Anthony King

Smooth Criminal – The Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – Michael Jackson

Anthony King Team — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:05:56 +0000

“Michael Jackson rehearsing “Smooth Criminal” for his Dangerous Tour” (apologies for the mistakes etc – I was travelling and in a rush when I wrote this today!)

Today we are going to take a closer look at the song “Smooth Criminal“, in the Michael Jackson Dangerous Tour rehearsal footage. We have already looked at the first three songs, “Jam“, “Wanna be startin Something” and “Human Nature“.

This footage contains a lot of interesting things, from the evolution of the dance to Michael being very specific about what he want. We also get to see into Michael’s mind because he is actually conceiving parts of the final show performance as he goes here. Quite fascinating for any fan. I think the best way to hit this song to day is to go through each interesting point, one at a time, in no real particular order…

The “Fred Astaire” Projections

The SHADOWS at the beginning of the song looks perfect and strong, as it’s so dark and indoors (which the Dangerous Tour shows weren’t and were often played in the evening in daylight, which had a negative affect on this song. The red “Hotel” had not been added yet but was original used in the introduction of “Heartbreak Hotel” on the Bad tour, which is why it say’s “Hotel”, like a back alley affect. In fact the introduction from the Bad Tour one was transferred exactly to the Dangerous Tour “Smooth Criminal”. Looked really great in the Bucharest show.

The Table Top Stands

During the actual show, the tables that Michael and the dancers, danced on were removed very quickly in the darkness so you didn’t get to see it, but with this rehearsal we get to see the tables, which are elevated to allow the shadows and light to project at the right angle (basically to make sure the feet are shown). The two dancers are not on the tables rehearsing and Michael jumps down in a really funny way. They get off those tables very much quicker in the actual show so that Michael is walking into the first verse near the front of the stage – again, worked very well. On this tour Michael had 3 lights and 3 sheets to project onto, but later on during the History Tour Michael would have one extremely powerful floor mounted light and a massive sheet which would cover the whole stage width. This actually failed on occasion (like in Moscow) but we’ll come to that at a later date.

Introduction Dancing

Michael has forgotten many of the moves for the beginning of this song and looks to his choreographer for assistance to remind him. It had been almost 5 years since he’d performed the song live.

We also see that Michael keeps the “1 bar” intro before the “BAM” start. Michael would change this to an “8 count” for the History tour. I suspect that this was to make sure that the light’s, band and Michael were all in time (although I never saw MJ make a mistake on the Dangerous Tour version but did many times on the newly changed History version).

Michael singing live

Michael rehearsed this song singing live with the backing singers, also, singing live, on top of MJ’s prerecorded vocals. Michael didn’t sing the song live on the final tour.

The Dancers

The dancers looked very loose and it’s clear that their was not a lot of preparation up to this point. It looks like it’s still first real rehearsal with no final ideas yet, a work in progress. The dancers havn’t marked the stage for positioning because they are way out of form, out of shape and not spread over the stage evenly and way to close to the front of the stage and Michael, almost blocking him out (see chorus – Lavelle moves to give him some space – it’s as if he’s not on stage!). Michael also, walks to the right before the throw, very very early too – he waited a lot longer on the tour, so he approached the group like a gangster, raising the suspense.

We also see changes to the circle moonwalk and robotics which were way too fast and looked rushed, they had to add at least an extra 8 counts to extend that really cool section, which is a relief – it worked perfectly in the end though! Michael danced some great moves near end – again robotics too fast, which is strange because it wasn’t like this in the orignal video.

Maybe they had a few hours to learn all the pieces. MJ and the dancers were wearing there normal shoes (no boots on yet). The final boots made a big difference to the dancing compared to the lighter shoes. The dancing was a lot slower. The boots were needed because of the amazing LEAN illusion!

The Lean, “we need to create some misdirection before the lean”.

We are lucky enough to see the idea coming into fruition during this rehearsal and Michael Jackson explain his misdirection idea:

“…. we need to create some misdirection before the lean. The problem with the lean is, once they gear into those things, the audience should not see them getting into them, it ruins the whole illusion. So, I want to creat some misdirection, over there, so they’re looking over THERE, so once the misdirection happens the attention is drawn back over here and we’re in for the BOOM … you know what I mean?. …Which is an idea I had for Taco to do something over there ….”

Michael Jackson

Michael talks about his dancer “Taco” who comes on stage during the song with the dynamite. It was such a pity they used the singer in the History tour, near the end, because Taco’s dancing was just amazing and on another level. Michael definitely got that one right!

Mixed up lyrics

“you’ve been struck by” – Michael always got this the wrong way round!

The Music

Starting at the end first: The machine gun sound affects sound like childrens crackers – changed for deeper machine gun sound for the final show. Also, in summary:

Base too light and sharp
No strong piano/Keyboard underpinning the piece which it needed
Horns were too light hearted and 80′s sounding
Drums short and hard as needed
Sounds a touch fast
Song is missing depth
Wrong sound for chorus keyboards – too light and prominent
Strings at the end after the dance is GREAT, when going to the side – original sounds I think – very good!

This has been a quick one today because I am on the move but we shall continue at the weekend with “I just can’t stop loving you”. I hope you enjoyed!

Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal (Youtube)

By Anthony King (c)

Related articles

DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON ANALYSIS AND REVIEW, INTRODUCTION
JAM – THE DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON
WANNA BE STARTIN SOMETHIN – THE DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON
HUMAN NATURE – THE DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON
MICHAEL JACKSON DANGEROUS TOUR MUNICH, JUNE 27, 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON HISTORY TOUR LIVE IN SEOUL, KOREA
MICHAEL JACKSON DANGEROUS TOUR BUCHAREST LIVE CONCERT/DVD
MICHAEL JACKSON AND FRIENDS 1999 CHARITY CONCERTS
MICHAEL JACKSON’S HISTORY WORLD TOUR 1996
MICHAEL JACKSON’S DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON’S BAD TOUR 1988

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Human Nature – The Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – Michael Jackson

Anthony King Team — Sun, 13 May 2012 08:16:39 +0000

“Michael Jackson rehearsing “Human Nature” for his Dangerous Tour”

Today we are going to take a look at Michael Jackson’s rehearsal of his third song on the Dangerous Tour, “Human Nature”.

We’ve already looked at “Jam” and “Wanna be Starting Something“, after our introduction HERE. “Human Nature”, a very good song was written by members of the band “Toto” (famous for the song “Africa”) d a track on his “Thriller” album. It was used in a short sweet scene in his “Moonwalker” film, which gave the song even more prominence.

The Rehearsal – Michael introducing the song to the audience

At the start of this rehearsal we see Michael involved in a discussion with his band on how they should start the song. It’s been decided that the band, in the words of Michael, “do a little thing thing first and I will go in anywhere afterwards”. Michael started to say that he should start but this wasn’t actioned.

The band perform a musical introduction of chords and percussion based on a vibraphone and electric keyboards. It doesn’t work, which is why they didn’t go with it for the final show. Usually, when Michael is off stage, preparing or getting a drink between songs the band will play a piece of filler music. I usually like this, because it shows the bands ability and usually sounds nice (and we sometimes get to hear songs we don’t usually get to hear). In the Dangerous Tour in France, we had the band play “In the closet”, which wasn’t performed on the tour. On the History tour we had the band play “Childhood” and during “Michael Jackson and Friends in 1999” we had the band (Brad Buxer), play “Stranger in Moscow”.

More similar to this occasion, we had the band play an introduction to “The Way You Make Me Feel” during the Dangerous Tour in Monza (Italy), which sounded very good.

Either way, it didn’t work for this song and Michael created a introduction with vocalised sounds and the drums would come in after he started that. Worked well and was interesting and different … a real “Michael” moment.

Music and the choice of sounds

You can clearly hear that the sounds used on Keyboards are temporary, or that they were changed. Maybe they didn’t have time to prepare, but they don’t work well.

They’ve turned a beautiful soft piece of music into a more hard edged thing for this, and Michael really sorted this out and they rectified all the issues before the live shows.

Keyboard and Vibraphone based instead of Guitar based

If you listen to the actual show version you will notice that the song is very soft and it is primarily based upon guitar sounds and chords, which are very open. Take a look at the YouTube video below and you will notice the simplicity, guitars, space and softness of the piece. This is one of my favourite “Human Nature” performances, and a very special ending:

Human Nature live at Tel Aviv

David Williams and Jennifer Batten are really stars of this performance, on this occasion and during the whole Dangerous tour … they are subtle but it’s a class act.

Drums – way too hard!

I love hard drums. I love a sharp downbeat. If you listen to the Dangerous album, it’s all you hear and Michael is famous for it. It was lacking in “This is it” (down to the mix not the drumming) but if we listen to this rehearsal, it really doesn’t work in context of the song.

If you listen to the final drumming on the live shows, you will hear that he plays lower drums in a softer way. There is way too much contrast in this rehearsal between the hard drum entry and the other soft parts of the song, which makes it hard to feel settled … especially at the beginning, way way way too hard. Take a listen to the Israel performance above and you will hear the difference. You can also hear that they changed the song from one based on primarily keyboard sounds to guitar and it really worked well in the end. It’s interesting to see the difference from rehearsal, conception to the actual final show. They usually make the right decisions.

Lighting

Michael doesn’t do too much dancing or moving around during this song, as he is taking a rest from an energetic opening and the first two songs. Consequently the lighting is probably the most finished out of all the songs and you can see that they are using strong lights with some really nice shapes, colours and patterns. Note that Michael doesn’t rehearse with spotlights, so that would also come later to brighten the stage even more, so it’s normal if it looked a little dark – Michael liked to rehearse in the dark.

Preparations for “Smooth Criminal“

When Michael starts rehearsing this song we can notice a lot of activity behind him, with talking etc. We can also hear, if we listen closely the crew preparing and setting up the introductory “rap”/”talk”/”Introduction” to the next song “Smooth Criminal”, which was next on the set list.

Michael getting into this rehearsal

Michael was really getting into this rehearsal and singing well. He asked the technicians to turn his microphone up (“more voice”) which makes no noticeable difference (although he is singing quietly, I always think he could have sung a little louder, for that). Michael sings quite softly during this rehearsal and one of the themes of the rehearsal is to turn the microphone up.

“Why, why, why, why!”

During the ending Michael changed it for the live show and Ricky Lawson played the above line with a beat for each word, “Why, why, why, why!”, especially during the end of the tour. This was an addition after this rehearsal and was never done on the Band tour. Sounded very good and helped create a really magical ending. Michael Jackson’s robotics at the end along with the magical arpeggiator and fading out worked very well. In the final performance they also used what sounded like the original “Thriller” album pads and a lighter sounding arpeggiator.

The performance was a simple on for Michael and the band which out much changes to implement and that’s about it for today! Mid week we move on to the very interesting “Smooth Criminal” – a real favourite!

Michael Jackson “Human Nature” Dangerous Tour Rehearsals (You Tube)

By Anthony King (c)

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DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON ANALYSIS AND REVIEW, INTRODUCTION
JAM – THE DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON
WANNA BE STARTIN SOMETHIN – THE DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON
MICHAEL JACKSON DANGEROUS TOUR MUNICH, JUNE 27, 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON HISTORY TOUR LIVE IN SEOUL, KOREA
MICHAEL JACKSON DANGEROUS TOUR BUCHAREST LIVE CONCERT/DVD
MICHAEL JACKSON AND FRIENDS 1999 CHARITY CONCERTS
MICHAEL JACKSON’S HISTORY WORLD TOUR 1996
MICHAEL JACKSON’S DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON’S BAD TOUR 1988

Wanna be startin somethin – The Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – Michael Jackson

Anthony King Team — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:24:33 +0000

“Michael Jackson rehearsing “Wanna be startin somethin” for his Dangerous Tour”

We’re continuing with our review and analysis of Michael Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous Tour Rehearsals and specifically, his second song on in the show “Wanna be startin somethin”. We’ve already had a look at his opening song Jam, after our introductory article, which you can find here. This is a song which Michael performed on all of his live tours and he opened his Bad tour with the song on his previous tour.

Starting the rehearsals with a joke

Michael Jackson performed this song in the hundreds and at the beginning of this rehearsal we hear Michael ask “who cue’s this?”. Michael obviously knows who has cued the song all the other hundreds of times – himself! Also, the actual cue is pretty iconic, with MJ triggering the drummer with 3 loud cracks, into the song.

They actually (Kenny Ortega and band) reply with a little bit of sarcasm and it’s quite funny. They reply, “you do, Michael” and the band giggle. Michael responds; “How do they see me?” to which Ricky Lawson the drummer replies “I’m looking at you”. This is quite funny a funny interesting exchange and it is also pitch black. When this song was performed in the show, they did have a small number of lights on so it wasn’t pitch black for the start of the song.

There is a small irony to the above exchange

The drummer actually made a mistake! After all that he didn’t actually take Michael’s cue because he counted it out loud “one” and hit the “three AND four”. Simple put, he was one beat out, as the cue has always been and is always is as soon as Michael’s arm reaches full extension, the drummer goes. I touched on this previously, in the “Jam” piece but I think that if you cut out the smart comments, joking, and cheering etc you’d probably cut down on these small mistakes. However, the final show was nearly perfect, so that can be excused, I think. As long as the final show is perfect, it’s all good!

Missing Bass part – keyboard being set up

We have six bars at the beginning with no bass part. It actually sounds like it is just very low volume and they forgot to had the keyboard volume up. They rectified that quickly and we really hear a fat bass sound. A really good sound actually, totally different from the original but really works well.

Tempo of the song

This feels very fast. In actually fact, it is no faster than they actually finally performed on the tour and it is the same tempo as the Bad tour. The song was slowed down on the History Tour and although, I really enjoyed the faster versions, I also enjoyed the slightly slower version too. I think that it just a case of Michael getting older and slowing the piece down so it’s easier to sing and dance. In the context of this show, the speed was pretty much perfect, although, it did vary over the course of Michael’s world tours.

E Major – The Key of the song

Michael Jackson’s original song was in the key of E Major. The key of the song is very important because it is an indication of what notes to sing or play. Michael Jackson had a 3 octave range (that’s just chest voice!), at least and he loved to sing in the upper parts of his register.

His vocal coach Seth Riggs often talks about how a studio artist can hit the notes in the studio when they are totally prepared and relaxed but after hours and days of travelling and touring, how are they going to hit the notes then, when they are tired and exhausted, with a high and tense throat and larynx?

Michael Jackson, as a human, was no exception. If we listen to this rehearsal, he is obviously not singing full out, as their is no need but we do hear two interesting things. We hear him sing the song, in parts, one full octave lower and we hear him sing it in falsetto. This song takes a lot of energy to sing in it’s original key and is we move forward and take a step to the opening night show in Munich we will hear that he was singing the song in it’s original key, E Major.

With that said, we also, hear that Michael is struggling with some of the notes misses’s some higher ones out completely. The opening night was the ONLY show on the tour that he sang “Wanna be startin somethin”, in it’s original key. In the next show and all subsequent shows they lowered the key, so it would be more comfortable for Michael to sing on the road. It still sounded very good, so it worked well. (Other songs on the tour were also lowered after the opening night, including “Beat it”).

Backing Vocals

The backing vocals on this rehearsals, as were all rehearsals and shows of this song, were all live, and performed very well. The vocalists were really on form this night and Siedah Garrett, the original writer of “Man in the mirror” sounds great. I don’t remember a single, comment or critique from Michael toward the backing vocalists during this rehearsal.

Musically – all live

This is one of the few songs which Michael always sang live and was always played live – as in – fully live. No click track, or pre recorded backing (just like songs like the “Jackson 5″ medley and “Human Nature”). I will exclude the “This is it” performance from this though. With regards to the music, it is essentially the same as it’s always been played live and sounded great. A little bit simple sounding, and much in need of the string section though. Subsequently, this song went past with no real comment as there wasn’t really much to change or to add, as it has been well performed and rehearsed in the past by nearly everybody on the stage. Special, attention should be given to the drums. They are played very well and they have a really great down beat, very hard, something which was missing from most of the songs of “This is it” (not the fault of the drummer but the fault of the mix)

Three musical changes from the actual final show

We have three changes between the rehearsal of the song and the final Dangerous tour performance. Firstly, just before the midway “hit” when they are doing their montage dance at the side of the stage we have a little horn cue. This is obviously temporary. It sounds like on the tour, the flourish, just before the hit were probably pre recorded and triggered at the right moment and could possibly be the only pre recorded element to the final song. I might be wrong about it on this tour but I am almost certain it was triggered on later tours.

The Horns!

Secondly, the horns! If you listen to the brass section keyboard line at the end, it is very different from the actual concert and later shows. This is because it was changed and changed for the BETTER. The newer horn line really creates height and a perfect build up before Michael “James Brown dance move“.

The horns on this occasion were trying to recreate the album brass section which is impossible to do from a keyboard, so it would be better to try something slightly different and recreate the FEELING, rather than the actual original line. This is what they did to great affect, as it didn’t sound so great on this rehearsal and was much improved for the show. The same problem arose during “This is it’s” version. They tried to recreate the original horn sounds and, for me, just doesn’t compare to the Dangerous Tour and the History Tour’s versions – they are lacking in that live magic, energy and height. There is a big difference between a live song being performed by a few musicians and an original album piece in the studio. Changed for the better for the show, so all good.

Finally, we also have a much extended “breakdown” section – much much better! It felt very short during the rehearsal and that is the part of the show which really gets the audience going crazy.

Michael Jackson’s Choreography and the Dance

Michael was just marking this song and was walking through the moves. He seemed to have forgotten the section of dance just after and during the montage section of the song. He was just getting the feel of the song. During the same musical section during “This is it”, we see Michael do an automatic turn to the left, like old times (take a close look), as it was rooted in his brain, during this song.

That’s basically it for this song! One of my favourite Michael Jackson songs and live performances. Next we move on to “Human Nature. See you for more at the weekend!

Wanna be startin somethin – The Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – (YouTube)

By Anthony King (c)

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DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON ANALYSIS AND REVIEW, INTRODUCTION
JAM – THE DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON
MICHAEL JACKSON DANGEROUS TOUR MUNICH, JUNE 27, 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON HISTORY TOUR LIVE IN SEOUL, KOREA
MICHAEL JACKSON DANGEROUS TOUR BUCHAREST LIVE CONCERT/DVD
MICHAEL JACKSON AND FRIENDS 1999 CHARITY CONCERTS
MICHAEL JACKSON’S HISTORY WORLD TOUR 1996
MICHAEL JACKSON’S DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON’S BAD TOUR 1988

Jam – The Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – Michael Jackson

Anthony King Team — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:30:47 +0000

Michael Jackson rehearses the opening song of his Dangerous World Tour, “Jam”.

Today we’re going to look at Michael Jackson’s opening song of his tour and the first song he rehearsed in the “Dangerous Tour Rehearsal” footage – “Jam”. It’s a great song and a great opening to the tour. In my introduction to the rehearsals I touched on the location of the rehearsals and that it is rumoured to have been located at his home, Neverland. I don’t know this for sure but previously I thought this could be but now I am falling on the side of an aeroplane hanger in California, where he normally rehearsed. The idea of building that stage and a whole hanger in your garden, although not impossible for Michael Jackson, seems a little bit like overkill to me. Anyway … let’s jump in!

Testing and Creating the Dangerous tour opening and Introduction

We are fortunate enough to see the creation and evolution of the entrance to the Dangerous Tour in this footage.

Obviously, the “toaster” catapult contraption has already been chosen and they are just working out the best way of incorporating that into the show and specifically how Michael will go from being launched 5 feet into the air, into “Jam“.

First Rehearsal?

This looks like the first real rehearsal on the stage. They are literally discussing and creating and making initial decisions as they go and following Michael’s instructions. Michael makes a lot of commands and changes many things he is not happy with.

Tiger sounds effects and a more elongated introduction

Michael had a very long introduction on his tour and this was very exciting! He stood still while the crowd waited for him to move. In the rehearsal we initially see a very quick introduction. As soon as he pops up out of the stage, the music comes on immediately. Michael tells them that he wants the music to go on his command, and not immediately.

We also hear the tiger/cat sound effects which were used eventually but only once on the actual tour, as a cue for the explosion. In the rehearsal we hear it repeated constantly like a pigeon is trapped in a tiger cage or something! The same thing goes with the clock/bell “gongs”. They used a lot of gongs at first and really cut that down. Finally they also had a massive use of “wind” sound effects in the rehearsal. ALL elements were greatly reduced when it got to the show to create a much less busy simple introduction. This worked much better because it emphasised the massive explosions and pyrotechnics much more than the audience being distracted by too many sound effects.

LaVelle Smith next to Michael Jackson

When you are a big star you are fortunate enough to work with very talented people. Michael had LaVelle Smith his choreographer next to him to give him direction and instruction. In a situation like this, it is more of a memory thing, of reminding Michael what to do at certain times. Especially with new songs, they need to remember what they may have discussed previously, or what Michael has already said that he wants. The same thing goes with the shows – imagine that the dance moves are a part of the audiences everyday lives but Michael is a busy man with lot’s of projects on. His videos were made in a moment in time and he moved on from them to the next projects – he would have to be reminded of some of his own moves because many years passed between the shows. We will talk more about LeVelle Smith later – a good man.

The music and the start of Jam!

Michael ask’s, “Who am I to cue, to kick in” – “me” ….”who?” …”me” … the “me” is Ricky Lawson, Michael’s drummer! This guy is probably the best drummer I have ever seen play. I was convinced on one occasion that a drum line was a drum machine and it was only when I got home and reviewed the footage that I realised that it was Ricky playing manually! He has a very hard down beat, a sharp crack which was missed on other occasions in the mix, which is why I like Ricky Lawson.

Ricky Lawson – the great drummer

Ricky Lawson has said in the past that he was Michael’s musically director on the Dangerous Tour, and I can only assume that this was in the later parts of the tour like in Moscow, where Greg Phillinganes did not tour, or the Latin American countries. Many of Michael’s cues to the starts of songs come from Michael directly to Ricky Lawson. On this occasion, the drummer would start a click track and the whole band would go from there.

The pre recorded backing track – Jam

I have talked about this in the past in my articles about various concerts and shows on my blog. We are fortunate to hear the EXACT backing track to the beginning of this song because it carries on playing after the band have stopped, correcting mistakes etc. We hear underlying pre-recorded track to the song:

Bass drum sound/bass
Bells
Computer voice
Beat (percussion)

Michael’s band will then play their parts on TOP of these elements. By the way, there are more elements to be added at a later date.

The Bells Removed

If you listen to the Dangerous album, as I am whist writing this, you will really hear the prominence of the bells. Teddy Riley made sure that they were a focus – they were quite loud. They add a little bit of lightness to the song. The bells are also prominent in the rehearsals. You will notice though that in the actual final show, the bells were removed. They just had the shakers. This worked much better in my opinion. It gave the song a more serious feel and this went went with the military feel as opposed to a street fun theme, just like the video.

Original Dangerous album pads and sounds

It also sounds like Brad Buxer and Greg Phillinganes had access to the original sounds of the album because you can hear this. Especially on the bass sounds near the end of the song. The bass is very interesting in this song because it changed over the tour. For some reason the bass sound was very quiet at the beginning of the tour, with more focus on guitar sounds and later it focused more on the bass and the pad/strings – much much better and much more like the original rehearsals. Much better.

Michael’s vocals – first time we have heard this song live

This is the first time we have ever heard Michael sing the song completely live. He is obviously not focusing on the vocals but it still sounds good when he wants it to. He did not sing this live on the actual tour and understandably so. He did sing a few words here and there but not the actual song.

The backing vocals

The backing vocals – as in, Michael Jackson’s prerecorded backing vocals have not been edited and added to the tracks being rehearsed yet. This is one of the final parts of the project and adds a real depth and real spirit of Michael. No backing singers can replace Michael’s harmonies so it’s better to have them back up along with Michael’s iconic vocals. Otherwise, it’s too obviously inferior compared to Michael’s … I felt this with “This is it”. Something just sounds missing. The final version, of the Dangerous Tour had a very good combination of live backing vocals with the rap section and the over-lines, near the end. We also hear the backing vocalist, applauding and screaming when Michael sings his first line of the rehearsal. I guess this is a sign of appreciation and respect but in my opinion just on the limit of respect. You don’t want to add pressure to Michael or the artist, so that they feel that HAVE to perform in rehearsal because everybody is watching them. If you are cheering you are probably not focusing on your job enough! I feel like this was a major issue during “This is it” and was so because Michael felt like he had to justify himself every 10 seconds, that he wasn’t going all out and that he had to conserve his voice – this is certainly NOT acceptable. The star should NEVER have to explain themselves to crew, team and dancers or ever FEEL the need to do so.

Michael Jackson proved himself over decades and shouldn’t have to justify anything.On the other hand, they are all fans and they are all excited and the Dangerous Tour crew seemed to be a great team and most of them did know Michael for a very long time, so it’s cool and not an issue from this footage but an interesting point.

Powerful Lighting

Although Michael does not have any spotlights on him or any direct light on him (he didn’t like to rehearse like that), the lighting is still extremely powerful and very impressive. If you take a look at his opening night Munich show you will see that the lighting is pretty similar to the introduction – even with the flashing lighting “toaster”.

Jam – The Choreography and Dance

Firstly, let’s look at Michael’s solo dance – ie, the stuff before the dancers some on. You will notice that it doesn’t have any form yet. Michael is creating a she goes. In fact this is even the case with the Munich opening night show. He didn’t have that form that he found later on, after a few shows. The idea that he walks more, adds his side moonwalk, walks to the middle for the chorus etc. This is something that he does in his own time with rehearsal in his private time

Jam – The Theme

The actually them of the song and how it relates the dance changed DRASTICALLY during the rehearsal process. The original song was very street, had Michael playing around and laughing in the video, included a lot of children, playing basketball, Michael Jordan and a lot of joking around, horns and bells etc

This is actually reflected in the first rehearsal. When we see the dancers appear, we have one guy swinging down on a rope! This is quite funny and Michael actually reacts with a laugh during the rehearsal. Either way, this ain’t gonna work – it’s a bit too light hearted and a joke! There is a precedent for appearing with a rope but the first time it was Michael, with his explosive entrance to “Thriller” on the second leg of the “Bad Tour“.

Original middle section

Wee see no military middle section yet with temporary choreography, even with moves from “Smooth Criminal“. This is actually more logical than you might think because the song title is in the lyrics of the song.

The choreography is very light hearted and most of the moves were dropped for the final show. This was a very early version and before they added the hard edged military theme.

The military section

The military section was a stroke of genius and really improved the songs. The actual moves that they did keep were the actual good moves from the initial rehearsal, so it was quite a success (the evolution of this piece). The backing dancers were way too close to Michael in the rehearsal and the moves were really stretched across the stage for the final show – a good job by Michael and his choreographer.

I think that’s it for this one!

We’ll be moving onto “Wanna be Starting Something” this week!

Jam – Dangerous Tour Rehearsal Video (YouTube)

By Anthony King (c)

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Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – Michael Jackson analysis and review, Introduction

Anthony King Team — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:31:02 +0000

Michael Jackson “Dangerous Tour Rehearsals”

Michael Jackson’s rehearsals were always filmed and we are fortunate that we have extended footage of his rehearsals for the Dangerous Tour in 1992. It was apparently recorded at Michael’s house – Neverland. It could possibly be an aeroplane hanger in California too, but it’s credible to say that it could be at his house too. He had a big house!

Michael Jackson, his band and a selection of dancers rehearsed the following songs:

Jam
Wanna Be Startin’ Something
Human Nature
Smooth Criminal
I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
She’s Out Of My Life
I Want You Back – The Love You Save – medley
I’ll Be There
Rock With You
Thriller
Billie Jean
Remember The Time
Working Day And Night
Beat It
Will You Be There
The Way You Make Me Feel
Working Day And Night
Beat It
Will You Be There
Bad
Black Or White,
Man In The Mirror

Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – analysis and review

For the month of May (2012), I will be releasing an analysis and review of each song, starting with the first this weekend!

It’s fascinating to see the creative process and what actually happened in the final performance as compared to the early rehearsals.

Early Rehearsals in the process

This was a very early rehearsal in the overall rehearsal process – in fact I would go out and say that this was Michael’s FIRST rehearsal for the tour. I will be explaining why over the course of the series!

Part 1 – coming this weekend! (ARTICLE LINKS BELOW)

By Anthony King (c)

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Remember the Time live – Michael Jackson at the Soul Train awards and his twisted ankle!

Anthony King Team — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:54:41 +0000

Michael Jackson performed his new song “Remember the Time” on 9th March 1993. He was on a massive recent promotional campaign for his “Dangerous” album, including his concert tour – The Dangerous Tour, his Super Bowl Half Time Show, The Oprah Winfrey Interview and other appearances.

He was performing at the Soul Train Awards, which Michael often appeared on and performed on. He would, a couple of years later go on to perform “Dangerous” and “You are not alone” too. Another interesting thing is that all 3 stars of the original “Remember the time” video, appeared on that stage that evening, including Eddie Murphy.

Shrine Auditorium

The awards ceremony was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. This would have been emotional for him because it was where he FIRST performed his legendary MOONWALK at the Motown anniversary show. He would later also perform “Dangerous” at the same venue.

Michael Jackson Remember the Time live – video

Michael was injured!

This was a unique performance, in that he performed sitting in a chair! He was wheeled around in a wheel chair all evening too. This is because he hurt his right ankle, which meant that he couldn’t put any weight on it or dance on it.

Did he REALLY injure his ankle?

The story goes that Michael was rehearsing the day before and twisted his ankle. He didn’t want to cancel so he did the performance in a chair. There are rumours that this was all a publicity stunt. Although, Michael is very good at publicity stunts you can see that this one looks pretty real. Real in the sense that he probably did hurt his foot … how badly did he hurt his foot? Who knows. Is it possible that he didn’t rehearse and used it as an excuse? I guess. Was he walking around pretty normally a couple of days after the show? Apparently! So who knows … either way, he looked hurt to me and for the amount of dancing her did, it’s hardly surprising either.

The funniest Introduction ever!

This introduction has to be the best ever of a Michael performance! I’m a admirer of Patti Labelle but what a funny introduction! (“Michaellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Remember the Time – The Performance

Let’s take a look at the actual performance:

1) The introduction to the song, the entry was from another Dangerous album song “Can’t let her get away” and worked well

2) Many uses of original Acapella – Michael’s amazing power was really shown off for this performance through use of acapella. This was obviously a quickly rehearsed performance, which obviously focused on showing off Michael voice. It was obviously, all mimed and not sang live but it didn’t matter.

3) Musically – The song was an edit of the orginal vocals, plus album music but also had really great additional “hits” which really helped with the accents in the choreography. It was obviously a total re edit of the song, which is clear because Michael didn’t have this one completely remembered!

4) Dance and Choreography – The dancers and Lavelle Smith really did an amazing job here. The choreography was all new and they would have had to learn it all very quickly, maybe in less than one day. It just worked perfectly. They made no real mistakes. It also worked in context of the song. Michael was sitting majestically on his throne like ancient Pharoahs, may have, and had his servants and subjects all around moving around. The recreation of the whole scene and the ancient Egyptain references was great also, the Queen coming through on her bed, the massive soldiers and bodyguards, like statues, the massive curtains/sheets across the back of the stage,the pots and staging. This was probably one of Michael’s only uses of real stage props in a the theatrical sense, which relied on them to create the performance (rather than just his magic).

The irony is that Michael performed amazingly sitting injured in a chair! He didn’t even do much and the audience were going crazy – that’s how much the audience loves Michael Jackson. He can just stand their and the audience will go crazy in appreciation and excitement. It’s also pretty consistent, he does not tap his left foot at all but really smashed his right foot.

It would be difficult to remember if it was faked! This was a real story. We also see photos, after the show, of Michael with red eyes like he has been crying, very similar to his performance in the same venue a decade earlier, where he admitted crying because he wasn’t satisfied with his performance.

The Costumes

Very convincing costumes. Dancers looked great and you can see that Michael was only wearing one show and only a sock on his injured foot.

A performance of many mistakes!

It was quite funny, in the sense that Michael made many mistakes in this video and they were both in forgetting the same lines “What about us!” (The same line he used later in “Earth Song“).

The first time he said it, when the track wasn’t there. He continued to rub his face to cover that one up. He then made a similar mistake later in the song. He also gave up doing the dance movements at times. He almost admitted defeat and laughed about it too!

Michael was just laughing and the audience were screaming anyway – that was amusing. We see him get up at the end but can’t stay up.

If you notice the cameras and editors were very respectful – they cut away to a long shot when he is hobbling on one foot.

The actual awards!

Michael won 3 awards that night – A special Humanitarian Award, Best R&B and Soul Album – Male: for Dangerous – Best R&B and Soul Single – Male: for Remember the Time. He walked out with Eddie Murphy, to accept, in a black outfit, with a big walking support.

Michael only performance of Remember the Time

This was Michael’s one and only performance of “Remember the time”. He did rehearse it at the early part of the Dangerous tour rehearsals but never actually performed it – What a performance, and well done Michael, a true professional as always.

By Anthony King (c)

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Michael Jackson American Bandstand performing Dangerous – 20th April 2002

Anthony King Team — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:00:20 +0000

Michael Jackson performed his song “Dangerous” on the 20th April 2002 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California. You may recognise the name of the venue because Michael Jackson performed “Billie Jean” (and the moonwalk!) for the first time, at the same venue 20 years early on March 25, 1983 for the taping of “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever”. It must have been quite emotional for him to the venue, as well as return to this special taping of “Dick Clark’s 50th Anniversary of American Bandstand” – 50 years is long time and it’s not surprising that Michael honour his friend, Dick Clark, who this week past away. Dick Clark was a big player in US entertainment but also a man with a big heart. He was a generous man who actually cared for people and looked after the people he worked with.

Michael Jackson performing “Dangerous”

After a rousing introduction from Clark, Michael appeared on the stage to perform “Dangerous”. This is an interesting performance, and a good performance with quite a lot of changes from previous shows. A few things:

Michael Jackson looked strong

Michael looked strong and he looked bigger than usual, a healthy weight. He was crouching a little bit more than usual (he always crouched!) but I must also add that for me, it is very clear, that he is also on some kind of medication or whatever you want to call it. You can see it in his face and you can see it in his moves. The moves and situation are a lot better than the 2001 Madison Square Garden one, but I can notice it. Nevertheless, he still looks good and performed extremely well

Change of performance

This performance was based upon the “Michael Jackson and friends 1999” performance but with some additional changes. We have a different broken down introduction. Originally we had a fast(er) introduction to the song, then for the 1999 show we had an intro which was way too slow, and this was a happy medium. I still feel that the original, American Music Awards and latter parts of the Dangerous Tour performances were the best, but that a performance like this is PERFECT, for an INDOOR arena, TV taped show. That’s because you notice the small moves a lot more.

Michael was not happy and performed the song twice!

Michael Jackson actually performed the song twice that night. He was not happy with the performance or reaction. You can see the crowd were really into it and they obviously used lot’s of the second taping. This is not unprecedented. During the 1996 World Music Awards Michael Jackson was not happy with his performance of “Earth Song” and also performance the song twice. (You can read about that HERE). A great atmosphere in the end for taping.

6 Backing Dancers

Michael Jackson and Levelle Sminth used six backing dancers for this performance. He has switched from 4 core dancers on the History tour, from 6, to many more on other live shows. I think that the 6 work really well, and form some great formations behind Michael. Levelle Smith looks young and they all do a great job – they look very cool indeed. They all gelled with Michael and formed a great unit.

Female Dancer

The “Dangerous” girl also, was one of the best Michael has used. She looked very beautiful and she danced with a hard edge. Perfectly Dangerous! Another change was her coming down, precariously on the pole. She wore the same costume as the one made for the Michael Jackson and Friends concert, which looked good. Another change was that she appeared during the chorus of the song and did a few moves – this was a good addition and keeps the performance well rounded – the song is about a Dangerous girl and her reappearance gives the piece some balance. Additional, a great use of an explosive charge at the beginning. This was also the case in 1999, but the explosion was totally missed during the taping, so you wouldn’t notice that there was one at all by watching the footage alone. This was the case during many of Michael’s tours – explosions from “Smooth Criminal“, “Jam”, “Earth Song”, “Beat it” etc are sometimes not picked up on the camera, which is unfortunate – not the case on the occasion!

Michael’s Costume

The costumes were also the same that he used for his performance in 1999 but there was one addition! Did you notice it? During the 1999 show, probably for the first time, Michael wasn’t wearing short trousers, so you couldn’t really see his white socks. For this show Michael added his Smooth Criminal white spats! They actually looked really good and worked well.

Michael’s Dancer

The dancer with the gun, approached, which looked like, too close and onto Michael head on, which meant that Michael had to move, which subsequently meant he forgot to remove the cigarette from the dancers mouth, which he usually does (actually he often forgot to do this and the stage manger had to run on and remove it so he didn’t slip on it later (again – see 1999 show)

Michael’s vocal performance

As with most of the performance’s of this song, it was completely mimed. That said, his microphone was turned on for a portion near the end and you cold hear some breathing and a few mouthed words, if you listen carefully!

Dick Clark

Dick Clark passed away this week. Not only was he a great host but he was a great producer and business man. He used his brain and became a powerhouse in the industry. There is a great documentary about him which aired on Bloomberg. Another documentary about him and his friendship with two Savants, Flo and Kayand is quite emotional. The two twins have a fixation with him, and he actually became their friend – off camera. You can read about here. Respect to Dick Clark for that alone.

By Anthony King (c)

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Michael Jackson Super Bowl performance – 31 January 1993, Half time show

Anthony King Team — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:57:19 +0000

Michael Jackson performed at the half time show of the 1993 American football Super Bowl. It was an amazing 12 minute performance but an unusual performance. In my opinion the setting was not a comfortable one and if you remember, this was when Michael was everywhere, with the Dangerous tour, the Oprah Winfrey interview, promoting the Dangerous album. I’m going to go each part of the show and take a closer look.

The Introduction

The show was produced in association with Radio City music Hall – and was introduced with a great voice over by “Darth Vader” … well … James Earl Jones. Michael Jackson used 2 decoys as false starts to the show on the top of the massively high up Jumbotron video screens. The two decoys were catapulted up from behind the screen as if they were popping out of the footage itself, which Michael pre filmed on blue screen. This was very Dangerous Tour, as he was on the tour. Did you notice something? They removed the crouch section of his costume when he filmed the intro sections! This was obviously because the Super Bowl is (was!) a family orientated event. The intro music was pretty good and I don’t know who produced it but it was obviously his Dangerous tour crew, Greg Philinganes and Brad Buxer because you can hear the “crashes” from “Jam” and other “pads” from the tour (same as “Heal the World” intro – so I will go for Brad Buxer again for this one. You will also notice that the first dancer looks great and it all goes according to plane but the second dancer, doesn’t quite work out because there is an obvious Pyrotechnic failure which means that his entrance is not concealed, which detracts from the entrance. That said – Michael’s entrance …

Michael Jackson – Super Bowl (YouTube Video)

Michael Jackson’s entrance

What an entrance! Michael used the “toaster” mechanism from his Dangerous tour with a massive amount of Pyrotechnics to create quite an amazing opening. I will say that the sound effects really worked for this because it is slightly different on this show.

The Show

Michael performed:

Jam
Billie Jean
Black or White
We are the World
Heal the World

I will go through each song separately but before I do let’s look at some of the challenges involved with the show …

Daylight performance

Unfortunately, as the show was broadcast from the Rose Bowl in California, and pretty early – we have a bright sky, which REALLY detracts from the lighting and the whole performance. This is specifically why they used so much Pyrotechnics. Michael has performed in Day light before but not with the addional problem of the centre stage.

The Centre Stage problem

Michael performed this show “in the round” ie, with the audience around him 365 degrees. This does not work well, in my opinion. Obviously, Michael had no choice with this. That said when NSYNC, Britney Spears and Aerosmith performed at their Superbowl halftime show in 2001, they actually had a full stage, which wasn’t in the round. This looked pretty good and gave it that more conventional concert feel of a stage, with a band behind you, with great lights which are hung properly – I think this would have been much better for MJ. By the way, Michael’s music has featured in at least two Superbowls because in the same 2001 Superbowl performance they did indeed uses a sample of Michael and Janet Jackson’s “Scream”.

Other challenges with the stage

Other issues with the stage include the actual size of the dancefloor – it wasn’t actually that big in comparison to the size of the whole structure, it was pointed at the front which means that Michael could utilise the front properly and the stage was also slightly unstable – you can see it shaking and wobbling with impact at certain points of the video. Now the question is does the height of the stage along with the above issues affect the dancing and show. Technically, the stage was 75 feet by 75 feet, although, Michael did not have this much space to dance, obviously. It weighed 10 tonnes and split into 22 pieces. For me, the answer is clearly yes and hear’s why …

Michael Jackson and his spin

If you look at this performance you will notice that Michael Jackson did not do a single spin. He did may controlled SINGLE turns but not a spin. If you think about “Billie Jean” – how many times have you seen Michael Jackson perform Billie Jean without spinning? I will help you – only once

Where was that? I will help you … at the 1995 MTV music awards.

So in my opinion it looks like Michael wasn’t 100% content on the stage or comfortable – even the moonwalk (it looks like MJ also changed his shoes), you can see how much force he is using, quite a lot. Remember, that Michael Jackson’s stages are always created exactly for his specifications and that he is used to the same stages and that he was currently on tour – this was not his usual setting, as the audience around him was very unusual. The closest, in the past he had to performing like this was on his Bad tour at Madison Square Garden, although that wasn’t completely 360 degrees and then unique shows like the Diana Ross, upside down performance. In conclusion on this point, a performer like MJ needs the audience in front of them and in their control and line of sight.

The lighting – back, almost non existant

A big part of Michael’s shows is the lighting. He has built songs around special lighting and even created unique light for his show. Think Billie Jean and his spotlight and then the moving spotlight, endings of “Beat it”, shadows of “Smooth Criminal“, crazy white light of “Working Day and Night” – they are a big part of the show. For obvious reasons the production was limited to the lighting, they had nowhere to suspend lights, or even project real spotlights. They had back lights on cranes which they used as part of the show which were great – in fact the lighting behind the performers give great context and those set’s of lights on the crane’s, for this show, were brilliantly used.

Fan’s and Pyrotechnics

The use of the air fans in “Black or White” and the pyrotechnics were pretty amazing, this was where it began to feel like an MJ show! They had an effect on the sound also. Very impressive.

The Music

As in later shows, like the MTV music awards, the music was completely pre recorded and mostly used from the the original album with edits. This is not unusual because the set up time for the whole stage is 3 minutes and 20 seconds! (that’s to reconstruct and build the whole stage!)

There is no time for the sound and band to be set up perfectly, so it’s easier to have it pre recorded. It’s amazing to think that, that whole structure is put up in such a short amount of time and that it is taken down in a quicker amount of time!

The Band and singers

Michael’s whole Dangerous tour crew and band are behind him in a specially created pit. It’s really fun to see the amazing Jennifer Batten miming but the best part of it was not a single performed vocal or a single performed note was actually performed live. No microphones on, no nothing! (except during the fans in B & W – although, no singing. All pre recorded. Except for, obviously Michael’s speech … but again – if you singing live, why do you need to be handed a different microphone? It is not logical and the hand microphone to head microphone thing that went on at the beginning of “Heal the World” was pretty poor! (I don’t think any one cared either way though)

Michael’s deep voice

Michael was on tour and tired in my opinion and you can see this in the section where he speaks – his voice is so deep. The beginning of this really shows his normal speaking voice. So for all the people that want to know about Michael Jackson’s singing real speaking voice – there you have it!

Jam

Michael Jackson opened with Jam with an edited version of the original album version with some additional sound affects and choreography from the Dangerous tour. He also changed the choreography to the piece to make it fit for the Superbowl. The reason why, for example, he had the horns over the drum part when the dancers are moving forward was because the song is so short the impact of an actual, full, musical break would have been diminished and not make sense. That said, I didn’t like the ending of the song – although, I did like the perfect syncing of the pyrotechnics with the same ending. It looked like an unfinished ending. Good performance. Jamie King really stands out and it was amazing to think how young he was at the time … very young. A good performance.

Billie Jean

A great start to “Billie Jean” and a great dance. He had his white shirt on after removing his “Jam” military out fit pretty quickly and put on his trademark hat. The edit of this song was odd, in the sense that the performance was improved drastically in later years with Michael, after the dance, going straight into the CHORUS – it slows down a little bit too much, when the impact of the great chorus should have been utilised earlier, like it later was – again, like Michael Jackson and friends or the MTV music awards shows.

I’ve mentioned this before but this is the first, last and only time the song “Billie Jean” used backing dancers and it looked terrible!

The song is about Michael and the dancers detracted. We see them slip away and they should have slipped off the stage and return for Black or White. Michael, as stated previously, did not spin and looked like he was having to put a lot of force and effort into his moonwalk.

Black or White

This was a pretty good performance with a party atmosphere, rather than focus on Michael. It was almost like the audience and the stadium were part of the show – which they were. With the audience so far from the stage, it really adversely affects the atmosphere so that the show looks dead. This is solved by having the audience run in toward the stage. Obviously, this would leave the audience and seating half empty and be a safety hazard so this is also solved – by having a few thousand people outside the stadium waiting for half time to run in – and wait for it – they are ALL PERFORMERS! That’s quite something, if you think about it, all of those screaming fans are performers and fans and they are rehearsed! This solves the issue about lack of atmosphere. They, very much were part of the action, and a little bit too much in my opinion. More Michael in Michael’s performances I say.

Anyway, back to the song …

It’s fun that Jennifer Batten disappeared in the smoke and fans and the explosion were perfect. Not a single note was played live, which didn’t matter. Well, actually it did matter! Michael made a mistake with the ending.

The band obviously pre recorded their ending which Michael is used to on tour, with himself giving the cue to end and the band following him. On this occasion it looked like Michael was in the moment and forgot that they were not following him but a pre recorded backing track – and subsequently, missed the ending of the song. Take a closer look for yourself.

We are the world and Heal the world

These were pleasant and the audience participation was great, especially the children’s images around the whole stadium. We see Michael light a sparkler and this is for a very specific reason and to start off that process.

Under the audiences seats

Under the audiences seats, they would have a coloured piece of card which had been pre placed there – they were all instructed to, when Michael gave the cue and help up the lighted torch, to lift up their sheets, creating the images of the children – this is why Michael did that … worked well.

Heal the world, was the whole point of the show – the show’s theme was to promote the peace of the world and it worked well – the amount of performers on that stage was in the hundreds, the choir, Michael’s band and the children really transformed the stage so quickly. The world worked well too. The ending of this song was new and a pre recorded ending uniquely for this show.

Michael’s exit

Did you ever think, How did Michael escape and leave athe stadium from being in the middle of the crowd? Well, he stayed put and was removed on a wheeled part of the stage – just like in the Dangerous tour! (but that’s secret!)

Making Of Super Bowl Halftime Show 1993 – Michael Jackson

This is a short clip which shows a little bit of Michael rehearsing for the show and a little bit of background:

Conclusion

In conclusion, what an amazing show! I think that it’s challenges were the lighting, the stage design and positioning but nevertheless a great show. The audience situation with the prerecorded tracks also affected the atmosphere, compared to a normal MJ show, but that’s alright, although, it did lack a little soul. The show was reworked and basically morphed into a improved version that he performed in later years

Michael Jackson in his prime! A nice show.

By Anthony King (c)

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Michael Jackson Hologram tour?

Anthony King Team — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:24:31 +0000

Michael Jackson on stage via Hologram?

Tupac Shakur’s hologram performance at Coachella might just be the tip of the iceberg for deceased artists. Could the King of Pop, Michael Jackson be next?

“If the late Tupac Shakur could put on a show, so could Michael Jackson.

Yes, a hologram of the King of Pop may be going on tour…

The late music legend’s brothers Jermaine, Jackie, Tito and Marlon just announced that they are joining together for Unity Tour 2012, a 27-city jaunt that kicks off June 18 in Louisville.

It marks the first time they’ve toured together since the Victory Tour in 1984.

“I just wish Michael was here with us, but I’m sure his spirit will be in the house,” Jackie exclusively told me this morning.”

Continue reading HERE

Michael Jackson Hologram

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World music awards 1996 – Michael Jackson

Anthony King Team — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:08:26 +0000

Michael Jackson and Diana Ross live

Michael Jackson and Diana Ross sang and danced together on stage at the World Music Awards 1996

Michael Jackson was a major part of the World Music Awards 1996 in Monaco. Not only did he perform his “Earth Song” (twice, after he was unhappy with the first performance!) but joined Diana Ross on stage, collected awards and was a big part of Diana Ross’s performance, just sitting in his chair. Michael was the focus of most of the camera shots on the night and it’s interesting to take a look at some of the fun aspects of the award show. He was up and down onto that stage all night and even sang “I will survive” with an unlikely group at the end of a long night, consisting of Royalty, a Kung Fu Star, and others.

Michael Jackson Earth Song Performance

Michael performed “Earth Song” and he actually performed it twice. We’ve already looked at the performance and you can read more about it HERE

World Music Awards Performance and Awards

Michael Jackson was at the world music awards to collect his 5 awards including “Best selling male pop” and “Best R&B artist”. Diana Ross also performed and collected the “Legend Award” and performed an extended medley.

Continue reading HERE