THE KING IS DEAD…

We seem to have been orphaned, to have lost someone significant. The king of pop music, the legendary Michael Jackson died on 26 June, leaving an inexpressible emptiness in our hearts, like on the day that the unforgettable Muslum Maqomayev died. It's so sad. We have lost so much of great significance in recent times. Our connection to something very precious is far too short - for some reason what is precious does not stay with us for very long. We were used to having Michael Jackson with us, to the revolution he inspired in popular consciousness, clothes and dancing. Children of the 70s, 80s and 90s loved Michael Jackson's work while the older generation were touched by it too. Then from the turn of the century Michael Jackson began to be hounded - basically, the pop idol was knocked off his pedestal. Michael Jackson has left us without giving us the chance to appreciate him - the idol of millions has made a royal exit.

Michael Jackson is a classic case to whom the saying "no man is a prophet in his own land" applies. Let us pay tribute to this outstanding man of our era whose contemporary we were lucky enough to be - let's remember what he was like and how he became a pop idol. Everyone must have heard of Michael Jackson and of some of the episodes in his life.

The Jackson Five

Michael Jackson was born to Joseph and Katherine in the town of Gary, Indiana. He was the seventh of 10 children. Joseph organized the family group the Jackson Five which began performing in local bars and clubs and even recorded two singles on the independent label Steeltown Records. In 1969 with the help of Bobby Taylor they signed a contract with the recording giant Motown Records. The Jacksons soon gained national recognition and in 1970 their four singles all reached No 1 in America's chart, the Billboard Hot 100. Michael gradually stood out as the frontman in the children's quintet - he had most of the important solos. He drew attention with his amazing dances too and his stage performance which he copied from his idols, James Brown, Jackie Wilson and others. 

Start of a solo career

In 1973 the success of the family group began to wane and the recording company limited their financing. In 1976 they signed a contract with another company, which meant they had to change their name to The Jacksons. Between 1976 and 1984 they released another six albums and toured the country. Meanwhile, Michael Jackson released four solo albums and several successful solo singles, including Got to Be There and Rockin' Robin and reached No 1 in the charts in 1972 with Ben, a ballad devoted to his pet rat. 

In 1978 Michael appeared alongside Diana Ross in a screen version of the Broadway musical The Wiz (The Wizard of Oz). During filming he met music director Quincy Jones who was to become the producer of his most famous albums. The first of them, Off the Wall (1979), presented Michael Jackson to the world as a very talented young man and stylish dancer. His disco hit Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and the slower Rock With You went to the top of the charts, while 20 million copies of the album were sold. Many music commentators see Off the Wall as the final pinnacle in the fleeting era of disco music. 

Thriller

Then came Thriller, which went down in history as the best selling album in the world and changed the music business forever. Released in November 1982, Thriller topped the Billboard 200 for an incredible nine months (37 weeks) and was not out of the charts for more than two years (122 weeks). Jackson won eight Grammy awards for the album, including the most prestigious Album of the Year and seven American Music Awards. In 1985, it was proclaimed the Best Selling Album of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson and his producers used the rapidly developing music television to their advantage: his revolutionary video clips became fundamental to MTV which had been operating for just one year when the album was released. Along with many other reasons, Jackson's appearance at Motown's 25th anniversary in May 1983 boosted the record's popularity. This is when he showed the world a 14-minute video clip to accompany the song Thriller, shot as a stylized horror film. When he performed Billie Jean at the concert, he showed his famous "moon walk" for the first time. 

The Eighties

As the press took more interest in the Jackson persona, the singer and his entourage made the most of the fuss to make unheard of profits. In 1983 he signed a contract with Pepsi-Cola under the terms of which he was to appear in an advertising clip. An accident occurred during the filming which left Jackson with burns to his whole scalp. Despite this, in 1984 he topped the American charts, this time with a duet with Paul McCartney, Say Say Say. The next year Michael bought a large package of shares in the company ATV Music Publishing, which owned the rights to most of the Beatles' songs. This caused a rift with McCartney who had been hoping to buy the shares himself. Michael Jackson also worked with Freddie Mercury, recording several sample tracks with him. Their collaboration did not come to anything, though the reasons why aren't public knowledge. Officially, both musicians were said to be too busy.

During preparations for a new album Jackson got involved in his first charitable project of which there would be several more in his career. Together with Lionel Ritchie he made We Are the World, a single recorded with a huge number of top stars to raise money for deprived children in Africa.

The third and final Jackson-Quincy Jones album, Bad, topped the Billboard 200 chart for six weeks and produced another seven hit singles, of which five made it to No 1: Bad, I Just Can't Stop Loving You, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror and Dirty Diana. With Bad, Jackson and Jones tried to replicate the successful formula of the previous record - they used a lively beat, smooth jazz-funk and electric guitar but all on a larger scale. The album sold a highly respectable 29 million copies.

Michael was then involved in his first tour as a solo performer to promote his album Bad. He travelled to 15 countries, which took up most of 1988, during which time a bus, aeroplane and helicopter were fully at his disposal. In 1987 Jackson appeared in a 3D film, Captain EO. The film had a budget of between $17 and $30 million and lasted just 17 minutes, making it the most expensive film per minute at the time. This was Jackson's first appearance on the big screen.

It wasn't difficult to spot the changes in the singer's appearance in the 18-minute clip accompanying Bad. Although his skin had been brown throughout his childhood, from 1982 it began to grow lighter. It became so noticeable that the press began to write about it and not just the tabloids. Jackson said this was the result of the rare illness vitiligo, dispelling rumours that this was deliberate. Plastic surgery caused other changes in the singer's appearance. Although plastic surgeons said that Jackson had had several rhinoplasties and operations to lift his forehead and thin his lips and an operation on his cheekbones, in his 1988 autobiography Moon-walker Jackson writes about only two cosmetic operations to his nose and one to create a cleft in his chin. He puts all the other changes in his appearance down to puberty and diet.  

The Nineties

The media reported and analysed every step that Jackson took and his quirks over the years were widely discussed in the press. Michael had to spend much of his time isolated on his Neverland ranch which had heavy security to prevent intruders. A few friends visited him there, including the superstar Elizabeth Taylor. The ranch was also home to children, who were important to the singer. In 1993 he was accused of molesting a boy, but the case was closed: the press speculated that he had bought off the boy's parents.

Two years before the sex scandal, the album Dangerous was released followed by the premiere of the ambitious clip to accompany the single Black or White. Black or White topped the charts for five weeks and became Jackson's biggest hit after Billie Jean. A multi-million clip with special computer effects was made to accompany Remember the Time. It featured Eddie Murphy as the pharaoh of Egypt and top model Iman as his wife. 

The over-ambitious HIStory: Past, Present and Future - Book I was released in 1995. It was a double album featuring one disc of 15 new songs and one of greatest hits. It was thought to be the first part in a trilogy. To restore his declining popularity, the first song from the album to be released as a single was Scream, a duet with his sister Janet Jackson, who at that time was a mega star to rival Michael. The song was accompanied by a futuristic video clip, which cost more than six million dollars to make, a record unsurpassed to this day. 

The album went straight to No 1 in the Billboard 200 and seven million copies were sold in the USA and 15 million worldwide. Many new songs from it were released as singles, including the ballad Stranger in Moscow. Jackson had promised to write a song about the Russian capital when he first visited it in 1993. In the clip You Are Not Alone, Michael appeared half-naked with his then wife Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the great Elvis.

The singer's fans had to wait another six years for the next album with new material. An album of dance remixes from HIStory - Blood on the Dancefloor - appeared in the shops in 1997. The record was on the whole critically acclaimed and the lead song topped the sales charts in many countries, including Great Britain. The album went practically unnoticed in the USA and was no chart topper there. 

The release of the next album was delayed several times, as Jackson was trying to achieve a perfectly calibrated, flawless recording which would restore his commercial success. His label Sony reluctantly agreed to invest millions of dollars in the seemingly endless process of recording and re-recording and the subsequent hype, which in the end led to Jackson moving to Epic Records. Invincible, released in October 2001, contained 16 tracks, including the single You Rock My World, the clip for which featured the legendary Marlon Brando. The album disappointed fans, was panned by the critics and sold half as many copies as HIStory.

Events of 2003-04

In November 2003 Jackson released a greatest hits collection, Number Ones. The 18-track compilation included 16 previous hits, a live recording of Ben and a new single One More Chance. By the end of 2004, more than six million copies of Number Ones had been sold worldwide.

On 18 December the police searched Jackson's Neverland ranch. The singer was accused of getting a young boy drunk and molesting him. The singer's trial lasted from February to May 2005. More than 2,200 media outlets from around the world sent their journalists to cover the scandalous trial. The jury's verdict was that Jackson was innocent.

On 16 November 2004 Michael Jackson launched the box set Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection. This lavish collection of five discs with 57 tracks and 13 previously unreleased recordings covers the period from 1969 to 2004 and gives the fullest representation of Michael Jackson's art and talent during his best years. It also includes a previously unreleased DVD of a live concert in 1992. 

After the trial, Michael Jackson cut himself off from journalists on the island of Bahrain and began to prepare a charity single dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It soon emerged that not all the musicians invited wanted to be involved in Jackson's project. Although the song I Have This Dream was recorded, the single never came out for unexplained reasons. 

Events of 2008-09

In summer 2008 the company Sony BMG launched a global project in which the residents of more than 20 countries could vote for their favourite Michael Jackson song and in this way be involved in compiling a collection of the king of pop's hits in their own country. A total of 122 tracks were presented for the fans to judge. The album will be unique in each country and will include 17 or 18 tracks on each disc, of which there could be one or two depending on the country. Michael Jackson also recorded a new solo album which was to be released in 2009. Rappers will.i.am, Akon and Kanye West took part in the recording. Michael Jackson went to Bahrain at the invitation of the king of Bahrain's son, Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, but in November 2008 the sheikh sued him for breach of his contractual obligations. The sheikh demanded the repayment of seven million dollars.

In March 2009 Michael Jackson announced that he was planning a final series of concerts in London, the This Is It tour. The concerts were to have begun on 13 July 2009 and to have ended on 6 March 2010. When Jackson announced his return to the stage at a special press conference on 5 March 2009, he was planning 10 concerts at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena. However, the demand for tickets was so great that he had to plan dozens of additional performances. More than one million Jackson fans could have seen the artist perform.

On 21 November 2008 the tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that Jackson had adopted Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel when he was at the Los Angeles home of composer Steve Porcaro. Jackson himself never confirmed the report. Jackson's attorney Londell McMillan denied the report, describing it as "nonsense. It's completely untrue." In April 2009 the tabloids reported that a routine medical examination had found that Michael had skin cancer. The singer's official spokesman, Dr Tohme Tohme, denied the report, telling the New York Daily News that "Michael feels great. He is in perfect health and doesn't have any diseases whatsoever."

Death

On the morning of 25 June 2009 Michael lost consciousness and fell at home, in the house that he was renting in Holmby Hills, west of Los Angeles. Jackson's personal physician, who was with him at the time, tried to resuscitate him but failed. Attempts to resuscitate him continued in the ambulance and for one hour after his arrival at the UCLA Medical Center. But Jackson did not come out of his coma and died soon after arriving at the hospital. His death was recorded at 1426 local time and was confirmed by the coroner at 1636. 

Coroners are investigating the cause of death. Michael's body was taken by helicopter to Boyle Heights, home of the Los Angeles coroner's office. The post-mortem was performed on 26 June but the cause of death was not established. Further toxicology tests are needed which are expected to take six to eight weeks. At the same time, the coroner added that the post mortem had not found any traces of trauma or foul play. 

The possible causes of death put forward straight after the tragedy were the excessive use of painkillers, the consequences of earlier plastic surgery and physical emaciation. The police wanted to question Michael Jackson's doctor but for a long time could not find him. Michael Jackson leaves three children.

World reaction 

On the day of the death condolences were placed on the official site by the head of the Sony Corporation. Within several hours of Jackson's death sales of his records had soared. His album Thriller reached No 1 in the American iTunes chart, while the other eight albums entered the top 40. In Great Britain 14 of Jackson's albums featured in the Amazon chart's top 20, with his album Off the Wall taking top spot. Sales of all Michael Jackson's discs and MP3s on Amazon.com grew by a factor of 721 on 26 June.

Reports of Michael Jackson's death rapidly spread via the Internet, causing problems for many web sites. The Google search engine perceived the large number of searches about Michael Jackson as a hacker attack and for half an hour during the day on 25 June issued a warning to users that their "query resembles queries generated automatically by viruses and spyware". The number of Twitter posts about Jackson on 25 June reached 100,000 an hour, which brought the service down temporarily. AIM, America Online's instant messaging service, was down for 40 minutes. America Online issued a special press release, describing the day of the death of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett as "a seminal moment in Internet history". AOL said they had "never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth". Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia was temporarily unavailable at around 1515 Pacific Daylight Time because of the surge in readers and editorial activity - on 26 June the Michael Jackson page in the English-language Wikipedia was downloaded 5.9 million times which is a record number of visits in the entire history of the encyclopaedia.

US President Barack Obama described Michael Jackson as a "musical icon" in conversation with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and expressed his condolences to the singer's family and fans. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez said that CNN had paid more attention to Jackson's death than to the crisis in Honduras and described this news policy as "regrettable". 

One of Michael Jackson's best clips, Leave Me Alone, which won a well deserved Grammy in 1990, comes to mind. At the end of the clip a whole town is built on Michael, as on Gulliver (symbolic, eh? - Author) which is inhabited by terrible creatures, but the singer manages to break free. Sadly, in real life the reverse happened: the media and gossip defeated this great artist, he was accused of the most disgraceful actions, he was bankrupted by innumerable courts, he was ill and he died. After his death, sales of his albums soared and everyone began talking about him again - the whole world is mourning him. Only now he doesn't need it.