by Rex Wockner
National News Briefs
George Michael:
For the first time in 17 years, openly gay pop singer George Michael will bring a concert tour to North America, starting June 17 in San Diego and ending Aug. 3 in Fort Lauderdale.
The 20-city tour also will visit San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Atlanta and St. Petersburg.
Tickets for the "25 Live" tour go on sale April 6.
The tour dovetails with Michael's new double CD "Twenty-Five," which features 29 songs, some of them new, including duets with Paul McCartney and Mary J. Blige. He also is releasing a two-disc DVD of 40 videos.
Michael has sold more than 85 million records. He has had seven U.S. No. 1 singles and won two Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, an MTV Video Music Award and two Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting, according to the press release annoucing the tour.
He has had 11 British No. 1 singles and seven British No. 1 albums, and recently was declared the most-played artist on British radio in the past 20 years, the statement said.
