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Singer Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 this afternoon at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was rushed there this afternoon in full cardiac arrest. On a day when actress Farrah Fawcett also died, it was nearly unbelievable when news reports and tweets on Twitter first proclaimed late this afternoon that the superstar might be dead.
Jermaine Jackson at around 9PM EST tearfully read the following statement outside the UCLA Medical Center:
My brother, the legendary King of Pop Michael Jackson passed away on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 2:26 PM. It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known. His personal physician who was with him at the time attempted to resuscitate my brother. And, uh, as did the paramedics who transported him to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Upon arriving at the hospital at approximately 1:14 PM a team of doctors including emergency physicians and cardiologists attempted to resuscitate him for a period of more than one hour. And they were unsuccessful.
Our family requests that the media please respect our privacy during this tough time. And, uh may Allah be with you Michael always. Love you.
Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana on August 29, 1958 to Joe and Katherine Jackson. By the time he was six years old, he was singing with his five brothers and on the brink of discovery by Motown Record executives. There's an old black and white audition video of a very young Michael imitating James Brown, fancy dance moves and all. (I'm working on getting a link for that, bear with me.)
When Michael was ten, Motown signed the Jackson 5 and the group became an instant hit. Songs like "ABC," "Stop The Love You Save," and "I'll Be There" were records every kid on my block was dancing to, though my grandmother insisted there was no dancing on the street, only in the house.
Around the same time, the Osmond Brothers were also hitting it big and as a black child growing up in Brooklyn, there was the black/white, Jackson/Osmond rivalry. Michael Jackson was cuter, no Donny Osmond was cuter!
There were TV appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "The Sonny and Cher Show." There were Saturday morning Jackson 5 cartoon shows:
As he got older, Michael Jackson broke out on his own with his 1979 Quincy Jones produced solo album, "Off The Wall." It created a huge sensation for an audience that was growing up with him and for the next generation as well.
But no one could foresee the phenomena that would be "Thriller."
The album, which has sold 45 million copies worldwide, pushed Jackson's career into the stratosphere with songs like, "Beat It" "Billie Jean" and "Thriller." That was in 1982 and when in 1983, Michael debuted "Billie Jean" and the infamous moonwalk dance step on the 25th anniversary Motown TV special, it pushed his career and his fame to a level that was beyond superstardom.
In 1984 the Jacksons, including Michael did the Victory Tour which according to Wikipedia grossed 75 million dollars, at that time the most ever for any concert tour.
My cousins and I went to one of the concerts at Giants Stadium. We were way up in the rafters but still thrilled to see Michael, Tito, Marlon, Jermaine and Jackie, so close. One of my favorite songs from the tour and my favorite Jacksons video is "Can You Feel It?"
Jackson's cutting edge videos also forced the burgeoning MTV to play the videos of black people. they'd been resisting because supposedly they were only going to play rock videos, but to the rest of us "rock" meant "only white."
Along comes the album "Thriller" with it's seven top ten single records and MTV could no longer ignore the first class videos Michael Jackson was
