The Michael Jackson Tribute Concert.

[charliechaplinfan]

Maybe you're all absolutely fed up in hearing about Michael Jackson in America but here it is 7.15pm at night and I've unitentially come across this concert and I've been moved by the tributes that have been paid so far, Stevie Wonder, my goodness he moved me to tears, although I have been taken aback by the coffin in front of the stage.

I've read about Michael Jackson as most of us have done over the past couple of weeks and there has been an awful lot of muck racking but thank heavens this concert is paying tribute to the performer and I for one forgot how great he was at his peak. Love him or loathe him, he was a great musician and dancer and a great contributer to charity, this needs to be remembered about him.

I know he has his detractors, I know there have been things that we have found strange about him and allegations never proven.

Please don't post bad things here if you don't like Michael Jackson, just pass over and ignore the thread.

[MissGoddess]

Thank you, CC Fan for this. I wanted somewhere to write about it. I just finished watching. I told myself I will NOT watch this because I knew it would upset me too much. One of the very, very few bright spots of my whole youth died with Michael, and I was privileged to see him perform live in concert twice---both here and abroad. But I'm glad I watched today's memorial just to see all the love that few artists seem to inspire anymore.

Michael was a link to the wonderful performers we so enjoy discussing here---for those who didn't know it, Michael adored the old classics and was inspired by them. He is the ONLY entertainer after the "golden age" who those people, those still living, spoke of with mutual admiration. Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, GRETA GARBO, Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis, jr., Robert Wise and I could go on and on and on---they ALL were amazed and delighted by his talents and most of them got to know him to varying degrees.

Greta Garbo watching him on TV: "Now that is a star!"

And CCFan, in case you didn't know, Michael was an enormous Charlie Chaplin fan and it was his interest in Chaplin that inspired me to check out the little tramp.

Sleep sweetly, mon petit prince...no one can hurt you anymore.

(click to enlarge)

[charliechaplinfan]

I hadn't thought it would be broadcast but I am so pleased I switched it on. I sensed I was watching something I would remember for a long time and many great performers were amongst the line up. I'm too young to remember the Jacksons but do have an album. I'm the Thriller generation, he was my youth for me his early work was the best, so admittedly I haven't been a great fan over the later years.

We all sat and watched together and Chris and I couldn't break away, even the kids thought they were watching something great and they related to the children, they had lost their Daddy. It wasn't them crying when Paris said her words about her father, it was me trying to cover them up. Joe cut across the sadness when I tried to tell him that the coffin was going in the ground, that's where people go when they die. He asked me where he had to put me. Bless him. The kids weren't sad, they enjoyed the music and didn't notice the sadness.

How could Jermaine sing Smile? I thought he'd never get through it, always a sad song, now I will always think of Michael as well as Charlie. His brother's tributes, bless them.

I love Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and that little 12 year old guy from Wales who was going to support Michael on his tour and all the others who spoke. So many people said so many nice things about him, how generous, how caring, how giving, how thoughtful and he was loved by so many. We needed this to be reminded of the fact he was a really nice guy. For years the media has put him down and I know Michael gave them plenty of ammunition to fire at him. This set the balance right and I hope this is how he is remembered.

What was it like to watch him in concert?

[silentscreen]

The tribute seems to have been tastefully done. I'm glad of that. Michael was a very talented performer, but now that it's done, I'm hoping the media frenzy will end. They'll go on until the toxicology reports come back. Then that will die down, but the music he left behind will live. Michael needs to find the peace that he looked for all his life and never found. I'm just hoping that he was a Christian, and is in Paradise today.

[charliechaplinfan]

No doubt the media frenzy will carry on, his will, his children, his death, nothing seems settled yet but last night was about the man, his music and his charity.

[MissGoddess]

This site is really cool, I first saw a report about it on CNN....check it out:

http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com/

[charliechaplinfan]

Wow, that's great.

I've given in and bought Off The Wall and Thriller, I used to have them on tape but that was a long time ago.