Year 2002
[50th anniversary celebration of the opening of American Bandstand]
On April 24, 2002, Michael's campaign committee shook the United States.
With a rare performance, Michael encouraged American citizens to vote for the American Democratic Party's committee.
Michael performed the songs «Black Or White», «Dangerous», and «Heal The World» in front of an eager crowd that had gathered in the Apollo Hall in New York.
[In the Apollo Hall]
Like in his youth, Michael performed for the audience present in the hall. Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Stevie Wonder were among the other performers.
The pop superstar, along with Bill Clinton, the former Democratic president of the United States, and singers Tony Bennett and K.D. Lang, took the stage in an event that raised three million dollars for the Democratic Party.
At this event, comedian Chris Tucker and actress Slyly Tayson were also present. One thousand four hundred people paid five thousand dollars each to watch these artists perform. This money was allocated for the promotional activities of the Democratic Party committee named ”Not Even One Vote Counts”.
Bill Clinton introduced Michael as ”one of the most prominent showmen in the history of America”. But contrary to what many hoped, Michael did not accompany his performance with playing the saxophone.
Some time later, Michael's silence about the grudge he held against Tommy Mottola, the head of Sony's distribution company, for not promoting his serious album, «Invincible», was broken.
In the text printed in the English newspaper Mirror, it said:
”During his twenty-four years of solo activity, Michael Jackson, together with Sony, has sold more than one hundred and twenty million albums around the world.
But now Tommy Mottola, the head of one of Sony's distribution companies, is accusing him of having harmed his career, by not releasing the singles of his new album, «Invincible», which could have helped the album sell worldwide, by preventing the promotion of the album «Invincible», during the broadcast of a highly watched program on one of the United States television networks related to his career, and by sabotaging possible plans in order to sign highly profitable contracts between him and another recording company, thus deliberately damaging his career.
Jackson told his close friends that he was disgusted by the way he had been treated.“
A friend said: ”Michael wants to leave Sony and believes that some influential people in this company hope they can force him to pay compensation for this lack of loyalty. By stopping all promotion for the album «Invincible», Sony prevented Michael from releasing the singles from this album. And by doing this, they intentionally harmed his career. Jackson is very angry at Mottola and any working relationship between the two has been ended. They are the most powerful men in the music industry and now they have gone to war with each other.“
The low sales of «Invincible», the seventh Michael album for Sony, caused by the lack of promotion for the album, has ignited this war that had remained hidden until now.
Michael believes that the reason for this grudge is his business cleverness, which results in him owning 50% of the company's income even after leaving Sony.
In 1995, Michael shared with Sony the rights to more than one thousand songs, along with 251 songs from the Beatles group. Sony and Jackson shared, fifty-fifty, in the income from the publishing of these songs. Of course, this does not include Michael's albums. (Michael fully owns the publishing rights to his songs.)
With the album «Invincible» and a collection of his greatest hits that will be released later, he is fulfilling his commitment to Sony. And now he intends to leave Sony. While he is still benefiting from this company.
A gossip source said: ”Tommy Mottola is very angry. Michael believes that Mottola wants to make sure that all the money and time Michael spent over three years on «Invincible» is completely wasted.“
Michael views this matter as a punishment for him for acting more cleverly toward a company that is itself entangled in financial problems.
He held two concerts at Madison Square Garden, and the tickets for both sold out within five hours, generating twelve million dollars in revenue. These two concerts were broadcast in a special program on the C.B.S. network last November and, with a record-breaking audience, were watched by 26 million viewers. It was the most-watched program in the history of this network.
Sources claimed that despite Michael's requests, his recording company prevented the placement of promotional messages for the album «Invincible» among the television broadcast of his concert (the 30th anniversary of his solo artistic career).
A source said: ”That was foolish. This was the best opportunity to sell the album to a very large number of television viewers.“
Sony claimed that the C.B.S. had no empty slots for this promotion. Jackson raised the request to rebroadcast this concert in January. But they announced that they did not have any empty slots available to air it. When the television program is Michael Jackson's concert, such a thing seems strange.
To help the victims of the September 11 attacks, Michael had recorded a song featuring many stars such as Ricky Martin, Destiny's Child, Shakira, Celine Dion, and Gloria Estefan. But despite the song's enormous commercial power, Sony ultimately refused to release it, to Michael's surprise.
The source added: ”The song was intended to raise financial aid for charitable causes. And many stars participated in it, so without a doubt, the song would have been successful.“
Michael suggested to Sony the production of a PlayStation game, which would certainly have been well received.