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At our regular get-together, my secondary schoolmates went on a rant about how much they enjoyed watching the movie Michael, which recently came out in cinemas. It is an ecstatic trip down memory lane, as all of them came of age during the big hair days of the late 70s and early 80s.
They reminisced about the good old days when music was intoxicating, the bass was low, and it got the feet moving. The movie also introduced millennials and Gen Z to what good music is. After watching the movie, they all agreed in unison that Michael Jackson was taken for a ride and could not wait for the second part of the Michael.
Against this background, Netflix released a three-part documentary on the 2005 Michael's child molestation trials. Some see it as a counter-narrative to the movie version. The documentary leans toward portraying Michael in a negative light.
By the 1990s, Michael Jackson (MJ) was already the most famous person on Earth. Even someone from the steppes of Inner Mongolia or the deep jungles of Central Africa would recognise him. Probably more people knew Michael than at the time in 1966 when John Lennon told the newspapers that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. After the Thriller album, the best-selling album of all time, Billie Jean and Moonwalk, there was no stopping him. His notorious Pepsi commercial fire broke out in 1984, which caused severe burns on his scalp. His addiction to painkillers may have started then. Neverland was bought in 1988.
How famous really was MJ? In 1996, he wanted to make a music video set in the notorious neighbourhood of Favela Santa Marta, Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, the Government of Brazil could not promise adequate security for MJ's entourage. But one of the ganglords in the area, an MJ fan, heard about his intention and quickly announced that the gangs would declare a ceasefire. The gangs guaranteed complete safety for MJ and his entourage. Some of the gang members ended up as dancers in the video 'They don't care about us!'.
MJ became the voice of the weak, sick and the poor. His downfall can be traced to two significant events. Firstly, after he visited Israel during his Dangerous tour in 1993. He had allegedly visited the Palestinians, sympathised with them and went as far as writing a song about their plight. The song never got published. MJ went so far as to pen the lyrics of 'They don't care about us!' as "Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me". Its anti-Semitic stance was altered, and a public apology was offered.
Another biff that cropped up along the way was when MJ bought the rights to many of the Beatles' songs. Sony Music had wanted to own it, and the remaining Beatles members thought it was pulling the rug out from under them. MJ and the CEO of Sony had a name-calling, shouting match through the media. As the conspiracy theorists predicted, Sony later bought over the rights after his demise.
Like a house of cards, one after another, accusations of sexual misconduct started haunting the superstar. Even though the 1993 case was settled out of court, detractors looked at it as an admission of guilt. It would come to haunt MJ in his later trial.
MJ's finances started dwindling. To boost his popularity, Michael allowed a British TV figure, Martin Bashir, to shadow him for eight months in 2003 and later make a documentary. Previously, Bashir had churned out a favourable documentary on Princess Diana, which significantly boosted her image as a wronged spouse in the British royal household.
Unfortunately, Bashir's show sowed the seed for the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's office to think the time was ripe to charge MJ with molestation of young boys in 2005. The prosecutors were given the impression that they had a compelling case. The witnesses and their testimonies turned out to be unreliable. One of the prime witnesses had apparently lied under oath. The prosecution's case crumbled, and MJ was a free man, but all the events had already irreparably broken him. Battling a host of physical and psychological illnesses, the superstar finally succumbed to complications of the unsupervised use of propofol to induce sleep.
MJ was undoubtedly quirky in his appearance and behaviour. Many geniuses are like that. No jury ever convicted him of any of the things that the media said he did. Did the people that he angered set him up through the media and false witnesses? Was he a victim of a planned vendetta for going against the order set by a global conglomerate?
Farouk Gulsara (asokansham@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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