Goodbye to Michael Jackson who set the world alight with his music and charisma.
copyright BBC
This is the first time that anyone really famous has passed away since I have been a ‘grown up’ so it is a bit strange how the World is reacting. I guess it is almost up there with the reaction when Princess Diana, Elvis Presly and John Lennon passed away, but being several years ago, I was not even alive for the last two of those. I do remember the day Princess Diana died but was only about 14 at the time, so it didn’t strike me as anything much.
However, growing up with Michael Jackson always being in the news and his music being critically acclaimed, this feels a lot closer. One of the first tapes that I bought when I was about nine years old was his ‘bad’ album, and I thought it was fantastic. I also remember watching the ‘Thriller’ video when I was about the same age. He then brought out his film ‘Moonwalker’ and my brother and I used to watch that over and over again (with my brother hilariously trying to recreate the moonwalk and his other various dance moves!). So you could say, he has always been in the background somewhere.
Even through all his well documented troubles (which he was aquitted for) his music still kept being played, and people still widely recognised him as the King Of Pop.
So farewell to the greatest entertainer of them all and I will be sad not to see him do his famous ‘Moon walk’ live again.
( unless he has faked his death of course, as the conspiracy theorists will no doubt suggest! )