From kids to adults there is no one who doesn’t know the “King of Pop”! He brought a phenomenal change in pop music and popular culture. He was not just a talented singer but also a brilliant dancer. Even after a decade of his death, he is still the greatest musician and performer of all times. People all over the world loved him and called him “MJ”. His music videos were as good as his music.
But do you know everything about this evergreen pop star? Michael Jackson’s life was no less than a movie. He was part of a lot of controversies. So, here we bring you some interesting and fascinating facts about the “King of Pop”.
Michael Jackson owned the rights of The Beatles:
Michael Jackson became super rich as soon as Thriller became the highest selling Album of all times. He decided to purchase the rights of 251 songs of ‘The Beatles’.
He bought the rights these 251 songs at $47 million and ended up selling the rights to Sony for a whopping $750 million in 2008. No doubt Michael has learned the art of multiplying money.
Irony is that his friend Paul McCartney had once advised him to get into the business music publishing or music labels as we all know it & before he could realize MJ had purchased the rights of The Beatles’ 251 songs in 1985 from the Associated Television which took over the Northern Songs Ltd- a company partly owned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
It is believed that MJ and Paul McCartney after Michael bought the rights of the songs from Associated Television.
‘Billie Jean’ song was based on real life
Billie Jean was an over-obsessive fan of MJ who claimed that Michael was the father of her child.
She used to used letters to MJ claiming that she has a son who is Michael’s son. Jackson never spoke to the Billie Jean but had to deal with the her obsession.
Jackson’s producer Quincy Jones once reveled that the woman Billie Jean was so obsessed about MJ that she was seen in a bathing Suit next to MJ’s swimming pool with Sun Glasses. Just imagine what Michael would have gone through.
The Jackson 5:
Michael Jackson’s father Joe Jackson formed a group with four of his sons.
After Michael was born, he joined the group and then it was renamed as the Jackson 5. The group performed all over the U.S. One of their songs, ‘ABC’ got quite famous. They performed in high schools and also in clubs and bars.
Michael Jackson had a difficult childhood:
Born on 29th August 1958, in Indiana, Jackson lived with his family. He had three sisters and five brothers. They shifted to West Hollywood after the success of the Jackson 5.
However, in spite of achieving success at a very young age, Jackson had a troubled childhood. His father Joe Jackson was an extremely strict parent.
He would sit at the rehearsals of the Jackson 5 with a whip and beat them if any of them made a mistake. This is why he had a lot of mental pressure since he was a teenager.
Do you know that his house was designed like a theme park?
This would be a dream house for many people! He lived in a huge mansion and half of it was a theme park.
From roller coasters, ferris wheel, carousel, bumper cars to zoos, his house had it all.Another interesting thing is, it was named Nerverland. No one would have thought that MJ would be a fan of Peter Pan!
It is built on a total area of about 3,000 acres of land. Michael Jackson apparently paid somewhere between $17 million USD to $30 million USD for this lavish property. As of now, the ranch is worth approximately $100 million USD.
He loved Spiderman and wanted to become one
This famous pop star was a huge fan of the Marvel super hero, Spiderman.
He wanted to play the role of Spiderman in the movie. But it did not work out in the end. Jackson also tried for the role of Professor X in the X-Men movie but he was not chosen.
His love for animals:
Apart from having an entire petting zoo in his house, he also had several other pets. One of them was a chimpanzee named Bubbles.
In fact, he also went on tour with him. After the death of Jackson, Bubbles started living in the Center for Great Apes in Florida. He also had two llamas named Louis and Lola. Sometimes, they accompanied Jackson to the recording studios.
Would you give anyone an elephant? Well, Jackson got an elephant as a gift.
Actress Elizabeth Taylor gifted that elephant to him, after he allowed her to have her wedding on his ranch. The name of the Elephant was Gypsy and it weighed around 2,268 kg.
Jackson suffered from Vitiligo and more:
Have you ever wondered about the abrupt change in Jackson’s appearance? It was mainly because of Vitiligo- a skin disease.
There were rumours that he did it on purpose. But his doctors confirmed that Jackson had vitiligo. He also suffered from other diseases like body dysmorphia which deformity in shape and size of a body part.
Michael confirmed the Vitiligo is reason for his skin patches in the 1993 Oprah Winfrey interview.
Not just ‘King of Pop’ but he was also an actual king:
You would be surprised to know that he was king of a small village on the Ivory Coast.
When he went to the West Coast of Africa for a tour, the native people loved him. The tribal chief of that village crowned Jackson as King Sani.
He was also given the name Michael Jackson Amalaman Anoh.He remained a king there, till the time of his death. After his death, a ceremony of two days was held there to honour him and his memory.
Moonwalk was not created by MJ, he made it popular worldwide
Michael Jackson made ‘moonwalk’ extremely popular. There is no one in the world who does it better than him. Even though he did not invent the moonwalk, he was a total expert at it.
He was taught to do Moon Walk by Choreographer Jeffery Daniel who championed the move since 1970s. Infact, the first Moon Walk was seen in 1932 when Cab Calloway-an American Actor performed the same in his movies.
MJ performed the Moon Walk for the time on 25th March 1983 on ‘Billie Jean’ during the live performance and it was aired on television few months after that and the rest is all history as championed and made the move popular worldwide.
Jackson was an Inventor too:
Jackson invented special gravity-defying shoes for his unusual pose for the song Smooth Criminal. These special shoes had extra slots to hold him in place on stage with his straight body leaning up to 45 degrees.
Michael Jackson went to the extent of Patenting the Design of his Shoe. His passion for music and dance performance is evident from this seriousness towards every aspect of entertainment.
The most successful dead celebrity:
Michael Jackson was a legend who even after his death continued to remain successful.
During the next year of his death, around 35million copies of his album were sold. Since the time he died, he has made an estimated $2.1billion USD.
He also broke the record in 2016 by being the highest earning celebrity in one year. He again made a record in 2018 by being the highest-earning dead celebrity in the year 2018.
Did you know that he was the first black artist aired on MTV?
Michael Jackson was a person who made many records. One of them was that he was the first Black American artist whose song were aired on MTV.
Not only that but also his album Thriller was a blockbuster hit. The album sold around 66 million copies which happens to be the World Reocrd.
Infact, the Album ‘Thriller’ sold 1 million copies of the Album in just 1 week.
Thriller was nominated for 12 Grammy Awards and won 8.
Michael Jackson has three children:
His personal life also garnered a lot of public attention. Jackson’s first wife was Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
This marriage only lasted for 19 months. And then he again married Deobarah Jeanne Rowe in 1996.
He had two children with her- Michael Joseph Jackson Junior and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. He also has another son called Prince Michael II. But the identity of his mother is not known.
Jackson had a medical healthcare center named on him:
During the shoot of a commercial for Pepsi, Jackson got into an accident.
He suffered second-degree burns and a large part of his scalp was burnt. The accident happened because of pyrotechnics. To cover the scars, he had to get a rhinoplasty surgery.
He also had to wear a wig after this. He was treated in California and after recovery Jackson donated $1.5 million to the medical center. As a sign of gratitude, they named their burns department as “Michael Jackson Burn Center”.
Did you know that he is the most awarded artist of all times?
It is no surprise that Jackson had bagged several awards.
He was a talented musician who deserved all the praise. But the numbers of awards he received is astonishing.
He has 23 Guinness World Records, 13 Grammys, 26 American Music Awards and 40 Billboard Awards.
His tragic death:
Michael Jackson died on 25th June, 2009.
Fans all over the world mourned for him. He died of an overdose of medications. There was an excessive amount of anesthetic propofol found in his system. His physician, Doctor Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
Michael Jackson was truly the greatest entertainer of all times.
Most expensive song video ever:
MJ did everything in style. He is known go all in for every song he created.
The song ‘Scream’ in which MJ and his sister Janet Jackson came together became very popular. It was released in the year 1995.
Till date it is the most expensive Music Video of a Song costing $7 million Dollars in 1995.
It was not an Album, it was a Single. And it became the Single to be reach the Top 5 Billboard US 100 song in 37 years of Billboard.
Most Auctioned Collection:
MJ is considered to be the most popular when it comes to collectibles of celebrities
The Jacket he wore in his life changing song Thriller was auction in 2011 and sold at $1.8 million. His Jacket from the song ‘Bad’ was sold in an auction at around $3,00,000.
For facts on The Beatles click on The Fab Four