Getting to know Michael Jackson – the King of Pop Born on August 29^th, 1958 in Gary, Indiana had made some significant contribution to the field of fashion, music and dance. He was a much publicized figure and was the global icon for popular culture over nearly four decades. Michael Jackson was basically a singer and a songwriter who transformed the face of pop music all over the globe. He unexpectedly died in the year 2009. Quick Facts:

• Nick name: The Gloved One, Wacko Jacko, Jacko, King Of Pop, MJ, Smelly, Applehead.
• Date of birth: August 29^th, 1958
• Place of birth: Gary, Indiana
• Origin: Indiana
• Profession : American Artist, Businessman, Entertainer
• Known for: Being the best musician and considered as the King of Pop
• Website: http://www.michaeljackson.com

Childhood and growing up years: Michael Jackson was born in an African-American family, as the fifth child to Joseph Jackson who had originally started his career as a guitarist but gave up his musical ambitions in order to run his family needs. His children had been born with the same aspirations for music and Joseph molded his children to form a musical group at the very beginning of 1960’s. The Jackson musical group earlier consisted of Michael Jackson’s elder brother’s –Tito, Jackie and Jermaine and Michael started his musical career by joining the Jackson band at the remarkable age of five to the most respectable position as the group’s lead vocalist. As a vocalist in a very young age, he impressed his audiences by making use of his ability to convey very complex and sentimental emotions. Michael went on to become of the most internationally acclaimed solo-pop singer till date. It is said that the man behind the success of Jackson 5 goes to Joseph who pushed his sons to shrine brightly as musicians. In the spirit of encouraging his students, it is said that his father at become very violent with his children. Jackson stated that he had a troublesome relationship with his father and he had often been emotionally and physically harassed during his rehearsals in the early days of his success. Michael Jackson first spoke out openly about his early life with his father in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in the year 1993. He said that he many a times broke down because he used to feel alone and vomited at the very sight of his father. However, in the year 2003 Joseph acknowledged about whipping Michael Jackson during his childhood days. Furthermore, Michael Jackson and his brothers would spend long hours practicing and rehearsing for they acts until they gained perfection with their instruments and singing. The first album recorded by these brothers was “Big Boy” in which the b-side consisted of the “You’ve Changed”. However, this did not generate much interest among the mass public. Later on, the famous Jackson 5 went on to work with celebrity artists such as Sam and Dave, Gladys Knight and the Pips and James Brown. When the Jackson 5 worked with Gladys Knight, he recommended them to Berry Gordy, owner of Motown Records who signed them for his label in the year 1968. After signing this deal, the Jackson 5 moved to California were the Jackson 5 recorded 14 albums and Michael Jackson as given the chance to record four solo albums with Berry Gordy. With the release of Jackson 5 albums, they soon became a cutting example for black crossover artists. During their period with the Motown, they had about 40 hits that included top five disco sons and twenty top hits. The Jackson 5 left worked with Motown until 1975 and left them because they thought that they were not given enough artistic freedom so they moved on and signed a deal with the Epic. While the brother’s moved to Epic, the elder brother stayed back with Motown and married the Gordy’s daughter. His place was replaced with the Michael Jackson’s youngest brother named Randy. The name of the group was changed from Jackson 5 to The Jacksons as they were called in their earlier days. The Jacksons produced six hit records during the period of 1974 and 1984. But in was only in the year 1977, when Michael Jackson had made his debut when he featured in the musical hit “The Wiz” where enacted the role of a scarecrow along with Diana Ross in the role of Dorothy. It was during the recording of this album that Michael met Quincey Jones who was helping with the background score of the film. He later on teamed up with Quincey Jones who produced his first solo album which is an all time hit “Thriller”. This album consisted of seven single hits that broke the records as it sold about fifty million copies all over the globe. Michael Jackson used short films or music videos to promote his singles for various albums. For this purpose he joined hands with a number of famous producers and directors who used the latest technology. They used special effects for his hit song “Billie Jean” that made use of amazing choreography combined with latest technology and fantastic acts. The video was so successful that “The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” had become on the bestselling video which was soaring sales during that era. In 1983, Michael Jackson performed his first moon walk in the Motown 25 year’s anniversary show which made him a superstar. In the year 1984, Jackson was awarded with 8 Grammy Awards for his stunning performance in “Thriller” and also for his narrative work in the ET Storybook. On the 9^th of December 1984, Michael gave his last concert as a group and made an announcement that he would be splitting from the group and was going to perform solo. He released his much awaited album”Bad” in the year 1987. During the same time he also launched a worldwide solo tour. By the end of 1980, Michael was given the prestigious title of being “Artist of the Decade” for the success and fame he gained for his albums Thriller and Bad. He also wrote his autobiography ‘Moonwalk’ in which he spoke about his childhood and his successful career. In the year, 1991 Michael Jackson signed up with the largest music recording company Sony Music and released his fourth solo album ‘Dangerous’. After the release of this album, he again made a world tour by having many concerts in various countries that have never heard of the genre of pop music. It is during the same time that Michael Jackson founded the Heal the World Foundation which worked to improve the condition of children throughout the world. He was married to Lisa Marie Presley in 1994 who was the daughter of the legendary rock artist Elvis Presley but sadly, their marriage only for 19 years as they opted for a divorce in the year 1996. A year later, he made another album called ‘History’ which consisted of some greatest hits and a few other new songs. Michael Jackson was remarried to Debbie Rowe who was a nurse by profession and she treated Michael Jackson for his skin and pigmentation disorder. He soon had his first son who was named Prince Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. in the year February 13^th 1997 and a daughter in the year 1998 who was named Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. After the birth of his daughter, Michael Jackson released his first remix album called ‘Blood on the Dance Floor’ which consisted of five new songs and was attached to a thirty-eight minute Ghost film. In this film Michael played five unique characters that made use of special effects combined with music and dance. Claim to fame: By this time Michael Jackson was recognized as the most successful musical entertainer all over the world and made his entry to the Guinness World of Records because of his immense contribution to fashion, music and dance. Also, his personal life stood as a global figure that created popular culture for over four decades. In September 2001, Michael Jackson celebrated his 30^th grand years of being a solo musical artist by performing for two concerts which were held in New York. In this concert he performed with some renowned artists such as Destiny’s Child, Usher, Whitney Houston, Shaggy and many more. He performed a large number of songs of his past in this concert. It was at this concert that he reunited with all his brothers and performed one of his biggest hits of his lifetime. A number of solo hits of Michael Jackson were also performed during this concert. In the same year of October, Michael released his album ‘Invincible’ which had only two solo albums of himself but had the biggest hit “You Rock my World”. After the release of this album, there were rumors that Michael Jackson split with Sony Music due to some rifts and because of this there was a lack of promotional activities for this album. The following second album ‘Cry’ was released in the midst of poor quality music video. The year 2003, November saw the release of another single of Michael Jackson ‘One more Chance’. In the year 2002, Michael Jackson made headlines when he seemed lost disoriented on stage at the most famous MTV Awards show. He received enormous criticism for threatening his son over a balcony while meeting his fans in the city of Berlin. His recognition was given another seat with the release of a television documentary, “Living with Michael Jackson” which portrays the real life of Michael Jackson. This documentary was done was by a British Journalist who spent days with Jackson in order to find out about the star and his relationships with his children. Michael admitted to the journalist that he still continues to have sleepovers in his ranch even after the allegations of 1993. He confessed that he sometimes shares his bed with his children and he considered this as the best loving way to show affection to children. Michael Jackson faced one of his worst legal in the year 2004when he was arrested for charges related to the incident of a 13-year old boy. Facing ten charges in all, he was given a lewd conduct of administering alcohol and molestation of a minor with the conspiracy to conduct child abduction. For this purpose he was imprisoned and extorted. The results of this trial which was given in the year 2005, was a circus for media, fans, and other detractors as they surrounded the court house. As a part of this trial, more than 130 people were testified which also included reputed names such as Macaulay Culkin who appeared in behalf of Jackson. He supported him by saying that he had been friends with Michael Jackson since his teen years and told the court that he could never carry out such an act. However, the accuser for Jackson presented a videotape and also described how Michael Jackson gave wine and then molested the kid. During the years, on June 14^th 2005, Michael Jackson was cleared with all his charges. However, by this time his reputation had badly been affected and he was in a shabby financial crisis. He went into huge losses because of his high legal bills. Jackson no longer had a bank account and was unable to fulfill even the basic necessities of life. At this time, he found refuge in one of his close friend’s house who was the Prince of Bahrain known as Prince Salman Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa who gave Jackson all the money required to pay the utility bills of Neverland. He also invited the King of Pop as a guest to his country. In the city of Bahrain, the prince gave Michael Jackson with $7 million which did not include his living expenses. He built a record studio for the singer and recruited guru’s who would help Jackson in entertaining the Christian families during Christmas. For all these kind acts, Michael Jackson promised to join hands to make an album on Al-Khalifa’s name and also write an autobiography while being able to create a stage play. None of the above work took shape and he soon saw himself facing debts to his friend on the promises that he made. He also had a greater financial crisis on him as he was defaulted to pay $23.5 million loan as he owed to his Neverland Ranch in the year 2008. In order to get done with the debts, Michael placed his most valuable crystal gloves with which he used to perform for auction the following year. At the same time, Michael Jackson announced that he would be organizing a series of concerts in the state of London and this would be his “final curtain call”. There were speculations about if the singer was in a state to give fifty concerts. Throwing aside all the speculations and allegations, Jackson remained strong and displayed a strong response to this concert plan. He was set to appear at the O2 Arena in the state of London which was scheduled to begin on the 8^th of July, 2009. The show was named “This is it” and within four hours about 750,000 tickets were sold. Sadly, Michael Jackson never got a chance to make a comeback and taste his experience of success. On the 25^th of June 2009, Jackson suffered from a sudden cardiac attack and left to Paradise in his Los Angeles home. Although he was rushed to the hospital within few minutes his heart beat stopped and even after several attempts of CPR they failed to bring him back to senses. Michael Jackson died at the age of 50. His sudden demise resulted in public sympathy and grief. Jackson’s family held a private funeral for Michael on September 3^rd, 2009 in Los Angeles. Very soon a number of memorials were erected over the world and also in the arena where Michael Jackson was going to perform his comeback. On 12^th July a televised memorial was held for the King of Pop downtown in Los Angeles for which about 17,500 people were given free tickets selected through lottery while more than thousand fans watched it on television and internet.   Trade Marks of Michael Jackson:

• Michael Jackson’s The Moonwalk
• Crotch Grab.
• His sequined White Gloves.
• High pitch voice
• White socks and black shoes.
• Michael Jackson’s lyrics always reflect issues of social concern and hope to build a better world.
• Long Black hair
• Black Hat, jacket and a ribbon around his sleeve.

Presently: A film that documents the life of Jackson’s rehearsals for “This is it” entitled as “This is it”, was released in October 2009. This film has a composition of Michael Jackson’s interviews, backstage footage and practice sessions. The film made $23 million just during the first week of its opening and was at the number list at the box office. This was the final tribute paid to the great King of Pop and the family hoped that people had a final look on the passing of the great Jackson. It was only in the year 2010, which the official cause of the death of Michael Jackson was released. The results stated that the singer was suffering from acute propofol intoxications. Dr. Conrad Murray was the alleged suspect in the death of Michael Jackson. Awards and Nominations Received: Michael Jackson had won numerous awards for his profession since the very beginning of his career. Even after the death of the King of Pop there are a number of awards given for his works. This shows that he truly was the King of Pop and established his name MJ in the industry for generations to come. He has about more than fifty awards on his name some of the famous awards are as follows: In the year 2011 he was given the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his performance in “This is It.” 2011 – Best Fan Forum by O Music Awards. In 2009, he was given the Special Achievement Award by the African-American Film Critics Association Awards. At the American Music Awards he was presented with the American Music Award in the year 2009 for his “Number Ones” 2006 – Michael Jackson was awarded with the MTV Japan Legend Award by the MTV Video Music Awards Japan. 2003 – Won the BMI Awards for the Best Song “Butterflies” 2002 – Won the AMA Artist of the Century Award. 2002 – He won an award in the category of Outstanding Performance in a Variety Series an award by the NAACP Image Awards. 1995 – Won an award for the Best Dance Video for the song ‘Scream’ by the MTV Video Music Awards. 1988 – Won the MTV Video Vanguard Award. 1993 – Best Single, (Male) for the song ‘Remember The Time’ won rge Souk Train Music Awards. He won eight consecutive Grammy Awards for his works in Thriller in the year 1984. And the list goes endless… Nominations: 2009 – He was nominated for the American Music Awards in the category of Artist of the year. 1984 – Got nominated for the Grammy Awards in the category of Best Vocal Pop Performance by a Group or Duo. Apart from this category he was also nominated in two other categories. 1980 was nominated for the Best Disco recording for Grammy Awards. He was also nominated for a number of MTV Video Music Award in the year 1995 apart from winning awards. Personal Quotes: “If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with”. “And I remember going to the record studio and there was a park across the street and I’d see all the children playing and I would cry because it would make me sad that I would have to work instead”. “I’m just like anyone. I cut and I bleed. And I embarrass easily”. “Just because it’s in print doesn’t mean it’s the gospel”. “The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation”. “Yeah, Wacko Jacko, where did that come from? Some English tabloid. I have a heart and I have feelings. I feel that when you do that to me. It’s not nice”.