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Mega pop star Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50 after suffering a cardiac arrest in his home. His personal doctor and the para-medics tried in vain for 90 minutes to revive him The effort to save him was  continued by  the ambulance personnel also as he was driven to UCLA  Medical Centre in Los Angeles. He was  pronounced dead at 2:26 pm (0256 IST) local time.

 Michael Jackson was, undoubtedly, one of the brightest music icons the world has ever seen and was regarded as a genius. He debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of ‘The Jackson 5’, and began a solo career in 1971.

MJ,  popularly known as the King of Pop music; was talented, gifted and engaging. He was a multi-million-dollar phenomenon and whatever he did he, somehow invited criticism from some quarters. In short, Michael Jackson was everything you could possibly need in a pop star. His legacy will live on in the same way as those of the Beatles 

His album ‘Thriller’ didn’t become the biggest seller of all time because of his celebrity status. It did so because it was incredibly original, beautifully choreographed and a wonderfully performed piece of work. Jackson had the pop star gene from the day he was born and used it to great effect for most of his life.

Whenever I listened to his popular number ‘It’s Black-It’s White’, it sounded like Jackson singing his  personal duel about the color in which he was born. But he tore all color barriers with his voice, dancing steps standing at the same place and appearing to be walking backwards,  the moon-walk as it is popularly known. Millions of copies of this album were sold and were played in almost ever household in the world.

Jackson was one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. His other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records, 13 Grammy awards and the sales of his over 750 million albums worldwide

Michael Jackson’s planned a show at the  Arena in London which would have been the highest-grossing single concert engagement. Now it’s a major problem for the promoter AEG.  His sold-out scheduled concerts in London proved that MJ still had the pulling power of a great talent. What those people paid for, most of all, was to see a solo music and dance performance by a man whose skills as an entertainer were unmatched. His throbbing dance beats could still  invite millions of viewers to his shows.

More than $85 million worth of tickets had already been sold for the series of performances, which have sadly and ironicaly been  titled “This Is It.” As much as $30 million has already been spent on production and AEG paid Jackson an advance of as much as $10 million. That, plus the production costs, would mean AEG stands to lose as much as $40 million if insurance isn’t substantial enough to cover the losses.

The shows  were to begin July 13,  and  would have been Jackson’s first solo performance in 12 years. The total gross from primary ticket sales would’ve been about $90 million. It has been reported that the organizers will start refunding the tickets now.

Jackson, however, was the world’s most enduring pop star, even if the latter part of his career was noted more for his court appearances, rather than chart-topping success.

All we can hope for is that his talent lives on in the millions of pop star wannabes he thrilled with his music.

Long Live MJ’s legacy.

Ravi Matah

Tags: King of Pop, Michael Jackson, Micheal Jackson, MJ, Music, Thriller

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 12:52 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.