And his would-be birthday is this month, on August 29th, but since he's sadly not here anymore, I decided to do a biography on him.
Michael Jackson
Michael Joesph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana to his mom, Katherine, and his dad, Joseph, who was a steel mill worker at day and a rock'n bandmate for The Falcons. Besides his parents, Michael was surrounded by many siblings, three sisters, Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet, and five brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy.
Growing up was hard for Michael, especially with his father. Besides being surrounded by so many siblings, his father used to abuse him, whipping him. His father also verbally abused him at times. Michael became very lonely and depressed, and vomited at the sight of his dad. He would have nightmares when he slept, and scared when he was awake. But even through these hard times, Michael's beatings would bring the amazing talent out of him to make a legacy.
Joseph had some good in him though. Being in a band in his freetime, Joseph encouraged Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine wanted to start a band together. In fact, their dad forced them to be in a ban
d, and once Michael and Marlon wanted to join, their dad basically took control over them and became their coach. He used to whip them if they stepped out of rehearsals, encouraging them to rehearse more to become better. And better they did become.
At first, because Michael was the youngest, all he played was the tambourine. But when he started to open up, he did backup vocals and some dancing. Then, he ended up singing lead vocal. By this time, the group was called The Jackson 5. The five boys performed at black clubs all around the area, and since there was still racial segregation at the time, they only performed at black clubs, often opening up acts featuring other people. They mostly covered songs, but as they bigger and more popular, they signed with Motown Records to produce their own songs.
Once the 1970's hit, Jackson 5 singles such as "I'll Be Back [1969], ABC [1970], The Love You Save [1970], I'll Be There [1970]" started to gain popularity, and reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
As singles started being released by the Jackson 5, Michael also wanted to release some solo singles, including "Got to Be There [1971], Ben [1972], and a cover of Rock'n Robin [1972]."
So Michael Jackson wasn't even 15, and he was already a huge success. But not much of a huge success with Motown, and there started to be some complications with Motown Records, so Michael and the Jackson 5 left them. After they left, they signed with Epic Records, and changed their name to The Jacksons. By then, the group started to split up and go separate ways. Jermaine stayed with Motown Records to pursue a solo career. Michael stayed with the group for a little bit longer, and became lead songwriter, producing songs such as "Shake Your Body [Down to the Ground] [1978], This Place Hotel [1980], Can You Feel It [1980]."
But Michael Jackson was also pursuing a solo career as well, and by the time 1980 came around, he left The Jacksons to continue his solo career. A couple years earlier, he had played the Scarecrow in The Wiz, basically an African-American musical version of The Wizard of Oz, and even when the movie was a big bust, Michael met Quincy Jones, a record producer who was working on the movie. Quincy Jones agreed to become Michael's record producer.
Jones and Michael produced a number of hit singles near the end of Michael's work with his brothers, including "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough [1979], Work'n Day and Night [1979] and Rock With You [1979]." These singles were put together on Michael's first successful solo album Off the Wall, released the same year.
At this time, he was old enough to go to college, but never went, instead by the time The Jackson 5 came around, they were all instructed by personal tutors. Although, Michael read a lot in his freetime, and was pretty smart for his age.
He received multiple awards for his music in Off the Wall, including three American Music Awards and the Billboard Year-End award. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough got famous of the fame and was most awarded.
After Off the Wall came Michael Jackson's most famous albums and possibly one of the best albums in music history, Thriller, which was released in late 1982, including famous hit singles such as "Billie Jean [1983], Beat It [1983], Wanna Be Start'n Something [1983], and of course, Michael Jackson's best song, Thriller [1983]. The Thriller album gave him seven Grammy awards and eight American Music Awards and became the best-selling album of all time in the world, selling around 65 million copies.
Also in 1983, Michael was part of Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, a television special featuring old artists from Motown Records, including Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. Therefore, Michael reunited with his brothers. But Michael also did a solo performance of "Billie Jean."
Michael Jackson wasn't only a good singer, he taught himself some dance moves in his freetime. He invented some cool moves that are still used today, and created some original, memorable moves. I'm talking about of course, the Moonwalk, The Spin, The Crotch Grab, and The Toe Stand. All these moves were performed for the first time in front of a public audience at Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, and became famous and memorable moves practiced and passed on through many dancers to this day.
In 1984, Michael reunited with his brothers from their childhood band once again to star in a Pepsi commercial. When performing on a live stage with a live audience, pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire, leaving him with second-degree burns on his scalp. This is when Michael had started to get plastic surgery. He got plastic surgery to try to hide the scars on his scalp and got a few plastic surgeries to fix his nose, which never looked right his whole life. Although Michael never recovered from this incident, Pepsi was let off fine, and Michael donated $1.5 million to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, as well as donating to other places as well, including charities and rehabilitation centers.
All this donating paid off though, because later that year, Michael was invited to meet President Ronald Regan at the White House and receive an award for his donation to charities and rehabilitation centers.
Also that year, Michael and The Jacksons went on the Victory Tour, where The Jacksons performed songs from their Victory album, and Michael Jackson performed songs from his Thriller album, becoming the closest thing to promoting his new album. And as always, Michael donated all the funds from the music tour to charity.
Because of all his charity donations, Michael felt it would be right to write a charity single called "We Are the World [1985]," to help aid poverty in America and Africa. It unexpectedly became one of the best-selling songs of all time, as well as winning four Grammys.
Also in 1985, Michael bought ATV Music Publishing, a publishing company that publishes music. Paul McCartney had told Michael Jackson about buying the publishing company, mostly because Michael had worked with him in the past, and he thought he would be a good owner to ATV, the same company that published many of The Beatles' songs.
Over the course of the next few years, many people started to strongly dislike and be disgusted by Michael Jackson. Michael had been black for most of his life, but by the mid-late 1980's, his skin started to turn lighter and lighter, with rumors suggesting he was bleaching his skin. But it was told that he, instead, had two skin conditions known as vitiligo, which lightened his skin, and lupus, which made his skin sensitive to sunlight. He tried to hide his skin problems with multiple treatments, which eventually made his skin so pale it looked like he changed skin color. Michael had also became sick at some points, and gained a food disorders at the goal of losing weight so he could have a "dancer's body." All this got better though, when people started accepting him.
Tabloids brought back much of the hatred towards Michael Jackson and his choices, making up many crazy stories about him, which he eventually gave up denying. Some of these crazy stories included him having Depersonalization Disorder when he purchased a pet chimpanzee which he named Bubbles, or wanting to purchase human bones, but these were completely exaggerated.
Michael Jackson hadn't had much acting experience, but in 1986, he collaborated with George Lucas to star in 3-D film short Captain EO, which debuted in Disneylands all around t
he world.
Finally, Michael released his next successful album, Bad, which was released in 1987. Not as big as Thriller, but it did contain some other of his most famous songs, including Bad [1987], Smooth Criminal [1987], Man In The Mirror [1988], Dirty Diana [1988], and Speed Demon [1989]. He received a few more Grammys and awards for Bad, as well as creating another famous music video for his single Bad, since his legendary Thriller music video.
Since the Victory Tour in 1984, Michael Jackson hadn't had much stage time, but after Bad debuted, he went on his Bad World Tour lasting almost 20 months, with a total of 4.4 million people coming to see 123 shows, around seven of which were sold-out.
During his world tour, Michael published his autobiography Moonwalk, which sold 200,000 copies. People wanted to know more about his life, especially fans, and so they read about his childhood, The Jackson 5, his father's abuse, and successful and media attention. It became a best-seller.
For several years, Michael Jackson was living in California, after moving away from Gary once his solo career became successful. But then he moved to still live in California, but build a ranch where he'd live. So he bought some land in Santa Ynez, California, and used $17 million to build Neverland Ranch, his home, which included more than just a house and a ranch, but Ferris Wheels and a movie theater.
Ending the 1980's, many people had started to call him The King of Pop, after a successful career in pop music, and that name fit him very well. Michael was still a very generous person as well as producing pop music, and continued to donate thousands of dollars to multiple charities and organizations.
In 1991, Michael Jackson released another album, Dangerous [1991], which sold around 30 million copies worldwide. Famous singles from the album included Black and White [1991], which featured the first rapper in one of Michael's songs, Bill Bottrell. Also including Remember the Time [1992] and Heal the World [1992]. This album became popular mainly because people were interested that Michael had moved from fun pop songs to pop songs that brought a message.
Following his single Heal the World, Michael Jackson founded a charity organization Heal the World Foundation. The foundation was organized to help people suffering from war, poverty, and disease. Also that year, he reflected and wrote poems about some of his messages in a book published as Dancing the Dream.
Michael Jackson then went on his Dangerous World Tour, which ran for around half-a-year from 1992 to 1993, where he performed in front of 3.5 million in 70 shows. And as usual, Michael donated all the funds from the tour to various charities, mostly to the Heal the World Foundation.
Following the Dangerous World Tour, Michael performed at Super Bowl XXVII.
During the Grammys that year, he received two Grammys, and during the American Music Awards that year, he received three American Music Awards.
In 1993, Michael Jackson was accused of child sex abuse to a 13-year-old boy Jordan Chandler and his father, Evan. After some tough complications, Michael got out of court for $22 million. Even though the court issued that he was innocent, many people think he was guilty and was able to get out of it because he had the money too.
But some people did believe that he was not guilty, such as Lisa Marie Presley. He'd been friends with her for a long time, and she believed he was not guilty of his child sex abuse scandal. Michael and Lisa ended up falling for each other, and he married her in 1994. But just a couple years later, they ended up divorcing.
After the divorce, Michael released a new album, HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book I, with singles including Scream [1995] featuring his sister, Janet, Earth Song [1995], You Are Not Alone [1995], and They Don't Care About Us [1996]. The album had two parts, one part being some of his most famous hits, and the other part some new songs. This album became the best-selling multiple-disc album of all time, as well as receiving a Grammy for Album of the Year.
The album was followed by the HIStory World Tour, which lasted for almost a year, from 1996 to 1997, where he performed to 4.5 million people in 82 shows.
By the time the HIStory World Tour ended, Michael Jackson had met a nurse during one of his treatments back in the 1980's, and eventually married her in 1996, Debbie Rowe. She was his second wife, after divorcing with Lisa. They had two children, Michael Jr. [1997-] and Paris [1998-].
In 1997, Michael Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which was a remix album of some of his old songs, as well as some new songs, including Blood on the Dancefloor [1997] and Ghosts [1997]. And since this album was released, it once again added to one of Michael Jackson's records, becoming the best-selling remix album ever.
In the next few years, Michael continued to help in charitable events, as well as releasing a new album Invincible in 2001, including singles such as You Rock My World [2001] and Cry [2001]. This would be his last album with new songs in his living life, because of a difficult label dispute. Michael Jackson found it difficult in order to produce and/or promote new songs without a license to his label, but he was able to make various deals in order to release old, revised material.
Although Invincible was a hit, because of the label dispute, there was no one to support the promotion of the album, or a world tour.
In 2002, Michael Jackson had another child, Prince, who came basically out of nowhere. With an anonymous mother, he announced that the child came from a mess-up at the sperm bank. Even so, many people hated Michael once again when he was seen on a balcony, with his baby son in one hand, a towel over his head, and putting him too far over the balcony, looking like he was going to "drop him." Michael was just trying to handle him.
After the baby-dangling incident, it had attracted British documentary-film maker Martin Bashir who was allowed to follow Michael around, interview him, and show his normal life, calling it Living with Michael Jackson. The documentary was fine until the public saw that Michael was holding hands with a boy and talking about sleeping with him, and that's when he was arrested a year later as a criminal investigation started. He denied everything that he was accused, saying nothing was sexual about the situation. Michael finally ended up moving in Bahrain, a country in the Middle East after the trial.
For the next few years, Michael Jackson became quite elusive to the public. All we knew was that Neverland Ranch was closed down because of financial problems with Michael.
In 2006, their was an announcement that Michael signed with a Bahrain record label to record potentially more songs, but it was denied. In mid-2006, Michael and Debbie's child custody suit was settled, although it was not public. Later that year, it was announced that Michael had signed with a record label in Ireland, and no one knew what he was doing. Was he recording something? Was he making a new album? No one knew.
It was announced just a little time later that Michael Jackson was working on an album with Will.i.am from The Black-Eyed Peas, but it was never completed.
Instead, in 2008, Thriller 25 was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original album, including songs such as "The Girl Is Mine" and "Wanna Be Start'n Something," being covered and/or remixed by famous artists today such as Will.i.am, Akon, and Fergie.
With Neverland Ranch closed down, Michael moved to Los Angeles. There he had announced he would be performing a big set of concerts on a world tour called This Is It, named after a new single called This Is It [2009] that would be released during the tour. After spending a couple of months rehearsing in L.A., Michael Jackson unexpectedly died on June 25, 2009, three weeks before the tour would begin in Europe.
Just a few months later, people were still grieving from the loss of the star, and a documentary was released called the same-name as the would-be concert showing behind-the-scenes footage of Michael rehearsing with the directors and dancers. Even after he died, he received posthumous awards, including four American Music Awards.
After the months that Michael Jackson passed, people were starting to investigating on his cause of death. Michael had died in his mansion in L.A. in his bed from a heart attack caused by the abuse of bad drugs, or drugs that weren't necessary for his body, but were overdosed anyway. But it was announced that Michael's doctor, Conrad Murray, was accused and put on trial for manslaughter of Michael Jackson, saying that he intentionally killed Michael by telling him to take way too many of these unnecessary drugs.
Even with Michael Jackson gone, we still have his music, his songs are still purchased today, and he's inspired so many people, and so many people have followed him. Famous artists today are inspired by him such as Usher, Ne-Yo, Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, Madonna, and Bruno Mars. People still copy off his dancemoves such as the Robot, the Moonwalk, the Spin, and many others. We still continue dancing and singing to his songs, and that's what he would want.
Songs Featured In the Bio
This is a list of the best singles by Michael Jackson, throughout all the albums he released, from his Jackson 5 years to the later years.
The Jackson 5 Years
I Want You Back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg2vMrDzoXM
ABC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxpmbEATBH0
The Love You Save: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6pLV9xZczM
I'll Be There: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg2vMrDzoXM
Young Solo Career
Got to Be There: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LM8TojXK6Y
Ben: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g40WCBaUXR4
Rock'n Robin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3AC9ape88c
The Jacksons Years
Shake Your Body [Down to the Ground]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-tbsP6bvVQ
This Place Hotel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSHZc7Xs_NQ
Can You Feel It: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tirBu1pa0EU
From "Off the Wall [1979]"
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzpiLXynS-Q
Work'n Day and Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIvSeXisGDc
Rock With You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z040cAt98zE
From "Thriller [1982]"
Billie Jean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y
Beat It: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0
Wanna Be Start'n Something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ectqVGMiCxw
Thriller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG6oy46qKE4
Mid-80's
We Are the World: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d87N9GIW2I
From "Bad [1987]"
Bad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsUXAEzaC3Q
Smooth Criminal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D3VFfhvs4
Man In the Mirror: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D3VFfhvs4
Dirty Diana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUi_S6YWjZw
Speed Demon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l039y9FaIjc
From "Dangerous [1991]"
Black and White: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2AitTPI5U0
Remember the Time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeiFF0gvqcc
Heal the World: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWf-eARnf6U
From "HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book 1 [1995]"
Scream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4A1K4lXDo
Earth Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAi3VTSdTxU
You Are Not Alone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAyKJAtDNCw
They Don't Care About Us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJL6nfu__Q
From "Blood on the Dancefloor: HIStory in the Mix [1997]"
Blood on the Dancefloor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3_NntYhzV4
Ghosts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh9Cp4rd7mI
From "Invencible [2001]"
You Rock My World: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4tpuu-Up90
Cry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3MfUR35CM
d, and once Michael and Marlon wanted to join, their dad basically took control over them and became their coach. He used to whip them if they stepped out of rehearsals, encouraging them to rehearse more to become better. And better they did become.
 |
| Michael Jackson, then and now. From left: MJ, the 1970's MJ, the 1980's MJ, 1990's and 2000's |
Once the 1970's hit, Jackson 5 singles such as "I'll Be Back [1969], ABC [1970], The Love You Save [1970], I'll Be There [1970]" started to gain popularity, and reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
As singles started being released by the Jackson 5, Michael also wanted to release some solo singles, including "Got to Be There [1971], Ben [1972], and a cover of Rock'n Robin [1972]."
So Michael Jackson wasn't even 15, and he was already a huge success. But not much of a huge success with Motown, and there started to be some complications with Motown Records, so Michael and the Jackson 5 left them. After they left, they signed with Epic Records, and changed their name to The Jacksons. By then, the group started to split up and go separate ways. Jermaine stayed with Motown Records to pursue a solo career. Michael stayed with the group for a little bit longer, and became lead songwriter, producing songs such as "Shake Your Body [Down to the Ground] [1978], This Place Hotel [1980], Can You Feel It [1980]."
But Michael Jackson was also pursuing a solo career as well, and by the time 1980 came around, he left The Jacksons to continue his solo career. A couple years earlier, he had played the Scarecrow in The Wiz, basically an African-American musical version of The Wizard of Oz, and even when the movie was a big bust, Michael met Quincy Jones, a record producer who was working on the movie. Quincy Jones agreed to become Michael's record producer.
Jones and Michael produced a number of hit singles near the end of Michael's work with his brothers, including "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough [1979], Work'n Day and Night [1979] and Rock With You [1979]." These singles were put together on Michael's first successful solo album Off the Wall, released the same year.
At this time, he was old enough to go to college, but never went, instead by the time The Jackson 5 came around, they were all instructed by personal tutors. Although, Michael read a lot in his freetime, and was pretty smart for his age.
He received multiple awards for his music in Off the Wall, including three American Music Awards and the Billboard Year-End award. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough got famous of the fame and was most awarded.
After Off the Wall came Michael Jackson's most famous albums and possibly one of the best albums in music history, Thriller, which was released in late 1982, including famous hit singles such as "Billie Jean [1983], Beat It [1983], Wanna Be Start'n Something [1983], and of course, Michael Jackson's best song, Thriller [1983]. The Thriller album gave him seven Grammy awards and eight American Music Awards and became the best-selling album of all time in the world, selling around 65 million copies.
Also in 1983, Michael was part of Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, a television special featuring old artists from Motown Records, including Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. Therefore, Michael reunited with his brothers. But Michael also did a solo performance of "Billie Jean."
Michael Jackson wasn't only a good singer, he taught himself some dance moves in his freetime. He invented some cool moves that are still used today, and created some original, memorable moves. I'm talking about of course, the Moonwalk, The Spin, The Crotch Grab, and The Toe Stand. All these moves were performed for the first time in front of a public audience at Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, and became famous and memorable moves practiced and passed on through many dancers to this day.
In 1984, Michael reunited with his brothers from their childhood band once again to star in a Pepsi commercial. When performing on a live stage with a live audience, pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire, leaving him with second-degree burns on his scalp. This is when Michael had started to get plastic surgery. He got plastic surgery to try to hide the scars on his scalp and got a few plastic surgeries to fix his nose, which never looked right his whole life. Although Michael never recovered from this incident, Pepsi was let off fine, and Michael donated $1.5 million to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, as well as donating to other places as well, including charities and rehabilitation centers.
All this donating paid off though, because later that year, Michael was invited to meet President Ronald Regan at the White House and receive an award for his donation to charities and rehabilitation centers.
Also that year, Michael and The Jacksons went on the Victory Tour, where The Jacksons performed songs from their Victory album, and Michael Jackson performed songs from his Thriller album, becoming the closest thing to promoting his new album. And as always, Michael donated all the funds from the music tour to charity.
Because of all his charity donations, Michael felt it would be right to write a charity single called "We Are the World [1985]," to help aid poverty in America and Africa. It unexpectedly became one of the best-selling songs of all time, as well as winning four Grammys.
Also in 1985, Michael bought ATV Music Publishing, a publishing company that publishes music. Paul McCartney had told Michael Jackson about buying the publishing company, mostly because Michael had worked with him in the past, and he thought he would be a good owner to ATV, the same company that published many of The Beatles' songs.
Over the course of the next few years, many people started to strongly dislike and be disgusted by Michael Jackson. Michael had been black for most of his life, but by the mid-late 1980's, his skin started to turn lighter and lighter, with rumors suggesting he was bleaching his skin. But it was told that he, instead, had two skin conditions known as vitiligo, which lightened his skin, and lupus, which made his skin sensitive to sunlight. He tried to hide his skin problems with multiple treatments, which eventually made his skin so pale it looked like he changed skin color. Michael had also became sick at some points, and gained a food disorders at the goal of losing weight so he could have a "dancer's body." All this got better though, when people started accepting him.
Tabloids brought back much of the hatred towards Michael Jackson and his choices, making up many crazy stories about him, which he eventually gave up denying. Some of these crazy stories included him having Depersonalization Disorder when he purchased a pet chimpanzee which he named Bubbles, or wanting to purchase human bones, but these were completely exaggerated.
Michael Jackson hadn't had much acting experience, but in 1986, he collaborated with George Lucas to star in 3-D film short Captain EO, which debuted in Disneylands all around t
he world.
Finally, Michael released his next successful album, Bad, which was released in 1987. Not as big as Thriller, but it did contain some other of his most famous songs, including Bad [1987], Smooth Criminal [1987], Man In The Mirror [1988], Dirty Diana [1988], and Speed Demon [1989]. He received a few more Grammys and awards for Bad, as well as creating another famous music video for his single Bad, since his legendary Thriller music video.
Since the Victory Tour in 1984, Michael Jackson hadn't had much stage time, but after Bad debuted, he went on his Bad World Tour lasting almost 20 months, with a total of 4.4 million people coming to see 123 shows, around seven of which were sold-out.
| Michael Jackson |
For several years, Michael Jackson was living in California, after moving away from Gary once his solo career became successful. But then he moved to still live in California, but build a ranch where he'd live. So he bought some land in Santa Ynez, California, and used $17 million to build Neverland Ranch, his home, which included more than just a house and a ranch, but Ferris Wheels and a movie theater.
Ending the 1980's, many people had started to call him The King of Pop, after a successful career in pop music, and that name fit him very well. Michael was still a very generous person as well as producing pop music, and continued to donate thousands of dollars to multiple charities and organizations.
In 1991, Michael Jackson released another album, Dangerous [1991], which sold around 30 million copies worldwide. Famous singles from the album included Black and White [1991], which featured the first rapper in one of Michael's songs, Bill Bottrell. Also including Remember the Time [1992] and Heal the World [1992]. This album became popular mainly because people were interested that Michael had moved from fun pop songs to pop songs that brought a message.
Following his single Heal the World, Michael Jackson founded a charity organization Heal the World Foundation. The foundation was organized to help people suffering from war, poverty, and disease. Also that year, he reflected and wrote poems about some of his messages in a book published as Dancing the Dream.
Michael Jackson then went on his Dangerous World Tour, which ran for around half-a-year from 1992 to 1993, where he performed in front of 3.5 million in 70 shows. And as usual, Michael donated all the funds from the tour to various charities, mostly to the Heal the World Foundation.
Following the Dangerous World Tour, Michael performed at Super Bowl XXVII.
During the Grammys that year, he received two Grammys, and during the American Music Awards that year, he received three American Music Awards.
In 1993, Michael Jackson was accused of child sex abuse to a 13-year-old boy Jordan Chandler and his father, Evan. After some tough complications, Michael got out of court for $22 million. Even though the court issued that he was innocent, many people think he was guilty and was able to get out of it because he had the money too.
But some people did believe that he was not guilty, such as Lisa Marie Presley. He'd been friends with her for a long time, and she believed he was not guilty of his child sex abuse scandal. Michael and Lisa ended up falling for each other, and he married her in 1994. But just a couple years later, they ended up divorcing.
After the divorce, Michael released a new album, HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book I, with singles including Scream [1995] featuring his sister, Janet, Earth Song [1995], You Are Not Alone [1995], and They Don't Care About Us [1996]. The album had two parts, one part being some of his most famous hits, and the other part some new songs. This album became the best-selling multiple-disc album of all time, as well as receiving a Grammy for Album of the Year.
The album was followed by the HIStory World Tour, which lasted for almost a year, from 1996 to 1997, where he performed to 4.5 million people in 82 shows.
By the time the HIStory World Tour ended, Michael Jackson had met a nurse during one of his treatments back in the 1980's, and eventually married her in 1996, Debbie Rowe. She was his second wife, after divorcing with Lisa. They had two children, Michael Jr. [1997-] and Paris [1998-].
In 1997, Michael Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which was a remix album of some of his old songs, as well as some new songs, including Blood on the Dancefloor [1997] and Ghosts [1997]. And since this album was released, it once again added to one of Michael Jackson's records, becoming the best-selling remix album ever.
In the next few years, Michael continued to help in charitable events, as well as releasing a new album Invincible in 2001, including singles such as You Rock My World [2001] and Cry [2001]. This would be his last album with new songs in his living life, because of a difficult label dispute. Michael Jackson found it difficult in order to produce and/or promote new songs without a license to his label, but he was able to make various deals in order to release old, revised material.
Although Invincible was a hit, because of the label dispute, there was no one to support the promotion of the album, or a world tour.
In 2002, Michael Jackson had another child, Prince, who came basically out of nowhere. With an anonymous mother, he announced that the child came from a mess-up at the sperm bank. Even so, many people hated Michael once again when he was seen on a balcony, with his baby son in one hand, a towel over his head, and putting him too far over the balcony, looking like he was going to "drop him." Michael was just trying to handle him.
After the baby-dangling incident, it had attracted British documentary-film maker Martin Bashir who was allowed to follow Michael around, interview him, and show his normal life, calling it Living with Michael Jackson. The documentary was fine until the public saw that Michael was holding hands with a boy and talking about sleeping with him, and that's when he was arrested a year later as a criminal investigation started. He denied everything that he was accused, saying nothing was sexual about the situation. Michael finally ended up moving in Bahrain, a country in the Middle East after the trial.
For the next few years, Michael Jackson became quite elusive to the public. All we knew was that Neverland Ranch was closed down because of financial problems with Michael.
In 2006, their was an announcement that Michael signed with a Bahrain record label to record potentially more songs, but it was denied. In mid-2006, Michael and Debbie's child custody suit was settled, although it was not public. Later that year, it was announced that Michael had signed with a record label in Ireland, and no one knew what he was doing. Was he recording something? Was he making a new album? No one knew.
It was announced just a little time later that Michael Jackson was working on an album with Will.i.am from The Black-Eyed Peas, but it was never completed.
Instead, in 2008, Thriller 25 was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original album, including songs such as "The Girl Is Mine" and "Wanna Be Start'n Something," being covered and/or remixed by famous artists today such as Will.i.am, Akon, and Fergie.
With Neverland Ranch closed down, Michael moved to Los Angeles. There he had announced he would be performing a big set of concerts on a world tour called This Is It, named after a new single called This Is It [2009] that would be released during the tour. After spending a couple of months rehearsing in L.A., Michael Jackson unexpectedly died on June 25, 2009, three weeks before the tour would begin in Europe.
Just a few months later, people were still grieving from the loss of the star, and a documentary was released called the same-name as the would-be concert showing behind-the-scenes footage of Michael rehearsing with the directors and dancers. Even after he died, he received posthumous awards, including four American Music Awards.
After the months that Michael Jackson passed, people were starting to investigating on his cause of death. Michael had died in his mansion in L.A. in his bed from a heart attack caused by the abuse of bad drugs, or drugs that weren't necessary for his body, but were overdosed anyway. But it was announced that Michael's doctor, Conrad Murray, was accused and put on trial for manslaughter of Michael Jackson, saying that he intentionally killed Michael by telling him to take way too many of these unnecessary drugs.
Even with Michael Jackson gone, we still have his music, his songs are still purchased today, and he's inspired so many people, and so many people have followed him. Famous artists today are inspired by him such as Usher, Ne-Yo, Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, Madonna, and Bruno Mars. People still copy off his dancemoves such as the Robot, the Moonwalk, the Spin, and many others. We still continue dancing and singing to his songs, and that's what he would want.
Songs Featured In the Bio
This is a list of the best singles by Michael Jackson, throughout all the albums he released, from his Jackson 5 years to the later years.
The Jackson 5 Years
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I Want You Back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg2vMrDzoXM
ABC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxpmbEATBH0
The Love You Save: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6pLV9xZczM
I'll Be There: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg2vMrDzoXM
Young Solo Career
Got to Be There: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LM8TojXK6Y
Ben: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g40WCBaUXR4
Rock'n Robin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3AC9ape88c
The Jacksons Years
Shake Your Body [Down to the Ground]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-tbsP6bvVQ
This Place Hotel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSHZc7Xs_NQ
Can You Feel It: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tirBu1pa0EU
From "Off the Wall [1979]"
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Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzpiLXynS-Q
Work'n Day and Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIvSeXisGDc
Rock With You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z040cAt98zE
From "Thriller [1982]"
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Billie Jean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y
Beat It: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0
Wanna Be Start'n Something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ectqVGMiCxw
Thriller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG6oy46qKE4
Mid-80's
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We Are the World: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d87N9GIW2I
From "Bad [1987]"
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Bad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsUXAEzaC3Q
Smooth Criminal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D3VFfhvs4
Man In the Mirror: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D3VFfhvs4
Dirty Diana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUi_S6YWjZw
Speed Demon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l039y9FaIjc
From "Dangerous [1991]"
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Black and White: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2AitTPI5U0
Remember the Time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeiFF0gvqcc
Heal the World: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWf-eARnf6U
From "HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book 1 [1995]"
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Scream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4A1K4lXDo
Earth Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAi3VTSdTxU
You Are Not Alone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAyKJAtDNCw
They Don't Care About Us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJL6nfu__Q
From "Blood on the Dancefloor: HIStory in the Mix [1997]"
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Blood on the Dancefloor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3_NntYhzV4
Ghosts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh9Cp4rd7mI
From "Invencible [2001]"
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You Rock My World: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4tpuu-Up90
Cry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3MfUR35CM
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