Short biography of Michael Jackson. Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, United States and died on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Singer-songwriter, dancer-choreographer and even American actor, he remains the biggest world star in the history of pop music. Nicknamed the King of Pop, his life and career fascinate. Michael Jackson was born in 1958 into a working-class family of nine children, of which he was the seventh. Very young, he was passionate about music and sang with his older brothers in the group The Jackson Five. Pushed by their father, they are spotted by the president of the Motown label and their career takes off in a dazzling fashion.
The future King of Pop is a young prodigy. At 13, Michael Jackson moves away somewhat from his brothers and begins a solo career. In 1979 released the album that will change his life and propel his career: Off the Wall. He continues with Thriller, in 1982, and explodes all sales records. A phenomenon was born. Michael Jackson turns heads with his dance moves, including the Moonwalk. The successes are linked from album release to album release, whether with Bad in 1987, Dangerous in 1991, or Invicible 2001.
Private life and scandals around Michael Jackson
If Michael Jackson quickly becomes a planetary phenomenon unleashing passions and crowds, his career is quickly tainted by many escapades in his private life: his love for cosmetic surgery which disfigured him, rumors of pedophilia and accusations of touching on minors or plagiarism. Michael Jackson’s private life continues to be the focus of the tabloids, even after his death in 2009 from a drug overdose.
Who are Michael Jackson’s wives?
If the private life of Michael Jackson has often hit the headlines, it has been busy throughout his life. In 1975, in Las Vegas, the singer met the city of Elvis Presley, Lisa-Marie, whom he married on May 26, 1994 in a private ceremony in the Dominican Republic. Already at that time, rumors of pedophilia circulated around the artist, defended body and soul by his wife. Some media even accuse Michael Jackson of having wanted to get married to stifle controversy. The marriage will not last long. After collapsing on stage on December 6, 1995, suffering from a virus and fatigue, he was taken to the hospital, where he argued with Lisa-Marie. On January 18, 1996, the latter filed a petition for divorce, on the grounds of “irreconcilable differences”, divorce pronounced on August 20, 1996.
A few months later, Michael Jackson married Debbie Rowe , a nurse who had cared for him when he was diagnosed with vitiligo in 1981. The couple have a first son, Prince Michael Junior, born February 13, 1997, then a daughter, Paris Michael, born on April 3, 1998. Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe divorced on October 8, 1999.
Who are Michael Jackson’s children?
After their divorce, Debbie Rowe leaves custody of her two children to Michael Jackson, giving up her parental rights, which she will claim again in December 2005. After the birth of Prince Michael Junior , then Paris Michael , the singer calls on a surrogate mother to conceive a third child by artificial insemination: Prince Michael II , called “Blancket”, was born on February 21, 2002. After the death of the singer, custody of the children is awarded to his mother, Katherine Jackson. If during their childhood, their faces were always hidden, now the three children of Michael Jackson are exposed to the media.
The eldest of the siblings, Prince Michael Junior studied at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, before founding his production company, King’s Son Productions, in 2016. He directs music videos, short films and films. Michael Jackson’s first child also works for his Heal the World foundation, which helps the most disadvantaged in Los Angeles. Of the three children of the King of Pop, she is the best known: Paris Jackson, born in 1998. Highly exposed on social networks, she became a model and actress. The young woman is also much talked about for having been interned several times in a psychiatric hospital after having tried to end her life.
The youngest of Michael Jackson’s three children is much more discreet than his two eldest. He is also called Bigi and studied at the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. Martial arts lover, black belt in karate, he is also a big fan of video games.
Michael Jackson, the death of a legend
Michael Jackson’s death shook the world. After years of a career rich in success, although punctuated by scandals, the King of Pop died of a drug overdose on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles. He was only 50 years old. Throughout his life, gossip about his health was rife. Some said he had lupus, which has never been confirmed, while others pointed to cosmetic surgery. On June 25, 2009, it was in his house in Holmby Hills, a district of Los Angeles, that Michael Jackson was found unconscious, shortly before noon, by paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire Department. After several attempts at resuscitation, the singer was transported to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was officially declared dead at 2:26 p.m. local time.
The announcement of his death in the media created a worldwide shock wave, a monstrous spike in internet searches and even the saturation of certain media websites. The worldwide tribute caused by the King of Pop’s funeral is immense: gatherings, explosion of album sales or tributes from artists, the emotion is planetary.
How did Michael Jackson die?
After the death of the singer, an investigation is opened to determine the causes of the drama. At first, all suspicion fell on Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray, who allegedly injected him with Propofol, an anesthetic, and Lorazepam, a sedative, in excessive doses. The autopsy will reveal the presence of numerous drugs in the artist’s body. On November 7, 2011, Conard Murray was found guilty of manslaughter by the Los Angeles Superior Court and sentenced to 4 years in prison (he was released on October 28, 2013).
Michael Jackson in 5 legendary songs
He is probably the greatest legend in pop music history. In question ? Countless hits that are still played, loved and danced around the world today. Among his greatest songs, how not to name, obviously, Billie Jean , released in 1982, just like Beat it . Another essential song (like its clip): Thriller , released in 1983 or Bad in 1987. It would be impossible to make a unanimous top 5 of the best songs by Michael Jackson, so rich is his work. Note, however, also the song They Don’t Care About Us , released in 1995 and which is also one of the essential songs of the King of Pop.
Leaving Neverland raises pedophilia charges
With the broadcast of the documentary Leaving Neverland on M6, the accusations of pedophilia targeting Michael Jackson have resurfaced. More than ever, viewers are more divided than ever on the King of Pop. In his film, Dan Reed exclusively gives the floor to two alleged victims of the star, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, aged 36 and 41 today, and who stayed at Neverland when they were 7 and 10 years old.
Once very close to the singer, they now accuse Michael Jackson of having sexually abused them nearly 30 years ago. If they had first defended their idol during previous accusations and during the 2005 trial, it is a completely different version that they deliver in Leaving Neverland. Which is not without annoying the fans of the interpreter of “Thriller”, who denounce a false and incriminating documentary against their idol. According to many defenders of the singer, Wade Robson and James Safechuck are only looking to make money by accusing their former mentor of pedophilia.
Despite suspicions that have resurfaced regularly for 25 years, the acquittal of Michael Jackson in 2005 is, for fans, proof that he is innocent. From the 90s, many testimonies have accumulated on Michael Jackson, reporting the star’s sordid behavior with children: forced fellatio, fondling, rape, kidnapping, payment of money against silence… According to some witnesses, including director Dan Reed, at least a dozen children are said to have been victims of the singer.
Testimonials from Wade Robson and James Safechuck
Since its programming on the HBO channel at the beginning of the month in the United States, Leaving Neverland has caused a lot of ink to flow. Divided into two episodes, Dan Reed’s film gives voice to two alleged victims of Michael Jackson, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who met their idol when they were 7 and 10 years old. Masturbation, sexual games, mutual blowjobs… The details given by the two alleged victims are chilling. “There was no doubt: I was madly in love with Michael. And he said he loved me”, recalls Wade Robson in the documentary. He met the star at the end of the 80s, when he was only seven years old. Quickly, the child and the star become inseparable. According to him, Michael Jackson would have abused him for seven years.
“We had relationships (…) There were toys everywhere, lots of activities to do, we didn’t even know the difference anymore”, explains Wade Robson. In Leaving Neverland, James Safechuck explains for his part that he remembers this “adult penis in (his) little mouth of a seven-year-old child”. He tells how, according to him, Michael Jackson manipulated him: “I asked him not to do it, but he did it and said to me ‘oh, you’re going to like it'”. After several weeks alongside the star and like Wade Robson before him, he says he was then “replaced” by another boy in the heart and in “the bed” of Michael Jackson. “It was like being hunted (…) I just wanted to go home, I cried,” he recalls.
Michael Jackson accused of pedophilia: what did the courts decide?
This is not the first time that child molestation charges against Michael Jackson have surfaced. In 1993, Evan Chandler accused the star of sexually abusing his son Jordan. On January 25, 1994, the Chandler family had signed a financial agreement with the team of Michael Jackson for the complaint to be withdrawn. American justice had closed the investigation in September of the same year after this withdrawal, for lack of evidence for the prosecution. In 2003, the documentary “Living with Michael Jackson” revealed information about Michael Jackson’s private life and daily life.
Several elements, in particular his privileged relationship with children whom he invited to his Neverland estate and with whom he shared his room, attracted attention. Gavin Arvizo, then 14 years old, notably accused the singer of having made him drink wine, showing him pornographic sites and masturbating in front of him and his brother. Michael Jackson was arrested by the police in November. Then began two years of investigation. A trial opened on January 31, 2005 and ended in May 2005 with a dismissal. The jury cleared Michael Jackson by nine votes to three, based on conflicting testimony or insufficient evidence.
The ten years of his death boycotted
For the 10th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death in 2019, the anniversary wanted by fans was spoiled. For this important date in the eyes of the fans, this Tuesday, June 25, 2019, few official tributes are paid to him, apart from those of the admirers of the maligned singer, who have for the most part always ignored the suspicions of pedophilia which tarnish the image of their idol for thirty years. Accusations increased tenfold by the broadcast, last March, of the shocking documentary “Leaving Neverland” directed by Dan Reed and which gave the floor to two of the alleged victims of the artist.
Between a concert by the brothers of Michael Jackson canceled on June 25 in Paris, the publication of the confessions in a book by a French fan postponed and the radio silence of his record company Sony, the tenth anniversary of the death of Michael Jackson could have go completely unnoticed. Only fans honor his memory on social networks, around #10YearsWithoutMichaelJackson (“10 years without Michael Jackson). But between the defenders of the singer of “Billy Jean”, those who believe him innocent or who ignore the charges against him , and Internet users who consider it unthinkable to continue listening to the hits of the King of Pop, the debate is open.
On the “official” side, at the time of writing these lines, tributes remain almost non-existent. Even in his family, notably Paris Jackson or Janet Jackson, no one has yet hailed the memory of the King of Pop on social networks, where they are nevertheless very active. Worse, some even preferred to totally boycott the star accused of pedophilia. For example, after the broadcast of the documentary “Leaving Neverland”, the Lakers, a famous basketball team from Los Angeles, replaced the song “Beat It”, broadcast during their matches, with other songs from Nirvana or Chuck Berry. In France, this Tuesday, June 25, only RFM radio has decided to devote a special day to Michael Jackson. No documentary will be dedicated to him,
But no offense to its detractors, the Michael Jackson empire continues to sell and its work, to fascinate. In addition to the albums which continue to flow to the four corners of the planet, most radio stations continue to broadcast the hits of the King of Pop. Moreover, French fans of Michael Jackson have an appointment in November with the show called “Forever, The Best show about the King of Pop” at the Casino de Paris from November 28 to December 1, then on tour throughout France. .
