George Michael," the company said Monday on its Web site www.sonymusic.co.uk.
It said Michael was finishing recording "Patience," his first album of original material since 1996's "Older," and the new album would be released early next year.
"We are delighted to be working again with one of the greatest recording artists this country has ever produced, who has made another classic album," said Rob Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony Music UK.
The statement said that in a career spanning nearly two decades Michael had sold more than 75 million records.
Michael, who leaped to fame in the early 1980s with Wham!, lost a long legal battle in 1994 to break out of his contract with Sony, which he said was stifling him and preventing him maturing from a teen idol to an adult star.
Rival record companies Virgin and DreamWorks bought out his contract the following year, but his sales have since been lackluster.
In 1998 Michael was fined for lewd conduct after being arrested in a public toilet -- an event that prompted him to acknowledge publicly that he was gay.
Sony gave no details of the new recording deal.