Michael Jackson's 60th Birthday
Today would have been Michael Jackson's 60th birthday had he still been alive. He is one of the greatest artists of our time and was a big part of my life.
Growing up, my siblings and I loved him dearly. It almost felt like he was one of the family. If any of our friends made fun of him or teased us about him, we'd flip and even resort to violence hehehe.
We used to have all his videos like, the behind the scenes videos of his music with interviews and junk and his concerts and his film Moonwalker. We watched those daily. I don't even know how we had enough time to play but we did.
I remember my eldest sisters used to hang his posters on their bedroom walls and my mum would pull them down, but my sisters would stick them right up again. They used to have big arguments about that, so my mum ended it by ripping all the posters into shreads hahahha. We all thought that was mean but now I know my mother was just jealous of him hahahha because we put him on a pedistal and it probably looked like we loved him more than we did her. Plus it made the rooms look messy hehe
In the 1990s when Michael Jackson came to London for his tour, my mother, my siblings and I, would stay outside his hotel - The Dorchester - everyday. Yes we were those kind of people hehehe. We would stay until late with so many others just listening and dancing to his music and hoping for a wave or a glance from him. There was a very talented boy who dressed and danced like him. He also had a star quality about him. Wonder what happened to him now.
Everybody outside MJ's hotel, used to chant "Michael" and my siblings and I - except for the two eldest - were somehow too embarassed to call him by his first name alone, so we called out "Michael Jackson" hahhaa you know we didn't know him personally that's why.
That year - I think it was 1992 - my parents surprised us by getting tickets for his Dangerous tour concert and we almost couldn't believe it!
He was playing at Wembley for two or three nights, I don't remember exactly. We were hours ready before the concert and waiting for our car to pick us up, when my father noticed that he bought tickets for the next day hahhahaha. That was such a disappointing day, but at least we got to go the next day. It was one of my fondest memories and one of my favourite family outings hahhaha!
I remember back in the day, there used to be a place in Trocadero, London, where you could make your own music videos. Four of my siblings, including Rasha, and I, did two of those. Rasha was Michael Jackson in the video because she's the youngest and cutest hehe. Besides, she always dressed like him back then and even had his long hairstyle. Plus she actually believed people could mistake her for him hahahha
Anyway, the rest of us just picked some instruments and pretended we were MJ's band. While we were recording, everybody was watching our video from a screen outside the "studio". When we came out, they were cheering and clapping for us. We all thought we were really cool hahhaha good times!
After Michael Jackson passed away, his film This Is It was showing in the cinema and I went to watch it with Rasha, my friend and my cousin. I miss my cousin so much...
Anyway, we cried so hard that day, especially Rasha and my cousin. I sort of held it together because everybody was staring and my friend was laughing at us hahaha.
A lot of Michael Jackson's inspirations had stemmed from classic films. I haven't seen all of Fred Astaire's films yet but from the few I had watched, I can tell he was his biggest inspiration even before I knew he actually was.
“I didn’t want to leave this world without knowing who my descendant was. Thank you Michael!”
Audrey Hepburn's dance scene in "Funny Face", 1957, was obviously one of his favourite choreographies and a lot of his dance moves came from it.
Many classic film stars had praised him for his artistry and that is a true testament to his talent bridging between many generations. He truely upheld his name, the "King Of Pop".
What is your favourite Michael Jackson song?
I don't think I can choose one, because I have a soft spot for all of them. When you connect songs or things to childhood memories, it's even harder to make up your mind. So I'll just list all the ones I love:
Growing up, my siblings and I loved him dearly. It almost felt like he was one of the family. If any of our friends made fun of him or teased us about him, we'd flip and even resort to violence hehehe.
We used to have all his videos like, the behind the scenes videos of his music with interviews and junk and his concerts and his film Moonwalker. We watched those daily. I don't even know how we had enough time to play but we did.
I remember my eldest sisters used to hang his posters on their bedroom walls and my mum would pull them down, but my sisters would stick them right up again. They used to have big arguments about that, so my mum ended it by ripping all the posters into shreads hahahha. We all thought that was mean but now I know my mother was just jealous of him hahahha because we put him on a pedistal and it probably looked like we loved him more than we did her. Plus it made the rooms look messy hehe
In the 1990s when Michael Jackson came to London for his tour, my mother, my siblings and I, would stay outside his hotel - The Dorchester - everyday. Yes we were those kind of people hehehe. We would stay until late with so many others just listening and dancing to his music and hoping for a wave or a glance from him. There was a very talented boy who dressed and danced like him. He also had a star quality about him. Wonder what happened to him now.Everybody outside MJ's hotel, used to chant "Michael" and my siblings and I - except for the two eldest - were somehow too embarassed to call him by his first name alone, so we called out "Michael Jackson" hahhaa you know we didn't know him personally that's why.
That year - I think it was 1992 - my parents surprised us by getting tickets for his Dangerous tour concert and we almost couldn't believe it!
He was playing at Wembley for two or three nights, I don't remember exactly. We were hours ready before the concert and waiting for our car to pick us up, when my father noticed that he bought tickets for the next day hahhahaha. That was such a disappointing day, but at least we got to go the next day. It was one of my fondest memories and one of my favourite family outings hahhaha!
I remember back in the day, there used to be a place in Trocadero, London, where you could make your own music videos. Four of my siblings, including Rasha, and I, did two of those. Rasha was Michael Jackson in the video because she's the youngest and cutest hehe. Besides, she always dressed like him back then and even had his long hairstyle. Plus she actually believed people could mistake her for him hahahha
Anyway, the rest of us just picked some instruments and pretended we were MJ's band. While we were recording, everybody was watching our video from a screen outside the "studio". When we came out, they were cheering and clapping for us. We all thought we were really cool hahhaha good times!
After Michael Jackson passed away, his film This Is It was showing in the cinema and I went to watch it with Rasha, my friend and my cousin. I miss my cousin so much...
Anyway, we cried so hard that day, especially Rasha and my cousin. I sort of held it together because everybody was staring and my friend was laughing at us hahaha.
A lot of Michael Jackson's inspirations had stemmed from classic films. I haven't seen all of Fred Astaire's films yet but from the few I had watched, I can tell he was his biggest inspiration even before I knew he actually was.
“I didn’t want to leave this world without knowing who my descendant was. Thank you Michael!”
Fred Astaire
Many classic film stars had praised him for his artistry and that is a true testament to his talent bridging between many generations. He truely upheld his name, the "King Of Pop".
“That boy moves in a very exceptional way. That’s the greatest dancer of the century”
Fred Astaire
“What is a genius? What is a megastar? Michael Jackson – that's all”
Elizabeth Taylor
What is your favourite Michael Jackson song?
I don't think I can choose one, because I have a soft spot for all of them. When you connect songs or things to childhood memories, it's even harder to make up your mind. So I'll just list all the ones I love:
- Billie Jean
- Beat It
- Bad
- Smooth Criminal
- Man In The Mirror
- They Don't Care About Us
- Black Or White
- Heal The World
- We Are The World
- You Are Not Alone
- Earth Song
- One Day In Your Life
- Scream
- Smile
- The Way You Make Me Feel
There was a Yul Brynner quote on Michael Jackson which was really nice too, but somehow I can’t find it now.
ReplyDeleteThis must’ve been the most heart-rending post I’ve read so far. I’m trying to calm myself down but my throat hurts so much.
Why did you write this?
His death was one of the hardest...like an old family friend died...best friend.
It’s strange but I always had this feeling when we were children that he knew us, and would protect us if we needed him...maybe I felt that by his songs and voice...and maybe that’s why it was very easy to “defend him” when other children teased us about him, even though we were all not the fighting type of children.
I can’t choose a favourite and I don’t think I can even list them because the list will obviously be never ending.
Yes I know, I felt somehow I had to write something about him on my blog or it wouldn't seem right...
DeleteI already had a hard time writing about it, but what you just said made it even worse for me. He really did make us feel that way. He was our superhero.
If innocent children could love him this much, it's definitely proof that his name could never be tainted, no matter how hard they tried/try.
I searched for quotes from Yul Brynner, Gene Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Vincent Price but couldn't find any. I probably could have if I searched more. I think I just gave up searching because I had already spent so much time writing this hehehe
This post is just beautiful... a bitter sweet post ... you took me back I remeber everything you wrote ... how disaponted we were that the tickets were for the next day.. how happy and over the moon we were at the concert... beautiful memories ...
ReplyDeleteYes we had the best time! I’m so grateful for having spent it with you all ♥️
Delete