Michael Jackson: interesting facts. Interesting facts from the life of Michael Jackson Michael Jackson is the king of an African country

#Little-KnownFacts about the life of the King of Pop.

Fact No. 1. Vitiligo disease

Around 1984, Michael disappeared from the media sphere. And this at the height of its own popularity! This is because his vitiligo disease began to progress. This is a disease that appears on the skin in the form of dead-pale spots due to the loss of melanins (dark pigments). This disease is quite common these days, but not in 1987. It has unpleasant consequences: if a patient with vitiligo is exposed to open sunlight for even a short period of time, his temperature will rise significantly, and burns on the body are also possible. When he reappeared in 1987 with a new album,America has simply gone crazy - yesterday's African American came out as a white guy with chiseled facial features. On the body, where there were few spots, they were covered up under the white skin. Jackson himself had dark spots on his arms and chest, and they were often caught under the lens. Jackson first admitted to his illness only in 1993 in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

General appearance of the disease.

Visible dark marks where there is little makeup and pigmentation is still present.

Jackson gives an interview for the first time since 1979 and talks about himself and his illness.

Fact No. 2. Love for children

Because of his lost childhood, Michael made up for it in an overly peculiar way: he acquired a ranch and set up a whole zoo there. Then he began to allow charitable excursions there for children from low-income families, as well as children with serious illnesses supported by the state. Jackson often said that he considered children to be “innocent creatures” whose interactions with them were the height of pleasure and positive mood.

Jackson bought a ranch and set up a whole zoo there

For families of children and medical centershe donated absolutely immodest sums for treatment and maintenance. The payments were very high - more than $100 million a year.

Fact No. 3. Thick trolling of the yellow press

In the late eighties, Jackson, being at the peak of his fame, became interested in a carelessly dangerous thing - he began trolling the press. He was once photographed during a tour of the museum lying in a pressure chamber and his right hand Frank DiLeo, on the instructions of the artist himself, gave the photo to the magazine"Time" , accompanied by a touching story that Michael sleeps in a pressure chamber because he wants to live 150 years.

In the late 80s, Jackson, at the peak of his fame, began trolling the press

Coupled with the artist’s strange appearance, the story gained popularity and the prank was a success. Jackson liked it and came up with a story about how he wanted to buy back the elephant man's skeleton. Then - about the fact that he built an altar to Elizabeth Taylor in the bedroom. In the media, such facts began to diverge with enormous resonance. In the early nineties, the press realized that Jackson was having fun and you couldn’t expect stories from this man. The tabloids got down to business, and Michael realized that he was no longer able to control this process.

Fact No. 4. Accusation of molestation

This happened in 1993, immediately after the interview with Oprah. Jordan Chandler's family has filed a lawsuit against the singer, accusing him of molestation. The world tour had to be interrupted, and Jackson was dragged through the seven circles of hell. The apogee was the examination procedure when District Attorney Tom Sneddon showed up at Michael’s home, accompanied by a photographer and police officers, presenting a warrant “to photograph the artist’s genitals.” This was necessary in order to confirm the description of them to the victims.

It turned out that the singer’s genitals were not at all the same as the boy described them - the singer was not circumcised, and other facts indicated deception on the part of the child. After this story, Jackson had a nervous breakdown, he ordered to sign a settlement agreement and pay compensation, just to end this story.

After completing this story, an exhausted Jackson made a statement in which he spoke about all the humiliations that had befallen him.

After Jackson’s death in 2009, this same Chandler openly admitted that he deceived everyone and Michael did not pester him, but was forced to lie by his father, who wanted to earn money and become a producer of the film “Robin Hood and Men in Tights” (this idea, by the way , was implemented by him). Literally 4 months later, his father committed suicide.

After Jackson's death, Chandler openly admitted that he had deceived everyone.

Fact No. 5. Numerous plastic surgeries

The official version is why Michael began medical interventions on his appearance - a broken nose at a rehearsal in 1979. As he himself stated, he decided to correct this misunderstanding and had only 2 plastic surgeries. However, the metamorphoses with your appearance were more likely due to despair: you are the most popular artist in the world, but at the same time you turn white and turn into someone unknown. An African-American with a white body - for him this was a serious complex. And then he saw only one way out for himself - to give his face Caucasian features.

What does an African American look like after going through the entire vitiligo cycle?

Fact No. 6. Shoulder straps “Behold the Master” (CTE - C (see) The Entertainer)

He loved the army theme in his clothes and his costume designers managed to somehow harmoniously combine all these military paraphernalia with the sophisticated image of the artist. Since the early eighties, he loved tunics, shoulder straps, cockades, and stripes. A separate interesting feature were the bandages on the right hand.

And with the shoulder straps the story was like this: at some point the letters CTE appeared on the shoulder straps. Fans and journalists racked their brains, looking for some meaning and decoding. Agreed on"Children of the earth" . And later, much later, Michael’s costume designer in his book told the story of the appearance of these shoulder straps:

CTE shoulder straps

« When Michael saw the first shirts we made for him, they didn't have any embellishment on them, so he pointed his finger at his shoulder and said, “Bush, there's something missing here. Add some letters." So Dennis and I put the letters of the alphabet in a hat and pulled out three at random, which turned out to be CTE.

The whole world thought it meant something, like some kind of secret code. Later Michael really made sense of this, he often called people by their professions rather than their names. I was the “costume designer,” Karen Fey was the “makeup artist.” That's why we started calling him "entertainer". That's when he decided that CTE stood for "With (see) The Entertainer."«

Fact No. 7. The original video for the song They Don’t Care About Us was banned in the media due to censorship.

The video had to be re-shot, and a version appeared in the favelas of Brazil. Both videos were directed by Spike Lee.

previously banned video for the song« They don't care about us»

Fact No. 8. Quarrel with Paul McCartney.

In 1982, ATV was going through hard times, but by this time it had already collected a catalog of copyrights for 4,000 songs, of which, by far, the most popular today are the 250 composed by the Beatles. ATV decided to withdraw money from the music publishing business and sold the catalog to Australian investor Rupert Holmes a" Court. Both Yoko Ono and McCartney offered to buy the ATV catalog in 1981, but they agreed that the asking price of $40 million was too high.

Around the same time, Michael Jackson came to London to contribute to McCartney's album"Pipes of Peace" , recording “Say, Say, Say,” which would become a No. 1 hit in the U.S. They came to McCartney’s estate every evening, after a day of studio work, to have dinner and talk. One night, Paul pulled out a thick notebook containing copies of all the songs he had begun acquiring through his own post-Beatles publishing company. Jackson was smitten by the idea of ​​owning song copyrights as an investment. Taking the idea home, he shared it with his lawyer, John Branca, to begin searching for song catalogs to purchase. Soon after this, one of his first acquisitions was a number of songs written by"Sly Stewart" from Sly and Family Stone.

In 1984, Jackson received word that the Beatles catalog was up for sale as part of ATV Music's assets. He has instructed his lawyers to acquire the songs if possible. After more than ten months of difficult negotiations, beating out four other powerful bidders, and spending more than one million dollars in legal and accounting fees to conduct due diligence on the catalog and its income, the deal was finally completed and Michael Jackson became the owner of the publishing rights to what is perhaps the most legendary catalog of songs in popular music. The acquisition price was $47.5 million, plus Jackson's personal presence in Australia on behalf of Holmes a" Court. McCartney and Lennon's estates continued to receive their royalties, regardless of who owned the publishing rights.

It is worth noting that Jackson behaved diplomatically and allowed Paul to take a time out to try to raise funds himself, and after Paul was unable and began to speak critically about Michael in the press, the latter reacted extremely coldly and ordered the deal to be completed.

Fact No. 9. He shook hands with three US presidents without taking off his gloves.

George HW Bush and Michael Jackson

The very familiar Billie Jean video became the very first video by a black artist to be shown on MTV. This happened in March 1983, when the MTV channel was still not God knows how large-scale and pathetic and was even considered progressive by the standards of the era.

2. First in sales

The Thriller album (with which Michael's fame became global and even reached the Soviet Union) is today considered the best-selling record of all time. As of 2016, 65 million copies sold! The recording of the record itself cost a considerable $750 thousand, and from a technical point of view, Thriller is considered one of the last masterpieces of analogue sound engineering. Digital technology did not yet dominate even in expensive studios, but recording was incredibly complex: 24-track equipment was used, and when there were not enough channels, four to five 24-track tape recorders were synchronized, that is, up to a hundred tracks were used simultaneously!

3. Moon Guy

Michael came up with the famous moonwalk while watching the performances of the great French mime Marcel Marceau. It should be added that, in general, Jackson looked at singer James Brown’s stage movements.

4. Patience and work

Although it seems as if the real Michael began with the Thriller album, in reality this was his nineteenth record, if you count previous solo albums and work with the family group Jackson 5. For Thriller, Michael himself wrote four of the nine songs: Wanna Be Startin "Somethin, The Girl is Mine, Beat It and Billie Jean. On the next album, Bad (1987), the producers gave Jackson much more creative freedom, and he wrote nine of the eleven tracks.

5. Michael is not a Corleone

Jackson became the godfather to several children from star families. His godsons include the daughter of Lionel Richie and the son of Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb.

6. Not alone at home

Michael's great friend was actor Macaulay Culkin, so he can be seen in the Black or White video. Moreover, Culkin became the godfather of Michael's two children.

7. Beauty and the Beasts

The girl whom Michael hit on in the Thriller video, dancing surrounded by zombies, later admitted: during filming, she had a fleeting affair with the singer. By the way, Ola Ray still looks like a ten, as her 2013 photo proves!

8. Food of the Gods

Michael Jackson's favorite food was Mexican food. Burritos and tacos gave him the most joy. It must be taken into account, however, that in the process of hectic concert activity, Michael Jackson went on a diet and turned into an inveterate .

9. Zoo director

Michael also loved animals. But it’s not, it’s just platonic. One of Jackson's first hits was a song called Ben, dedicated to his beloved pet rat (the same name as his 1972 solo album). Later, a tame python, two llamas and a chimpanzee named Bubbles lived in his house. At the age of three, Michael rescued the chimpanzee from a cancer research clinic where the monkey was an experimental animal. Artist Jeff Koons subsequently created several sculptures depicting Michael with Bubbles.

10. White on black

American radio stations specializing exclusively in white music still played the single Beat It (1982) for the reason that the guitar solo was played by heavy metal star Eddie Van Halen. By the way, Van Halen didn’t charge a penny for recording the solo.

11. Cinema without borders

Michael Jackson starred in the most expensive video clip in the history of the industry. The production and filming of the video for the 1995 song Scream, which Michael performs with his sister Janet, cost an astronomical seven million dollars. The video had a strong impact on the younger generation, and its echoes can be seen in such videos as No Scrubs by TLC, Shawty Get Loose by Lil Mama, Stay the Night by IMx, Walkin" on the Moon by The-Dream and I"m Out by Ciara's song with Nicki Minaj.

12. 9/11

It is officially confirmed that Michael Jackson did have an appointment at one of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attack. But the singer was so tired after the concert the day before that he slept through everything.

13. Good is bad

The famous video clip for the song Bad was shot by none other than director Martin Scorsese. At the same time, actor Wesley Snipes appeared in the video, who at that moment was just beginning to climb the steps of show business. Interestingly, video clips were shot for absolutely all songs from the Bad album, except for one - Just Good Friends.

1. The fact that Michael was a great man during his lifetime is an indisputable fact. In 2008, a large-scale flash mob took place, which brought together more than 4 thousand people, who, at a signal, put on white gloves. The flash mob was dedicated to the anniversary of the hit Thriller. The event took place in ten countries around the world. The participants sent the funds they earned to a charity foundation.

2. Jackson suffered from one of the rarest diseases in the world - Alpha 1 trepsin deficiency. In the world, one person in twenty thousand suffers from this disease. However, the singer had the most severe form of the disease, in which skin diseases develop and the person loses weight.

4. Jackson patented unique shoes that created the illusion that their owner could change the force of gravity by leaning forward. Jackson first used this movement in the “Smooth Criminal” video.

5. The singer had a unique oxygen bed. Jackson believed that he would live to be a hundred years old and used all kinds of methods to improve his health and prolong his youth. This did not help him... Now the bed is in a center for emergency care for burn patients located in California.

6. Although Michael was the King of Pop during his lifetime, there are only five wax figures of the singer in Madame Tussauds museums. He is inferior in the number of figures to Elvis Presley and Madonna. These celebrities have six copies each.

8. Like all performers, Jackson had his own way of maintaining his voice. Before each performance, the king of the pop scene drank hot water with ricol caramel.

9. Macaulay Culkin was one of the singer's best friends. He is godfather to Jackson's two children. In addition, Macaulay, together with the singer, designed his amusement park in Neverland.

10. In 1997, Michael was named the most famous person in the world.

12. Michael's star on the Walk of Fame appeared in 1984, when he was only 27 years old.

13. For each show, Jackson lost at least 10 pounds of body water.

14. In 2006, Jackson appeared in public after several months of imprisonment. This happened at the World Music Awards in the British capital. After this, he also appeared at the Guinness Book of Records awards. He was included in the book in eight categories at once.

16. In 2003, the King of Pop's reputation deteriorated significantly due to legal proceedings regarding the molestation of young boys. That same year, Michael insisted that video cameras be installed in his home for filming a documentary. Jackson wanted to attract public attention and prove his innocence. In addition, he gave an interview to Martin Bashir, where he talked about all his antics and relationships with underage boys.

17. In 2001, Michael celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of his creative activity. He performed a show at Madison Square Garden with his brothers, with whom he had not appeared on stage for more than seventeen years.

18. Jackson married nurse Deborah Rowe when they had two sons together. The marriage lasted only three years, and after the divorce the boys remained with their father.

20. The first scandal involving the seduction of little boys happened twenty years ago. Then the case did not go to court, and the singer reached an agreement with the parents of 13-year-old Jordan. Many journalists then wrote that Michael went unpunished because he paid the boy’s family a large sum for silence.

21. In 1991, Michael became the first performer to sign a contract with Sony for a record amount for that time - 65 million.

Happy Birthday, King of Pop... During his lifetime, Michael Jackson was one of the most discussed people, and a lot of the information was fictitious. For the legend's birthday, we have selected only the most truthful and interesting facts.

Today, August 29, the legendary King of Pop would have celebrated his next anniversary - 60 years old, but, unfortunately, he died in 2009. There have always been a lot of rumors around Michael Jackson, which do not subside even years after his death. We have selected for you the most interesting and confirmed facts about the singer, about whom millions of fans around the world went crazy.

1. Psychological disorder

Jackson had a problem called body dysmorphic disorder, in which a person is constantly dissatisfied with his own appearance. Because of this, the singer underwent a large number of plastic surgeries. There are suggestions that he corrected his nose, chin, lips and cheeks. However, Jackson did not officially admit to any operation.

2. Own ranch

In the late 80s, the pop singer purchased the Neverland ranch, which has an area of ​​12 square meters. km. Then its price was $19.5 million, and after renovations made by the celebrity, the amount increased to $100 million. On this territory, Jackson built a karting track, an amusement park, a railroad, an Indian village and a zoo.

3. Scarecrow

As a teenager, Jackson landed the role of the scarecrow in the Broadway musical The Wiz. During filming, he struck up an acquaintance with music director Quinky Johnson, who eventually became his producer.

4. Spender

When Michael was at the peak of his career, his fortune was estimated at $500 million, and a decade and a half later he already had a debt of $350 million. They said about Jackson that he earns like a millionaire and spends like a billionaire.

5. Pressure chamber

At one time, journalists and the public actively discussed that the King of Pop was sleeping in a pressure chamber in order to stay young longer. In fact, this is not true, and the myth began after Jackson was photographed wearing it to promote the film "Captain IO".

6. Sweet ritual

The King of Pop never went on stage until he drank Ricola caramel, which he dissolved in hot water. He did this to improve the sound of his voice.

7. Imaginary pedophilia

The first trial in which Jackson was accused of pedophilia occurred in 1993. The singer made a mistake that had serious consequences for his life - he decided to agree to pay money to his family, which was perceived by the public as an admission of guilt. 26 years later, the grown-up boy admitted that he had slandered Michael.

8. Special videos

Thanks to Michael, video clips with a plot appeared, because each of his videos was filled with meaning and carried some kind of idea.

9. Video game

Sega released the game Moonwalker, where the main character was Jackson, who saved kidnapped children, fighting off the main villain with signature dance moves.

10. Skin lightening

Many people wondered why Jackson's skin color changed. People thought he was doing this on purpose, but in fact it was the result of an incurable disease called vitiligo, which causes white spots to appear on the body.

11. Spider-Man

The King of Pop had a huge love for Spider-Man and had a dream to play him in a film. To fulfill his desire, Michael even tried to buy out Marvel Comics, but the deal did not go through.

12. Famous walk

Jackson is not the inventor of his favorite movement, which is repeated by millions. He simply made it his calling card, nothing more.

13. King of Pop

This nickname is already an integral part of the story about Michael Jackson. Elizabeth Taylor first introduced him as the "King of Pop" at the American Music Awards.

14. Precious glove

At his concerts, Jackson performed with a glove strewn with stones. It was intended to emphasize hand movements. The singer created his first accessory with his own hands, using a golf glove and rhinestones.

15. Unusual dedication

Most of the songs have a dedication, for example, the famous Billie Jean was written about girls who accompany celebrities on tour, and after a while accuse them of getting pregnant.

16. Breaking the law of nature

1. There are 5 wax figures of Michael Jackson in Madame Tussauds museums around the world. He lost only to Madonna and Elvis Presley, they have 6 figures each.

2. Jackson demonstrated the moonwalk in 1983.

3. Jackson is the true king of West Africa. He was awarded the royal title by the people of Gabon, Ivory Coast in 1992.

4. Before the concert, Jackson had a ritual: he always drank a drink consisting of ricol caramel dissolved in hot water. He claimed that such a drink improves his voice.

5. Famous personality McCauley Culkin is the godfather of Jackson's 2 children: Paris and Prince Michael.

6. Culkin helped Michael design his Neverland theme park.

7. An extensive study in 1997 declared Michael Jackson the Most Famous Person in the World.

8. When Michael was little, he liked to hide spiders in his sister LaToya's bed.

9. Michael has an official patent with the US Patent Office (patent #5255452) for a special invention: a shoe that is attached to a stage, allowing the wearer to lean far forward and defy gravity.

10. "Come Together" by The Beatles is one of Michael's favorite songs.

11. Favorite composers: Claude Debussy (‘Afternoon of the Fawn’), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev.

12. 1978: Jackson starred as Scarecrow in The Wiz (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). It was a film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name. Along with him, the main roles in the film were played by Diana Ross and Richard Pryor. In addition, while filming the film, he met music director Quincy Jones, who was destined to become the producer of Michael Jackson's most famous albums.

13. 1984: An accident occurred while filming a commercial for Pepsi Cola, with whom Jackson had signed a contract the previous year. After the pyrotechnics exploded, Michael received second-degree burns to his face. As compensation, he received $1.5 million from the company. However, after this incident, Jackson became very concerned about his own appearance.

14. 2008: The double album Thriller 25 was released in honor of Michael Jackson's 50th birthday. And Michael’s longtime friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor, forever “glued” the nickname to him - “King of Butt.”

15. Farewell to Michael Jackson took place on July 7 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The selection was made by:

Bonus from Sergei Gaber :

• According to La Toya, the artist’s sister, as a child he was teased with a “pimple.”
• The same La Toya claimed that Jackson learned to dance by dodging his father's fists.
• Jackson owned, according to various sources, the copyright to 30 or 50 percent of The Beatles' songs.
• The red jacket from the "Thriller" video is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the costumes from the "Bad" and "Remember The Time" videos were sold at auction.
• Jarvis Cocker from the band Pulp once ruined Jackson's appearance at a charity event: Cocker ran onto the stage and made faces during Jackson's speech.
• During the persecution of producer Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson gave his first interview in five years: in a dark room, he told the journalist a single phrase... “I love Quincy Jones.”
• Jackson never slept in the pressure chamber; this famous photo was taken as a joke.
• The albums of the Jackson 5 group are included in the golden classics of the Motown label - despite the fact that Michael was from 6 to 10 years old at the time of recording.
• There is evidence that producer Phil Spector tried to rape young Jackson.

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