The Years 1982 to 1985
Michael won in the following categories:
Album of the Year: Thriller
Best Male Pop Vocalist: Michael Jackson — for the song Thriller
Music Page of the Year: Beat It
Best Male Rock Vocalist: Michael Jackson — for the song Beat It
Best Male R&B (Jazz and Blues) Vocalist: Michael Jackson — for the song Billie Jean
Best New Song of the Year: Billie Jean
Best Producer: Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones
Best Work for Children: E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial — with narration by Michael Jackson
That day, Brooke Shields accompanied Michael at this ceremony.
For the first time, this number of awards was achieved by one person within a single year. This record is registered in the Guinness World Records book under Michael’s name.
On February 23, 2000, Carlos Santana achieved Michael Jackson’s record [for the most number of Grammy Awards won in a single year], which had been maintained for seventeen consecutive years. He won eight Grammy Awards for his album «Super Natural». Therefore, these two artists share this outstanding record.
Behind the scenes, Carlos Santana told reporters that achieving Michael Jackson’s record was a ”true honor”.
[Pepsi press conference]
On July 2, 1984, an album by the Jacksons group titled «Victory» was released. The album gained popularity and was the last group album by the Jackson brothers.
On July 6, 1984, the opening concert of the Jacksons brothers’ tour — «Victory» — was held at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Jermaine had joined his brothers at this concert. The Jacksons group performed fifty-five concerts over five months. In their concerts across the United States and Canada, they showcased the best stage designs that had been done on stage up to that time. The stage design took four months to complete.
[Victory Tour]
On December 9, 1984, the Jacksons group held their final concert of the «Victory» tour.
During the performance of «Shake Your Body Down To The Ground», Michael announced his separation from the group.
The tour earned more than seventy-five million dollars and was the biggest group tour that had been held up to that time.
In very large stadiums, more than two million people gathered to watch the Jacksons group perform. And for the first time, thanks to Michael Jackson, Pepsi-Cola overtook its main rival, Coca-Cola.
Michael donated all the money he received for performing on this tour to charitable institutions.
Later, he said about it: ”For me, the goal of the Victory tour was exactly this — to give the money back to its original owners.“
On November 20, 1984, Michael received a star on the «Walk of Fame» [Hollywood Boulevard], in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre. His star, number 1793, is located among the stars of Lefty Frizzell [a traditional Southern and Western U.S. music singer] and Lupé Velez [actress].
[Michael’s star in Hollywood]
Michael is the first famous person to have been presented with two different stars. He received the first star in the late 1970s, as one of the members of the Jacksons group.
On January 28, 1985, two hours after the 12th annual American Music Awards ceremony, Michael and forty-four other artists secretly gathered for ten hours in the recording studio at I.M. in Los Angeles to record the song «We Are The World». This song had been written in early 1985 by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie at Michael’s home.
[In the recording studio of We Are The World]
Michael: ”I wrote this song after seeing terrible news about people who were dying from starvation in Ethiopia and Sudan, and with Lionel Richie’s collaboration.“
Latoya, Michael’s sister, says about how this song was written: ”Lionel had written one or two lines of this song. After he left the studio, Michael went there and wrote the entire song. The next day, he told Quincy and Lionel that the song was finished. But he never had to say who wrote the whole song.“
On March 7, 1985, the song «We Are The World» was released and was recorded in music history.
On April 5 of the same year, the songs «Good Friday» and «We Are The World» were simultaneously broadcast from more than eight thousand radio stations worldwide.
«We Are The World» is the first song in the music industry to receive multiple multi-platinum awards, thereby leaving a record in music recording history. This song received gold, platinum, and in some cases multiple platinum records in every category within just one month.
«We Are The World» was registered in the Guinness World Records book as the best-selling single of all time and remained in that position until, in 1997, Elton John’s song titled «Candle In The Wind ’97 / There’s Something About The Way You Look Tonight», written in tribute to Princess Diana, took the place of «We Are The World».
Today, «We Are The World» is still considered the second best-selling single. And without a doubt, it is the world’s number one anthem—and maybe it will be forever. «We Are The World» won a Grammy Award in four categories: ”Song of the Year — Music Page of the Year — Best Pop Group Performance — Best Music Video [Short Film]“.
The collective support of artists from Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa — USA for Africa) raised two hundred million dollars to help starving people in Ethiopia and fight famine in that country.
In August 1985, Michael Jackson bought the MTV catalog for forty-seven and a half million dollars. The value of the rights to publish this catalog is now three times its value in 1985. This catalog contains more than four thousand compositions, including two hundred and fifty-one songs by the Beatles, the best of Pat Benatar, Little Richard, Pointer Sisters, and Pretenders.
Michael currently also holds the publishing rights to the Slay Stone collection, plus a collection of the best songs from the 1960s.
Michael presented each of his lawyers, John Branca and Frank Dileo, who was in charge of his executive affairs, with a Rolls-Royce car as a reward for their help in obtaining the publishing rights to Beatles songs.
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