Michael Jackson

[sweetandlow]

His dancing/performing has always mesmorized me There is no one like him, as far as that goes.

This is one of my fave videos, showing his dance moves.

May peace come to you, Michael and may you finally rest and be free of life stresses.

[Ophelia_Immortal]

Filipino inmates in `Thriller' video stage tribute

By TERESA CEROJANO – 9 hours ago

CEBU, Philippines (AP) — The Filipino inmates who shot to global fame with a YouTube video of their "Thriller" dance swayed and stomped again Saturday in a behind-bars tribute to their idol, Michael Jackson.

After being told of Jackson's death Thursday in Los Angeles, the 1,500 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center hit the exercise yard, practicing for nine hours Friday night — and into the wee hours of Saturday morning — for the show. They took breaks only to eat or when it rained, said professional choreographer Gwendolyn Lador, hired by the prison to teach the inmates the dance.

"I felt sad because we lost our idol," said inmate Wenjiel Resane, who plays the role of Jackson's girlfriend in the video.

Crisanto Nieri, 38, was feeling a little extra stress. He danced Jackson's part in "Thriller."

"Even as a kid, he was already my idol," said Nieri, who is serving seven years on drug charges. "I am happy that our video became famous, but I feel some pressure to perform well."

A crowd of 700 Cebuanos and foreign tourists watched the performance from a second-floor corridor, swaying to the music and applauding as the inmates, dressed in orange prison T-shirts and sweat pants, stomped and clapped in unison in the hilltop prison, behind thick stone walls topped by electrified razor wire.

Other numbers included "Ben," "I'll Be There" and "We Are the World." The inmates then held up a 5-by-10 foot (1.5-by-3 meter) tarpaulin showing Michael Jackson holding a sword with his name written below it.

Others waved the flags of the Philippines and other nations.

Before the show, the performers dedicated a prayer to Jackson's family.

"I was sad because one of the songs of Michael Jackson, `Thriller,' made us famous around the world," said Francis Mercader, 36, who has spent a year in detention while on trial for drug charges.

Byron Garcia, the Cebu provincial security consultant who came up with the idea of adding synchronized dancing to poorly attended exercise sessions, said he was surprised by the popularity of the 2007 video — one of more than a dozen inmate dance numbers he has posted on YouTube.

"Thriller" has attracted 24.3 million hits since it was posted two years ago, with nearly a million of them in the 24 hours since news of Jackson's death spread.

The inmates "consider Michael Jackson as a god here," Garcia said. "If not for Michael Jackson, they would not have this international recognition."

"The fame brought them back their self-esteem," he told reporters. "So that's why we have these public performances."

Inmate Alfredo Gaballo, 52, says Jackson "inspired us, so we are all sad about his death."

"The performance today has been amazing," said Karen Benrad, 29, from London. She and about two dozen foreign and local tourists later joined the inmates at the prison quadrangle, dancing to the tune of "Macarena" and "I just can't get enough."

Kim Hua-sung, a 23-year-old South Korean student in Cebu who watched the inmates' performance, said he is also a Jackson fan. "I'm sad that I can't listen to more songs from him."

In Taiwan, two top Michael Jackson impersonators donned fedora hats and sequined outfits Saturday, moonwalking to "Billie Jean" in their own tribute to the pop star.

Thirty-year-old Wang Chih-wei told The Associated Press he secured a photo op with his idol during Jackson's whirlwind tour in 1993 after winning an impersonation contest.

"I didn't know much English so I could only tell him, 'I love you,'" Wang said. "He was very friendly. I melted when he put his hand on my shoulder for the photo."

[irenistiQ]

R.I.P MICHAEL

SO MANY PEOPLE HAD SO MANY BAD/NEGATIVES THINGS TO SAY ABOUT YOU; YET I NEVER HEARD YOU UTTER A BAD WORD TO/ABOUT ANYONE YOUR WHOLE LIFE AND THAT IS THE MEASURE OF A HUMANE BEING. I AM STILL SHOCKED, MY IPOD IS FULL OF ALL YOUR SONGS, I HAVE CRIED LIKE I LOST A MEMBER OF MY FAMILY & IT FEELS LIKE IT TOO. I GREW UP LISTENG TO YOU, YOU WERE MY INTODUCTION TO REAL MUSIC & I WILL NEVER EVER FORGET YOU... THE WORLD WILL NEVER FORGET YOU.

MY DEEPEST & MOST HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES GOES TO YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY BUT ESPECIALLY YOUR BELOVED MOTHER, LORD EASE HER PAIN.

LOVE YOU ALWAYS MICHAEL JOE JACKSON!!!!!!!!!!

You are right when you say that he never reciprocated the negativity he received to those who breed bad stuff about him. His music united everyone, brought every nationality, every race, every country, everyone together.

"I'm not going to spend my life being a color."

[Vogue Girl]

I'm can't believe it than he was died, my prayers of him, he was the best male singer of pop & forever he is "THE KING OF POP".

RIP MICHAEL JACKSON

[Vogue Girl]

One of my.... or i think my fave song of him

Click

[Vogue Girl]

"Say Say Say" with Paul McCartney

[Jess Baby]

I'm so sad that he died... R.I.P Michael.

[Jess Baby]

Michael Jackson, age 13, poses in his home in Encino, Calif., in 1972. He earned his first No. 1 solo record that year with "Ben." Sorry if repost, but I love this pic.

[Ophelia_Immortal]

Never be sorry for any reposts...this thread needs them. We need Michael

[Rebecca]

Words about Michael from Elizabeth Taylor from a few years ago:

…What makes Michael more unique may be the fact that all of his accomplishments, his rewards, have not altered his sensitivity and concern for the welfare of others, or his intense caring and love for his family and friends, and especially all the children of the world over. He is filled with deep emotions that create an unearthly, special, innocent, childlike, wise man that is Michael Jackson. He is so giving of himself that, at times, he leaves very little to protect that beautiful inner core that is the essence of him. I think Michael appeals to the child in all of us. He has the quality of innocence that we would all like to obtain or have kept.

I think Michael is like litmus paper. He is always trying to learn. He has one of the sharpest wits, he is intelligent, and he is cunning – that is a strange word to use about him, because it implies deviousness and he is one of the least devious people I have ever met in my life.

Michael is highly intelligent, shrewd, intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, and generous to almost a fault of himself. He is honesty personified- painfully honest – and vulnerable to the point of pain. He is also very curious and wants to draw from people who have survived. People who have lasted. He is not really of this planet. If he is eccentric it’s because he is larger than life.

What is genius? What is a living legend? What is a megastar? Michael Jackson – that’s all. And when you think you know him, he gives you more…

There is no one that can come near him, no one can dance like that, write the lyrics, or cause the kind of excitement that he does. When I hear the name Michael Jackson, I think of brilliance, of dazzling stars, lasers and deep emotions. I think he is one of the world’s biggest and greatest stars, and it just so happens that he is one of the most gifted music makers the world has ever known.

I think he is one of the finest people to hit this planet, and, in my estimation, he is the true King of Pop, Rock and Soul.

I love you Michael.

Michael Jackson – History: Past, Present and Future Book I (52 page Booklet insert)

__________________

[Rebecca]

What Michael Jackson Did on His Last Day

Michael Jackson spent the last night of his life doing what he had always done: performing. The singer was in rehearsals at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, running through a full slate of songs from his upcoming 50-concert London event flanked by friends and colleagues. He marveled at the major set pieces that had finally been installed in the rehearsal space. "He was just glowing, and you could see it, that he was finally seeing it all come together," says Dorian Holley, the vocal director for Jackson's upcoming tour. "Up until Wednesday, it had always been [just a concept], but that last day you could see it in him, that he was seeing the show finally come together for the first time. It was a big moment."

Holley says he left rehearsals just before midnight on the night of June 24, as Jackson headed off to attend yet more meetings. About 12 hours later, a 911 call would be placed from Jackson's home in Holmby Hills, reporting urgently that "he's not breathing ... He's not responding to CPR, anything."

The pop icon had seemed different during these rehearsals — not ailing by any means, but perhaps more contemplative — says Holley, who has coached Jackson on solo tours since 1987. In preparing for previous tours, Holley said auditions for backup singers and other performing roles would usually be held via videotape, and it wouldn't be all that uncommon for the two to speak directly only two or three times over the span of a year. But for "This Is It," the London concerts scheduled to begin in July, Jackson was much more present and available, attending auditions and eagerly talking with everyone in the crew about the larger mission behind the tour.

"It almost sounds crazy to say that the show wasn't about him, but ... he'd put it in perspective all the time, saying, 'This is what we're here for, to spread a message of love and taking care of the planet, that we want people to understand it's very, very dear and not to take it for granted,'" Holley tells TIME.

Until the last hour of rehearsals, Jackson maintained a ferocious, perfectionist pace, says Holley, who, after decades working with the singer, says he was still astonished by his vocal and physical prowess. Some in the public questioned whether Jackson, at 50, would still be able to command a stage, and recent reports published Sunday in Britain's Daily Mail said that Jackson had been too feeble to dance, sing or, at times, even speak in the weeks leading up to his death. But, Holley — despite his own early concerns about a lack of rehearsal time leading up to the first London shows in July — says the star's presence and energy during his final week was unequivocal. "He'd take the stage with this group of dancers, all in their 20s, but you couldn't take your eyes off him ... Many of his songs have six or seven parts, and he would often come over if we were missing an important note in our mix, and he would sing through all the parts rapid-fire to show us what he wanted. We would just sit there with our jaws open — it was awesome," Holley says. "He could still do everything ... The only difference now was that he would sometimes talk about how it made him sore."

"This time around, we had the technology to isolate just his microphone and listen to his singing separate from everything else. I had no idea what a genius he was. The way he's able to use his voice as a percussion instrument, lyricist, jazz singer all at the same time. I'm sure as people mine his works in years to come, they're going to discover how much is there," he says.

It was a text message on Thursday afternoon that gave Holley the first hint of bad news — a note saying Jackson had been rushed to the hospital. Neither he nor the crew knew how to react to the uncertainty, so they did what they always did — they went in to rehearse. Except this time, as fans all over the world from Los Angeles to New York City to Tokyo to Buenos Aires played his music, sang his songs and emulated his dance in tribute, Holley says the crew couldn't bring themselves to touch the music.

Jackson had been preparing to take the world back, Holley says, and during the singer's final night, he finally knew he was ready. "You would think that, on the one hand, the world has kind of beaten him up, and you could forgive him for having some trepidation and fear. But he didn't have any of that," says Holley. "Words fail to describe what people would have seen with the tour. I couldn't even imagine until last week when it became physically apparent [on the set]. He was ready to show the world, and I so wish there could have been just one concert so the world would have seen."

time.com

[Rebecca]

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean (Live in New York 2001) - so amazing, he must have been about 41 or 42 in this video, and he was still such an amazing performer:

[Rebecca]

Will You Be There By Michael Jackson (Live)

[Rebecca]

Michael Jackson and Britney Spears Alive singing "the way you make me feel" at "Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Celebration" 2001.

[Rebecca]

Michael Jackson - Thriller (HQ) (WideScreen)

[christine]

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[christine]