A Song Called MJ

“Listen”, said my colleague Anirban early on June 25 last year, “there are unconfirmed reports thatMichael Jackson is dead”. After putting the phone down, I was shocked for a second. Jackson, dead? How could it be? Could it really be true or was it some false alert? But as the news was confirmed, it left me feeling a bit sad. For I used to be a MJ fan too, and I still loved his music.

There was a time when I used spend hours listening to his songs, my favourite to date being the numbers from the album ‘Dangerous’. Later, after MTV came in, I used to watch him do his famed ‘moonwalk’. However, over the years, I had grown up from being the girl who admired – no, loved – Michael Jackson to a skeptic who tried to see things objectively – or as objectively as the media painted it.

Like Khristina mentions in her blog, I have no doubts that he was a good entertainer . But could that be said about Michael Jackson, the man?

I could understand his troubled childhood. His dad used to make fun of his appearance and that led Jackson to go in for nose reconstructions.  In early 80′s, Time hailed Jackson as the ‘one-man rescue team for the music business.’  Michael Jackson was the ‘King of Pop’.  With fame came speculations, controversies – about his changing looks, his pets, his associations with many people. All of it earned him the name -’Whacko Jacko’.

Early ’90s were worse. Had Jackson sexually abused children? He denied it in on a chat with Oprah Winfrey (see part of it  here) but the allegations failed to die down. His house was raided and he was subjected to a 25-minute strip search which left him wounded emotionally.

He married Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.  The tabloids said that the purpose of the marriage was to boost his failing public image. The marriage lasted two years. Jackson married his longtime friend Deborah Jeanne Rowe during the ‘History’ tour. He has two children from this marriage which also ended in a divorce.

Speculations were rife. Everything that he did was blown out of proportion. There was never a time when he could lead a normal life. Jackson was the media’s favourite controversial star. And when the second allegation of child abuse surfaced, there weren’t many in the music industry who supported Jackson. There were pictures of him trying to ‘dangle’ his third child out of the window which kicked up quite a furore when it was published. People were quick to write him off despite the singer trying to say it was a stunt.

Jackson ran into debts in 2008. Fortress Investments threatened to foreclose on Neverland Ranch which he had used as collateral for loans.  And again, it was against the singer.

But Jackson never really moved away from the limelight. He just could not. Music was his solace. At the time of his death, he was preparing for a show in London. It was to be the first of a series of comeback concerts titled ‘This is it’. But fate willed otherwise. He breathed his last on June 25.

A couple of weeks after his death, there were reports of his ghost being sighted at Neverland. Is his spirit still around? I am not sure. But his music will last forever and it is to that maestro that I bow today. RIP MJ!

And for those of you who can’t get enough of him, ever, watch MJ practicing for the ‘This Is It’ show.