Death of Michael Jackson

From Jackopedia

Michael Jackson suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California on June 25, 2009. He was treated by paramedics at the scene, but was pronounced dead at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center two hours later.^[1]

His personal physician, Conrad Murray, says he found Jackson in bed, not breathing but with a faint pulse, and administered CPR to no avail. Initial reports indicated that Jackson died one hour after receiving an injection of pethidine (Demerol), a painkiller to which his friends say he was addicted. Murray has said he did not prescribe or furnish Jackson with Demerol.^[2]

His death triggered an outpouring of grief around the world, creating surges of Internet traffic and causing sales of his music to soar.^[3] He had been scheduled to perform 50 sold-out concerts to over one million people at London's O₂ arena, from July 13, 2009 to March 6, 2010, which he had implied during a press conference would be the last of his career.^[4] His memorial on July 7, 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where he had rehearsed for the London concerts just two days before his death, was broadcast live around the world, attracting a global audience of up to one billion people.^[5]

Contents 1 Collapse 1.1 Health 2 Investigation 2.1 DEA and LAPD 2.2 Drug use allegations 2.2.1 Diprivan 2.3 Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists 2.3.1 Personal physician 2.4 Personal advisers 3 Family 4 Will and legal affairs 5 Reaction 5.1 Media and Internet coverage 5.2 Grief 5.3 Tributes 5.4 Record sales 6 Memorial 7 References 8 Further reading and external links 8.1 Obituaries

[edit] Collapse

Jackson became ill at his rented home on 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles during the late morning or early afternoon of June 25 PDT. It was widely reported that he had received an injection of Demerol at 11:30 a.m., though his physician, cardiologist Conrad Murray, has said he neither prescribed nor furnished Jackson with Demerol.^[2]

Murray said through his lawyer, Ed Chernoff, that he fortuitously went to see Jackson on the second floor of Jackson's home, and found him in bed, not breathing.^[2] Jackson's sister, La Toya said that Jackson was found in Murray's bedroom, not his own. She said there was an intravenous drip stand beside the bed and oxygen canisters along the walls.^[6]

There was a weak pulse in his femoral artery, the doctor said, and Jackson's body was still warm. He began to administer CPR.^[2] Chernoff told CNN's Anderson Cooper that there was no landline in the bedroom, and although Murray had a cell phone, he did not know the address of the property. The lawyer said that Murray, unable to contact security by phone, ran downstairs and alerted the chef to call security. By the time security called 911, 30 minutes had passed.^[7] The New York Post said the emergency services were contacted only after Jackson's father was told by a security guard that Jackson was ill. The Post reported that Jackson's 12-year-old son, Michael Joseph "Prince", was present during the resuscitation attempts.^[8]

Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) paramedics received a 911 call at 12:21 pm (19:21 UTC), and arrived three minutes and seventeen seconds later, at which point Jackson was not breathing.^[9] The recording of the 911 call was released by the LAFD on June 27.^[10] CPR was performed for 42 minutes by paramedics at the house. They moved Jackson to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, arriving at 1:14 pm (20:14 UTC), and continued with CPR for an hour.^[9][11] He was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm (21:26 UTC).^[12]

[edit] Health

J. Randy Taraborrelli, who knew Jackson for forty years, said he had become "very frail, totally, totally underweight", and that his family had been worried about him. Taraborrelli said Jackson had suffered from an addiction to painkillers off and on for decades, resolving it, then losing control of it again.^[13]

The Sunday Times reported on June 28 that Grace Rwaramba, a former nanny who looked after Jackson's children, told writer Daphne Barak that Jackson was a drug addict, that she had had to pump his stomach more than once, and that he had stopped looking after himself, becoming dirty and unkempt.^[14] Rwaramba has since denied having made these claims, saying she does not even know how to pump a stomach.^[15] Other associates of Jackson told journalist Ian Halperin that he may have been suffering from anorexia or bulimia, as well as a lung disease known as Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, for which he was receiving injections of Alpha 1-antitrypsin. The condition meant that on some days he was unable to sing or even speak, according to Halperin. He is also believed to have suffered from vitiligo and lupus.^[16]

Jackson's staff said he was worried about the London concerts. "He wasn't eating, he wasn't sleeping and, when he did sleep, he had nightmares that he was going to be murdered", one of them told Halperin. "He was deeply worried that he was going to disappoint his fans. He even said something that made me briefly think he was suicidal. He said he thought he’d die before doing the London concerts. He said he was worried that he was going to end up like Elvis [Presley]. He was always comparing himself to Elvis, but there was something in his tone that made me think that he wanted to die, he was tired of life. He gave up. His voice and dance moves weren't there any more. I think maybe he wanted to die rather than embarrass himself on stage."^[17] Lisa Marie Presley, Jackson's former wife and Elvis Presley's daughter, said that Jackson had told her that he was afraid he would end up like Elvis.^[18]

Two sources involved with the investigation into Jackson's death told CNN on July 8 that, when he died, he was emaciated, bald, and extremely pale, with numerous track marks on his arms, and collapsed veins, suggesting sustained intravenous drug use. One of the sources said he had never seen anything like it in decades of investigative work.^[19] Arnold Klein, Jackson's dermatologist, disagrees that Jackson was in poor health, saying he danced in Klein's office just three days before his death, and seemed to be in good shape.^[20]

[edit] Investigation

Jackson's body was moved to the LA Coroner's offices in Boyle Heights, where on June 26 a three-hour autopsy was performed on behalf of the Los Angeles County Coroner by the chief medical examiner, Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran.^[21] Jackson's brain has been retained by the coroner, and the rest of the body released to his family, who arranged for a second autopsy on June 27.^[22] Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the coroner's office, said there was no evidence of trauma or foul play, but that it would take four to six weeks for toxicology tests to be completed.^[13]

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) did not secure Jackson's home or any part of it, and allowed the Jackson family access to it, though the police returned days later to remove certain items. This has raised questions about the chain of custody.^[23]

[edit] DEA and LAPD

On July 1, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) joined the LAPD in the investigation. The involvement of the DEA means that doctor-patient confidentiality is overruled, allowing the DEA to follow what appears to be the complex trail of prescription drugs supplied to Jackson, particularly any controlled substances, from the doctors who prescribed them all the way to the source.^[23] California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that his office was helping the LAPD and DEA with a state database of all medical doctors and prescriptions filled.^[24]

The LAPD has subpoened medical records, including psychiatric records, from doctors who treated Jackson. On July 9, William Bratton, the Los Angeles Chief of Police, indicated that investigators were focusing on homicide or accidental overdose, but had to wait for the full toxicology reports from the coroner.^[25]

[edit] Drug use allegations

The website TMZ, which broke the news of Jackson's death, writes that Jackson used a number of aliases to secure prescription drugs, including Omar Arnold and Jack London, and the names of one of his bodyguards and an office manager. One doctor would allegedly call the pharmacy to say that Jackson was coming to get Demerol, and the pharmacy would fill the prescription with the patient's name blank.^[26]

Jackson is said to have used a powerful anesthetic, propofol (Deprivan), the painkillers Demerol and Oxycodone (OxyContin),^[17] as well as Xanax, an anxiolytic, and Zoloft, an anti-depressant.^[1] Other drugs named in connection with him are Prilosec, Vicodin, Paxil, Soma, and Dilaudid.^[16] Police found several drugs in his home, including Diprivan, some with labels made out to Jackson's pseudonyms, others with no labels at all.^[27] A 2004 police document prepared for the 2005 People v. Jackson child-abuse trial alleges that Jackson was taking up to 40 Xanax pills a night.^[25]

Deepak Chopra, an internist and endocrinologist who was a friend of Jackson's for 20 years, expressed concern that Jackson appears to have been given no naloxone, a drug used to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose. "With a weak pulse", he said, "the first thing I would have given him was Narcan [the drug's trade name]. Its effect would have been dramatic and Michael might be alive today. No one has been able to answer why he had so many drugs in his house, but the attending physician did not have ... [naloxone] in case of an overdose. I don't understand it."^[28] Chopra criticized what he saw as "enabling" by some Hollywood doctors. "We put drug pushers in jail but give licenses to doctors to do the same thing", he said. "I know personally that they write multiple prescriptions and they even use false names ... This cult of drug-pushing doctors, with their co-dependent relationships with addicted celebrities, must be stopped. Let's hope that Michael's unnecessary death is the call for action."^[28]

The Jackson family tried to stage an intervention in February 2009, when he was living in Las Vegas. Janet Jackson and some of her brothers traveled to his home, but security guards were ordered not to let them in. He also refused to take calls from his mother. "If you tried to deal with him," one source told CNN, "he would shut you out. You just wouldn't hear from him for long periods." The family denied the intervention rumors when People published them at the time.^[29]

[edit] Diprivan

Of all the drugs found in Jackson's home, the one that most concerned investigators was propofol (Diprivan), a powerful anesthetic administered intravenously by anesthesiologists in hospitals to prepare patients for surgery.^[31] There were several bottles in his home, some empty, some full, none with prescription labels.^[27] Nicknamed "milk of amnesia" because of its milky appearance, it is fast-acting, metabolizes quickly, and the patient wakes feeling refreshed. The manufacturer, AstraZeneca, advises that patients be continuously monitored during its use, as it has been associated with an irreversible chain of events leading to cardiac arrest, according to the Mayo Clinic.^[31] Misuse is an increasing problem. Paul Wischmeyer, an anesthesiologist at the University of Colorado, said, "A lot of people do it because it makes you completely blotto. It totally takes away all anxiety, all fear. It's incredibly relieving of pain anxiety and stress. People do it to escape."^[27]

On June 30, Cherilyn Lee, a nurse who had worked as Jackson's nutritionist, said that he had asked her in May to provide propofol to help him sleep, but she refused. He told her he had been given the drug before for persistent insomnia, and that an unnamed doctor had said it was safe. Lee said she received a telephone call from an aide to Jackson on June 21 to say that Jackson was ill, although she no longer worked for him. She reported overhearing Jackson complain that one side of his body was hot, the other side cold. She advised the aide to send Jackson to hospital.^[32]

Arnold Klein, Jackson's dermatologist, told CNN that Jackson used an unnamed anesthesiologist to administer propofol to help him sleep while he was on tour in Germany. CNN said the anesthesiologist would "take him down" at night and "bring him back up" in the morning during the HIStory tour in 1996–1997.^[29] Dr. Neil Ratner, an anesthesiologist who accompanied Jackson on that tour declined to comment.^[30]

[edit] Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists

The Los Angeles Times writes that the DEA is focusing on at least five doctors who prescribed drugs to Jackson, trying to determine whether they had a "face to face" relationship with him, and whether they provided a diagnosis, as required by law.^[27] The London Sunday Times writes that there are 30 doctors, nurses, and pharmacists the police want to question, including Arnold Klein, Jackson's dermatologist.^[33]

Dr. Allan Metzger, a lupus specialist, was also with Jackson on the HIStory tour. He told TMZ that he wrote prescriptions for Janet Jackson in the late 1990s, for diuretics and for a hepatitis B injection—which she was taking as a precautionary measure while touring—using the name of her private chef, Ricardo Macchi, to protect her privacy. He was reprimanded for it by the Medical Board of California in September 2000. Metzger told TMZ he had not treated Michael Jackson for many years, and had "not prescribed any medication in relation to what happened to him."^[34]

[edit] Personal physician

On June 26, police towed away a car used by cardiologist Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal physician, stating that it might contain medication or other evidence. The car, registered in Murray's sister's name, was released by police on July 1.^[23] Murray said he was not present when Jackson fell ill. He said he found Jackson in bed, not breathing but with a pulse, and began to administer CPR.^[35][36] During the tape of the emergency call, the doctor was described as administering CPR on a bed, not on a hard surface such as a floor, which would be standard practice.^[37] The doctor's attorney said that Murray placed one hand underneath Jackson and used the other hand for chest compression, where the standard practice is to use both hands for compression.^[38]

Murray, who is not board-certified, is a 1989 graduate of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He filed for bankruptcy in 1992,^[39] and is reported to have had judgments filed against him or his company totalling over $435,000.^[37] ABC News reported that Murray's partner in his Houston office had his license revoked and the clinic shut down in 2002 for improperly dispensing medication. Law enforcement officials reportedly called the clinic a "pill mill".^[40]

Murray got to know Jackson in 2008 after treating one of his children in Las Vegas. Jackson summoned him in May 2009 to Los Angeles to help with preparations for the London concerts, then insisted that his concert promoter AEG Live hire Murray, who had been living with Jackson for two weeks before the death. Randy Phillips, AEG Live's chief executive, said the doctor had planned to travel with Jackson to Britain for a fee of $150,000 a month.^[2] Murray has said through his attorney that he did not prescribe or administer Demerol or Oxycontin to Jackson, but would not say what, if anything, he did prescribe or administer.^[31]

Reverend Jesse Jackson (no relation) said the family was concerned about Murray's role. "They have good reason to be", Jackson said, "he left the scene." He said the family wanted to know: "When did the doctor come? What did he do? Did he inject him? If so, with what? Was he on the scene twice? Did he use the Demerol? It's a very powerful drug. Was he injected once? Was he injected twice?"^[35] Los Angeles police said the doctor spoke to officers immediately after Jackson's death, and during an extensive interview two days later. They stressed that they found "no red flag" and do not suspect foul play.^[37]

[edit] Personal advisers

Stuart Backerman, Jackson's publicist between 2002–2004, told The Vancouver Sun that, after the police raid on Jackson's Neverland Ranch on December 22, 2003, in connection with the child abuse allegations, Jackson turned to the Nation of Islam for help, on the advice of his nanny, Grace Rwaramba, and his brother, Jermaine. Louis Farrakhan and his son-in-law Leonard Muhammad, the Nation of Islam's chief-of-staff, arrived from Chicago, at first to provide security, but they also "took over Michael's business and isolated everybody", according to Backerman, who resigned as a result.^[41]

Dr. Tohme Tohme, a Lebanese businessman also reportedly affiliated with the Nation of Islam, has acted as a personal adviser. Ian Halperin writes that Tohme has said at various times that he was the ambassador of Senegal, a Saudi Arabian billionaire, and an orthopaedic surgeon, though he has no medical degree. He was named in a March 2009 affidavit in Los Angeles Superior Court, where he was alleged to have contacted an auctioneer of Jackson's memorabilia, invoked "Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam's" interest in Jackson's life, and said that if the auctioneer did not do as Tohme requested, "lives are at stake and there will be bloodshed."^[17][36] According to La Toya Jackson, Tohme fired the staff at Jackson's rented homes in Beverley Hills and Las Vegas at 11 pm on the night of his death.^[6]

Jackson's family has raised questions about the role of AEG Live, the concert promoter, in the last few weeks of his life. They would like to see an investigation into the role of the personal advisers and representatives they believe the promoter put in place for Jackson.^[35] The company has said it had a three-and-a-half year plan to work with him, including a possible world tour, the release of new music, and a 3D film based on Jackson's video, Thriller,^[42] though Jackson himself implied during a press conference in March that the This Is It concerts in London were the last of his career. "This really is it", in his words.^[43]

[edit] Family

“	In one of the darkest moments of our lives we find it hard to find the words appropriate to this sudden tragedy we all had to encounter. Our beloved son, brother and father of three children has gone so unexpectedly, in such a tragic way and much too soon. It leaves us, his family, speechless and devastated to a point, where communication with the outside world seems almost impossible at times. — The Jackson family[44]	”

Jackson is survived by his three children, Michael Joseph "Prince" Jackson Jr. (1997) and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson (1998), born during his marriage to his second wife, Debbie Rowe; and Prince Michael Jackson II, known as "Blanket", born in 2002 to an unidentified surrogate mother.

He is also survived by his brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Randy; his sisters Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet; and his parents, Joseph and Katherine. Katherine Jackson was granted temporary guardianship of Jackson's children on June 29.^[45]

[edit] Will and legal affairs

Jackson's will was filed by attorney John Branca at the Los Angeles County courthouse on July 1, 2009. Signed July 7, 2002, it names Branca and accountant John McClain as executors; they were confirmed as such by a Los Angeles judge on July 6, 2009.^[46] All assets are given to the (pre-existing) Michael Jackson Family Trust (amended 22 March 2002),^[47] the details of which have not been made public. The Associated Press reports that, in 2007, Jackson had a net worth of $236.6 million, comprised of $567.6 million in assets, which included Neverland Ranch and The Beatles' back-catalogue, and debts of $331 million.^[48] The guardianship of his children is given to his mother, Katherine, or if she is unable or unwilling, to singer Diana Ross.^[49] The will states that Jackson's former wife Debbie Rowe was omitted intentionally, though she may nevertheless benefit from the Trust.^[50]

Media reports suggested that the probate period for Jackson's will could be spread out over many years.^[51] The value of Sony/ATV Music Publishing is estimated by Ryan Schinman, chief of Platinum Rye, to be US$1.5 billion. Shinman's estimate makes Jackson's share of Sony/ATV worth USD$750 million, from which Jackson would have had an annual income of USD$80 million. Sony Corporation has not commented on whether it intends to buy Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate. Jackson's creditors could force a distressed sale, which would act in Sony's favor since it would lower the sale price, but only if the trust set up by Jackson for his stake in Sony/ATV is revocable. A distressed sale would lower the value of Jackson's estate, and thus might not raise enough to cover the debts owed by the estate.^[52]

[edit] Reaction

[edit] Media and Internet coverage

The first reports of Jackson's cardiac arrest and death came from TMZ.com, a Los Angeles-based celebrity news website. Doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center pronounced Jackson dead at 2:26 pm PDT, and 18 minutes later at 2:44 pm, TMZ published: "Michael Jackson passed away today at the age of 50."^[9] TMZ's report was cited in live television coverage, but the major news organizations wanted confirmation from a more traditional source.^[53] The Los Angeles Times website confirmed the report at 2:51 pm.^[54] TMZ's managing editor, Harvey Levin, rejected criticism that his website used the death in order to advance a tabloid agenda.^[55]

The news of Jackson's death—and people's reactions to it—spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down and crash from user overload. Both TMZ and the Los Angeles Times suffered outages.^[54] The Google search engine initially believed that the input from millions of people searching for "Michael Jackson" meant that the search engine was under attack. The microblogging and social networking website Twitter reported a crash, as did Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, at 3:15 PDT.^[56] AOL Instant Messenger collapsed for 40 minutes. AOL called it a "seminal moment in Internet history", adding, "We've never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth."^[57]

Around 15 percent of Twitter posts—or 5,000 tweets per minute—mentioned Jackson after the news broke.^[58][59] A New York Times reporter recalled that, in contrast, she had not found references to June's Iranian elections or to the year's continuing flu pandemic in more than five percent of tweets.^[59] The Wikimedia Foundation reported nearly a million visitors to Jackson's Wikipedia biography within the space of one hour, probably the most visitors in an hourlong period to any article in Wikipedia's history.^[60] Overall, web traffic ranged from at least 11 percent^[61] to at least 20 percent^[58] higher than normal.

MTV and Black Entertainment Television (BET) aired marathons of Jackson's music videos.^[62] Jackson specials aired on multiple television stations around the world. The British soap opera EastEnders added a last-minute scene, in which one character tells another about the news, to the June 26 episode.^[63] Jackson was the topic of every front-page headline in the daily British tabloid The Sun for about two weeks following his death.^[64] During the same period, the three major U.S. networks' evening newscasts—ABC's World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News—devoted 34 percent of their broadcast time to him.^[65] Magazines including TIME published commemorative editions.^[66]

Statistics published by the Pew Research Center suggested that two out of three Americans believed the coverage of Jackson's death was excessive, while three percent felt it was insufficient.^[67] In the UK, the BBC received over 700 complaints from viewers who thought the death dominated the news.^[68] American conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh said the coverage was "a horrible disgrace" and lent his support to the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Reverend Jesse Jackson as they fought to stem the press speculation. "We don't know diddlysquat yet", he told listeners on June 29.^[69]

[edit] Grief

Jackson's death triggered an outpouring of grief. Fans gathered outside the UCLA Medical Center, his Holmby Hills home, the Apollo Theater in New York, and at Hitsville U.S.A., the old Motown headquarters in Detroit where Jackson's career began, now the Motown Museum. Streets around the hospital were blocked off, and across America people left offices and factories to watch the breaking news on television.^[70] A small crowd, including the city's mayor, gathered outside his childhood home in Gary, where the flag on city hall was flown at half staff in his honor.^[71] Fans also mistakenly gathered around the Hollywood Walk of Fame star of another Michael Jackson, a radio commentator, stating that "they didn't care" when told by reporters.^[72] Jackson's own star had been temporarily covered by equipment used for the premiere of Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy, Brüno^[73]—which had featured a segment, involving Jackson's sister La Toya, that was later cut from the film out of respect toward Michael's family.^[74]

U.S. President Barack Obama sent a letter of condolence to the Jackson family,^[37] and Congress observed a moment of silence.^[75] Elizabeth Taylor, a long-time friend, said she can't imagine life without him.^[76] Liza Minnelli told CBS, "When the autopsy comes, all hell's going to break loose, so thank God we're ­celebrating him now."^[77]

[edit] Tributes

Life and death of Michael Jackson Aug 29, 1958: Born in Gary, Indiana. 1964: Starts performing with Jackson 5. 1971: 1st solo album, Got to Be There. 1972: 2nd solo album, Ben; The song of the same name became his first US #1 in Billboard Hot 100 charts. 1979: Off the Wall; broke his nose, first rhinoplasty. early 1980s: Appearance starts to change. 1982: Thriller. Mar 25, 1983. First performance of the moonwalk. Jan 1984: Burns his scalp filming Pepsi ad; starts using painkillers; third rhinoplasty. May 14, 1984: Honored by Pres. Reagan for charity work. 1986: Vitiligo and lupus diagnosis; fourth rhinoplasty and cleft chin. 1987: Bad. 1988: Moves into Neverland. Apr 1988: Moonwalk published. Apr 5, 1990: Honored by Pres. Bush for charity work. 1991: Dangerous Sep 30, 1992: Heal the World Foundation launched. May 1992: Befriends Jordan Chandler, 13. Jul 1993: Surgery to fix scalp after 1984 burn; given painkillers. Aug 18, 1993: LAPD investigaton after Chandler says he was molested. Nov 13, 1993: Cancels Dangerous tour; checks into rehab in London for analgesia abuse. Winter 1993: La Toya publicly accuses him of pedophilia; she later retracts. Jan 1, 1994. Settles with Chandlers for $10–22 million. May 26, 1994: Marries Lisa Marie Presley. 1995: HIStory. Jan 1996: Presley files for divorce. Sep 7, 1996: HIStory tour begins. Nov 14, 1996: Marries Debbie Rowe. Feb 13, 1997: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. born to Rowe. Apr 3, 1998: Paris-Michael Katherine born to Rowe. 2001: Final album, Invincible. Feb 2002: Prince Michael Jackson II born to unidentified surrogate. Nov 18, 2003: 70 police officers raid Neverland. Dec 18, 2003: Jackson charged with molestation of Arvizo. Jan 2004: Friends say he again becomes addicted to painkillers. Jan 31, 2005. People v. Jackson begins. Jun 13, 2005. Not guilty verdict. Mar 10, 2009: Announces This is It tour to begin in July. Jun 25, 2009: Dies, cardiac arrest. Jul 7, 2009: Memorial in Los Angeles; watched by over 1 billion people. This box: view • talk • edit

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro announced that the city would erect a statue of the singer in Dona Marta. On June 27, fans began a candlelit memorial in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park.^[78] In Romania, MTV organized a tribute to the singer in front of the Lia Manoliu Stadium, where Jackson staged a famous 1992 concert in Bucharest.^[79] A memory tribute was also held in Baku's Faceclub, where Jackson's songs and videos were played. The fans wore hats and gloves resembling his dressing style.^[80] BET re-organized most of its 2009 BET Awards Ceremony. Airing on June 28, 2009, several of the artists sang Jackson's songs, from his time with The Jackson Five and from his solo career.^[81] His father and the Reverend Al Sharpton were in the audience, and Janet Jackson spoke briefly on behalf of the family. Host Jamie Foxx said, "We want to celebrate this black man. He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else." The show set an all-time ratings high, with a 5.8 rating (over its previous high of 3.7 million), and saw a 61 percent increase over its 2008 broadcast.^[82]

“	You were the one that showed us we can moonwalk, You gave us the beat, You gave us the rhythm, You gave us the soul. — "Better on the Other Side", Diddy	”

Rapper The Game was among the first artists to release a song in tribute. "Better on the Other Side", features Diddy and Chris Brown, and help from Polow da Don, Mario Winans, Usher, Boyz II Men and production by DJ Khalil.^[83] Another hip-hop artist 50 Cent released the mixtape Forever King. The song "Where You Are" from it samples Jackson's 1972 single "I Wanna Be Where You Are".^[84]

The music video for "Do the Bartman", a Simpsons song co-written by Jackson, was broadcast ahead of an episode rerun of The Simpsons on June 28, 2009. It featured a title card paying tribute to Jackson.^[85] The 1991 Simpsons episode that Jackson guest starred in, "Stark Raving Dad", was broadcast on Fox on July 5, 2009.^[86]

AEG Live, the promoter for Jackson's This Is It tour, is preparing a tribute concert for September 2009. Performers being considered for the event include Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé Knowles, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, and Ne-Yo.^[87] The show is slated to follow the style arranged for the This Is It concerts.^[88]

The 2006 World Music Awards, with Jackson receiving the Diamond Award, was rebroadcast on myNetworkTV on July 1, 2009.^[89] On July 4, Madonna paid tribute to Jackson on the opening night of her Sticky & Sweet Tour in the same London arena Jackson was due to perform his comeback concerts later that month. After a Jackson impersonator performed many of the late pop music star's signature moves to "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", Madonna told the crowd "Let's give it up for one of the greatest artists the world has ever known. Michael Jackson: Long live the king".^[90] On July 5, the avant-garde guitarist Buckethead released the song, "The Homing Beacon" dedicated to Jackson, the title refers to a scene in Captain EO.^[91] The pop music magazine title Smash Hits which closed in 2006, was to be resurrected for a one-off tribute issue for Jackson in July 2009.^[92] Adult Swim, a late night programing block on The Cartoon Network honored Jackson by airing a short commercial bump reading Michael Jackson 1958 - 2009.

On July 11, 6,000 fans attended a musical tribute to Jackson, in his home town of Gary, Indiana. Local performers staged a medley of his back catalog and a seven foot memorial was unveiled in his honor. Jesse Jackson addressed the crowd, stating, "This is where Michael learned to dance, where he learned to sing, where he learned to sacrifice."^[93]

[edit] Record sales

Jackson's record sales increased dramatically in the hours and days following his death, eighty-fold according to HMV.^[94] Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president for music and video, said the website sold out of all Jackson's CDs, and those of The Jackson 5 within minutes of the news breaking and Jackson's music demand since his death has surpassed those of Elvis Presley and John Lennon after their sudden deaths.^[95][96][97]

The demand placed enormous pressure on CD manufacturing plants. Sales of his music topped the leading online music sellers, iTunes, Amazon and Zune Marketplace, taking over most of the top twenty spots. His album Thriller climbed to number one on the American iTunes music chart, soon to be replaced by The Essential Michael Jackson, while another nineteen albums made it into the top 40. A total of 13 countries pushed Number Ones to the number one spot on their iTunes chart.^[98] In Japan, six of his albums made SoundScan Japan's Top 200 Albums chart,^[78] and in Poland, Thriller 25 topped the national album chart and was replaced by King of Pop the following week.^[99] In Australia, 15 of his albums occupied the ARIA top 100 as of July 5, four of them in the top ten, with three occupying the top three spots. He had 34 singles in the top 100 singles chart, including four in the top ten. Album sales were 62,015 for the previous week; singles tallied 107,821 units.^[100] In the second week, album sales rose from the previous week and tallied 88,650 copies. As of July 12, four albums are in the top 10 with three occupying the top three spots. ^[101] In New Zealand, Thriller 25 topped the chart.^[102] In Germany, King of Pop topped the album chart.^[103]

In the UK, on the Sunday following his death, his albums occupied 14 of the top 20 places on the Amazon.co.uk sales chart, with Off the Wall at the top. Number Ones reached the top of the UK Album Chart, and his studio albums occupied number two to number eight on the iTunes Music Store top albums. Six of his songs charted in the top 40: "Man in the Mirror" (11), "Thriller" (23), "Billie Jean" (25), "Smooth Criminal" (28)", "Beat It" (30), and "Earth Song" (38).^[104] The following Sunday, 13 of Jackson's songs charted in the top 40, including "Man In the Mirror", which missing out on the number-one spot to Cascada's "Evacuate the Dancefloor". He broke Ruth Murray's 1955 record of five songs in the top 30.^[105] The Essential Michael Jackson topped the album chart, giving Jackson a second number one album in as many weeks. He had five of the top ten albums in the album chart.^[106] In third week sales, The Essential Michael Jackson retained the number one position and Jackson held three other positions within the top five.^[107] By July 12, Jackson had sold a total of 1.5 million albums and singles.^[108]

In the U.S., Jackson broke three chart records on the first Billboard issue date that followed his death. The entire top nine positions on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Albums featured titles related to him. Number Ones was the best-selling album of the week and topped the catalog chart with sales of 108,000, an increase of 2,340 percent. The Essential Michael Jackson (2) and Thriller (3) also sold over 100,000 units. The other titles on the chart are Off the Wall (4), Jackson Five's Ultimate Collection (5), Bad (6), Dangerous (7), HIStory: Past, Present and Future - Volume 1 (8) and Jackson's Ultimate Collection (9). Collectively, his solo albums sold 422,000 copies in the U.S. in the week following his death. He also broke a record on the Top Digital Albums chart, with six of the top 10 slots, including the entire top four. On the Hot Digital Songs chart he placed a record of 25 songs on the 75-position list. In the U.S., Jackson became the first artist to sell over one million downloads in a week, with 2.6 million sales.^[109][110] A total of 800,000 solo albums were sold in the space of a week. Number Ones retained it's position as the top selling album for a second week while Jackson broke his own record with the entire Top 10 pop catalog chart positions being occupied by him.^[111] A further 2.2 million downloads were sold on top of the prior 2.6 million.^[112]

[edit] Memorial

There was a private family service on July 7 at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, followed by a public memorial at the Staples Center, where Jackson had rehearsed on June 23, two days before he died. The service was broadcast live around the world, believed to have been watched by up to one billion people.^[113]

Jackson's solid-bronze casket, plated with 14-karat gold and lined with blue velvet, was placed in front of the stage. His brothers each wore a single, white, sparkling glove, while Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Jermaine Jackson and others sang his songs. Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson both spoke, and Queen Latifah read, "We had him," a poem written for Jackson by Maya Angelou at the request of Katherine Jackson. "Sing our songs among the stars and walk our dances across the face of the moon/In the instant that Michael is gone, we know nothing."^[114] The Reverend Al Sharpton received a standing ovation for a rousing eulogy, and Jackson's 11-year-old daughter, Paris, broke down as she told the crowd, "Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine ..."^[115] Marlon Jackson said, "Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone."^[116]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading and external links

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