2003
On January 3, it was announced that Michael Jackson, in the Guinness World Records book, had achieved the seventh rank among the top English musicians over the past half century. The first rank belonged to Elvis Presley, and the ninth rank was also assigned to the Beatles.
On the sixth day of January, Michael Jackson was introduced by TV Guide and VH1 as one of the history-makers in the music world.
TV Guide and VH1 covered one hundred historical events in the music field in a program. And Michael Jackson’s performance of the song “Billie Jean” at the 25th anniversary of Motown (Motown25) in 1983 was counted among these historical moments that left an extraordinary impact on the pop music scene.
With this performance, Michael took second place in the ranking of music history-makers.
Lisa Bernard, a representative of the editor-in-chief at TV Guide, said about it: ”The interesting point about the 25th anniversary of Motown was that it was supposed to be a look back at Motown’s past and the incredible music it had released over the years. And suddenly Michael and his brothers appear on stage. The Jackson Five. Who is there that doesn’t like this group? And then Michael alone performs the song ‘Billie Jean’ on stage along with all those dance moves. It seemed like he was sliding across the stage. As if the stage were spinning with a series of special effects and Michael was being spun along with it. But in reality, Michael himself was doing all of it. Everyone was screaming. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was truly captivating.“
Michael also secured ninth place in this ranking for the music video “Thriller”.
Mrs. Bernard also said about it: ”When Michael made this video for one of the most popular songs on his album, he brought pop music into a new phase. A bold, artistic phase. Calling ‘Thriller’ a video is misleading. This fourteen-minute short film, which cost more than one million dollars, was made by a prominent team. John Landis was the director, and Rick Baker was the makeup artist for this production. What resulted was a scary short film full of ghosts and the dead rising from their graves, who danced in a group. A short film that reached the highest position. And no one—still even Jackson himself—has been able to reach that position.“
On January 10, 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported that Tommy Mottola, the head of one of Sony’s distribution companies, would be removed from his position.
Senior Japanese executives at Sony informed Tommy Mottola that they had no intention of extending Mottola’s extremely profitable financial terms in his contract, which was set to end in August 2004.
On January 15, 2003, Michael attended the funeral ceremony of Maurice Gibb, a member of the Bee Gees, on the Miami coast.
That same day, his private funeral service was held at noon in a church near the coast.
Five days later, on January 20, 2003, an extraordinary piece of news was released: ”Martin Bashir, who had been allowed to live in Michael’s home (Neverland) with him for eight months, has produced a documentary about Michael. Bashir had exclusive and unprecedented access to Michael in order to make this ninety-minute documentary. This documentary will be broadcast on February 3, 2003, on the TV network ITV1 in the program ‘Tonight with Trevor McDonald’.”
[Michael Jackson - Martin Bashir]
Martin Bashir’s previous subjects had been Princess Diana and Michael Barrymore.
James Goldston, the manager of this program, said: ”This film is an extraordinary look at the life of one of the most famous and controversial figures in the world. We made a film about him during one of the most chaotic periods of Michael’s life. This film is very remarkable. Viewers can’t believe what they see.“
On February 3, 2003, the documentary ‘Living with Michael Jackson’ was broadcast on the English network ITV1. The documentary would later be aired on TV networks around the world.
... and the storm began...
In this documentary, Michael speaks candidly about money, plastic surgery, his childhood, his third child, Prince Michael II, and many other things.
[Living with Michael Jackson documentary]
Instead of portraying Michael fairly, Bashir did everything he could to the extent that he could twist issues in an incorrect way. Although most viewers of this documentary were not drawn to Bashir’s wishes, support for Michael was announced across the world.
Three days later, on February 6, 2003, Michael had said in a statement published in the British media:
”Today I may feel more than ever that I have been betrayed. The person who was given the opportunity to get to know my children, my employees, and me—someone I trusted and told the truth to—was able to misuse my trust and produce this unpleasant and unfair film. Anyone who knows me knows the truth. And that is that in my life, my children come before everything, and I never harm a child.“
Debbie Rowe, Michael’s former wife and the mother of his two children, said in a statement in support of him:
”It breaks my heart that anyone truly believes that Michael could do something that would hurt our children or put them in danger. They (our children) are the most important thing in our lives.
The figures that had been released showed that the television documentary ‘Living with Michael Jackson’ had ten times the viewers of the exclusive interview film with Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq—despite the threats of an imminent war in that country.
The network spokesperson said that broadcasting this controversial interview, which had been run by Tony Benn, a member of the UK Labour Party, had increased the network’s audience for the four news programs in the UK from five hundred thousand people to one million seven hundred thousand. But the documentary ‘Living with Michael Jackson’ on ITV1 had fifteen million viewers. In the United States, when the documentary was broadcast on ABC, it had twenty-seven million people watching.
After these events, Michael took reciprocal action...
On February 20, 2003, the TV network Fox aired the segments from Martin Bashir’s controversial interview film with Michael that had been removed. The film, titled ‘Michael Jackson, Part Two: The Interview They Didn’t Show You,’ was captured by Hamid Molaheyi, Michael’s private cameraman.
This program attracted more viewers compared to the first part of the interview.
These deleted segments would later be broadcast on TV networks around the world and would clearly show what the reality was and how Martin Bashir interprets Neverland, Michael’s abilities as a father, and ... And this was in contrast to what the documentary ‘Living with Michael Jackson’ had shown.
It had been stated in a statement:
”This film contains unexpected scenes of Martin Bashir praising Michael’s behavior and his way of treating his children, and his abilities as a father. In these scenes, he says that Michael is a very good father. And that it is a pity that people around the world are willing to criticize Michael.“
Apparently, Martin Bashir was either lying to Michael or misleading the viewers.
In the same statement, it was announced: ”During the interview with Michael, Bashir was aware that he was being filmed.“
On February 28, 2003, during a legal dispute, Michael was able to prevent an English TV network from broadcasting additional behind-the-scenes clips from the documentary ‘Living with Michael Jackson’.
Jackson had asked a high-level court in London to, through an order, ban Granada media from airing more clips from this very popular documentary. But the lawyers for both sides said they had reached confidential agreements on the matter.
Geoffrey Hobs, Granada’s lawyer, stated in court that Granada had agreed not to use any copied version of this documentary until after the hearing of this case on March 31.
On March 14, the Santa Maria court issued its ruling regarding Avaram’s complaint against Michael:
”Michael Jackson broke his contract with Marcel Avram and must pay him five million three hundred thousand dollars in damages for canceling two Millennium concerts.“
Both sides felt victorious from this ruling, which had been issued after a week of consultation.
David Medber, Michael’s lawyer, said: ”Five million three hundred thousand dollars, compared to the amount Avram had requested in his complaint, is a success.“
Steve Cochran, Michael’s first lawyer, did not discuss his client’s financial situation, but called the court ruling a financial success... ”Mr. Avram wanted to raise this figure to thirty-four million dollars. He didn’t mind fighting“
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On April 6, Michael attended the Palm Beach International Film Festival together with Robert Evans and Chris Tucker. Robert Evans received an award for a lifetime of artistic achievement at this event.
On April 24, a two-hour documentary made using Michael’s home video footage, titled ‘Private Home Movies,’ was broadcast on the Fox TV network and won second place among the most-watched TV documentaries. Part of this film was also posted on the Fox network’s website.
The producer of this documentary, Brad Lachman, was the same person who had also handled the production of the second part of the documentary ‘Living with Michael Jackson.’
In a part of the film, Michael and Macaulay Culkin are shown throwing cream pies at each other. Elsewhere, Michael’s shopping in stores and his jokes with the salespeople are shown. The film also included footage of Prince and Paris, Michael’s children, at a birthday party. Although their faces were not clear. In one scene, Prince says: ”I am Prince Michael Jackson and I really love Dad.“
In another scene, when Paris is asked what she wants to do when she grows up, she immediately answers: ”I want to be like Dad.“
On April 30, a scarf signed by Michael in May 27, 2000 and thrown from the balcony of his room at the Dorchester Hotel in London to his fans, was sold at an auction in London for seven hundred and thirteen pounds.
Michael had written on this scarf: ”I love this city very much. All my love is for you. Now I have to sleep. I love you. Michael Jackson.“
On May 6, songs ‘I Want You Back’ and ‘ABC’ by the Jackson Five were released in the film ‘Daddy Day Care,’ starring Eddie Murphy.
On May 12, Martin Bashir, the producer of the documentary ‘Living with Michael Jackson,’ was selected by a survey from Channel Four Television in England, among one hundred people, as the fifth most disliked person in England.
At a festival titled ‘Can’t Stop The Musicals,’ held from May 22 to June 1, 2003, musical films from the 1970s and 1980s were shown in the Auditorium at the Ageption Theatre in Hollywood.
The film ‘Wiz,’ starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, was also released on the big screens in Hollywood.
On May 18, it was announced in the news that Michael would spend three days of his vacation in Acapulco, Mexico, with his friends. According to what was said, this was a private trip and no plan had been made for Michael to visit public places.
It was reported that on May 20, Michael would return to the city of Gary to visit his birthplace after years, and during this trip he would also visit the childhood home located at ”2300 Jackson Street“.
For this purpose, Michael entered Indianapolis in the afternoon of May 20 and stayed at the Canterbury Hotel. On his first night of staying there, at nine o’clock, he visited the Circle Centre passage, whose doors were closed to the public. The hotel’s doors open directly into the passage, so Michael did not have to face the crowd outside the hotel.
Michael hugged his fans who had gathered in the passage to see him and gave them autographs. He also met four students from Warren Central High School. They were astonished that Michael had not refused their request to meet him and instead had given them autographs. Michael was surrounded in the marketplace by his guards. But still, he shook hands with some fans.
Michael also bought five pairs of toy glasses for his daughter Paris from the Museum Company store.
A visit to the Godiva Chocolatier store was also on his schedule. In the meantime, Michael met one of the female fans who was sitting in a wheelchair. He kissed her, hugged her, and gave her two autographs. This fan was very shocked. She also said that Michael really smelled good.
At the end, Michael went to the cinema to watch the film ‘Daddy Day Care,’ and after that, at eleven at night, he left the cinema hall and returned to his fans.
The next day, Michael was transferred to California due to illness, and thus his visit to Gary was temporarily canceled.
On May 30, Michael attended a celebration arranged by Brett Ratner, the director of the films ‘Rush Hour’ and ‘Red Dragon,’ for the release of his new book.
At this celebration, Michael said about Ratner: ”He is the best man I have ever seen. He is kind to the point that he makes me cry. He is a realist and at the same time an abstract artist. He has a wide range of work from horror films to comedy. I’m sure he will become one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema.“
On June 4, it was announced that Michael would resume his trip to Gary on June 11, which had previously been cut short due to illness.
The schedule for this trip was announced as follows:
10:45 AM — meeting with fans at City Hall
11:00 AM — the Mayor of Gary, along with some city officials, meets Michael at City Hall and presents him with the key to the city. Michael is scheduled to give a speech there. And it also provides an opportunity for the media to take photos of him.
12:00 PM — Michael goes to the street ”2300 Jackson Street“ where his childhood home is located to spend a few minutes there. After that, he will go to his old school, Roosevelt (Roosvelt High School).
2:00 _ 3:30 PM — Michael attends a session at Roosevelt High School and has lunch there.
6:00 PM — Michael goes to a stadium near City Hall to watch local singers perform some of his songs. Attendance is open to the public and no tickets are required.
On June 9, Michael appeared at the National Conference of the Radio and Television Association in Chicago. Michael attended this conference together with his actor friend Chris Tucker in order to support the M.B.C., the network of Black people.
At 12:02 PM on June 11, Michael entered Gary about an hour later than the scheduled time in a black limousine accompanied by a large number of guards. Wearing a black suit, Michael appeared at the press conference as soon as he arrived.
At 12:27 PM, he entered City Hall and was met with an enthusiastic crowd of about four hundred of his fans.
Reporters and photographers had gathered on the steps of the entrance to City Hall. But the crowd of Michael’s guards around him almost hid him from public view. Michael’s fans stood behind security walls on the street.
Michael got out of his limousine and climbed the steps of City Hall under an umbrella held above him by one of his guards. When he reached the top of the steps, he turned back and waved at the crowd. Michael then entered City Hall to receive the key to the city and hold a press conference.
Michael said that since he was nine years old, when he left Gary with his family, this was his first return to his hometown and that he was happy to have returned home.
”Being at home is amazing. It feels truly wonderful. Your hospitality is very impressive. I left this city when it was very small. Here I feel a lot of love. I love you very much. Thank you for this wonderful and magical day. I will never forget this day.“
Scott King, the Mayor of Gary, presented Michael with the key to the city and a street sign that had been named ”Jackson“ and said: ”Now that you have the key to the city in your hands, you are no longer a stranger.“
The mayor announced his support for establishing an arts center in Gary and said that Michael might be involved in designing this center and helping raise money for it. He announced that the name of this center would be the «Michael J. Jackson Performing Arts Center».
After the press conference ended, Michael came out, shook hands with his fans, and signed their papers.
Michael also received gifts from his fans. They had brought the handmade items they had made for Michael. Michael chose some of the crafts, and his guards collected them for him.
Michael then got on top of his limousine and performed the Moonwalk from one side of the car’s roof to the other, which sparked an extremely excited reaction from the crowd.
After that, Michael went to his childhood home at ”2300 Jackson Street“ and visited an eager crowd of fans and neighbors, one of whom had also been his childhood nurse when he was only six years old.
Michael then went to Roosevelt High School, where he was presented with an honorary diploma. Michael told the students at the high school: ”With iron will, perseverance, and decision-making, you will be able to do anything you want.“
The students presented gifts to Michael and the music group played the songs «Beat It» and «Thriller».
After that, Michael went toward the baseball stadium near City Hall. There, Michael appeared on stage to receive gifts.
The event host presented Michael with a basket of flowers and said: ”The white rose gold placed in the middle of the flowers is a sign of you... a sign of truth, honesty, purity, and endurance. The pink roses also represent all your fans. You are forever the King of Pop, Rock, and Soul.“
Another event host also gave Michael five books containing messages that fans from around the world had sent to Michael.
After the mayor and Michael left the stage, the music group came on stage and began performing music and dancing.
Michael had enjoyed this performance very much; he was pounding his feet to the rhythm of the music and, along with the beat, was also doing dance moves.
Michael even picked up a young girl’s mobile phone and spoke with her mother who was on the other end of the line.
Michael Jackson’s visit to Gary was accompanied by extremely strict security measures. A very large number of local police officers, along with more than one hundred auxiliary police officers sent from other cities, and even a few federal police officers, ensured Michael Jackson’s security and the calm of the area.
Thomas Houston, the police commander of the city of Gary, admitted in an interview with the Associated Press that they had to establish strict security measures in Gary. According to the police commander: ”People who follow Michael Jackson everywhere are more than the number of followers of the President of the United States.“
Michael’s visit to Gary, given the use of an exceptionally large number of police personnel in the city to maintain security and calm, cost the city a high amount. However, the mayor was not very worried about it. He said: ”I don’t think it’s that important.“
The mayor also described Michael’s character during this visit as ”extraordinarily polite and kind“.
On the morning of June 12, 2003, Michael, along with his cousin Jesse Jackson, attended the Rainbow/Push coalition group’s breakfast ceremony held in a church in Chicago, United States. At this event, he signed autographs for the guests who were impressed and took photos with them.
On Monday, June 16, nearly three thousand people attended the funeral ceremony of Gregory Peck. Gregory Peck was a great Hollywood actor and a very close and loyal friend of Michael Jackson. He died at the age of eighty-seven on the night of June 12 at his home in Los Angeles, while he was asleep.
In addition to Michael Jackson, many other famous people including Harrison Ford and Angelica Houston attended his funeral.
On the night of June 24, Michael, along with his sister Latoya, presented the James Brown, the father of soul music, with an award for a lifetime of artistic achievement at the Black Entertainment Television awards ceremony held in Los Angeles. While draping a cloak over James Brown’s shoulders, he said: ”No one has ever impressed me like this man.“
The two of them danced a little together on stage as well.
On July 16, in a survey conducted by the ‘Top Ten’ website, Michael was selected as the third most famous person in the world. The first and second places in this survey were taken by Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth, respectively.
On this website it said: ”Michael is the most beloved performer of all time. With his music, charitable activities, and his voice, he has impressed people on all five continents.“
In this survey, ten of the world’s most famous people were identified in the following order.
1. Pop
2. Queen Elizabeth
3. Michael Jackson
4. Muhammad Ali Clay
5. Michael Jordan
6. Fidel Castro
7. Madonna
8. Cindy Crawford
9. Bill Clinton
10. Nelson Mandela
On July 16, Michael attended his funeral ceremony together with forty people from the family and friends of Barry White. The mourners of this legendary soul singer all boarded a boat that had been rented by Barry White’s children, and they scattered Barry’s ashes over the California sea.
Barry White died earlier that month at the age of fifty-eight due to kidney disease.
On July 21, Michael Jackson, in a statement, condemned the prison sentence for illegal music downloaders via the internet.
The statement said: ”Downloading music from the internet is wrong. But prison cannot be the answer. It is music fans who determine the success of the music industry. I hope this is not forgotten.“
Michael also called on artists, music industry activists, and music page buyers to come together and discuss how to solve this issue.
IBM, on August 5, at a ceremony held at ”Fontainebleau Hilton Resorts & Towers“ in Miami, presented awards to several songwriters, publishers, and producers of hip hop, rap, rock and blues (R&B) songs.
The song «Butterflies», one of the songs from Michael’s new album «Invincible», won Song of the Year.
On August 17, news of Michael’s nomination for two awards at the major Golden Artist awards was announced. The ceremony was held on September 26 at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London.
The two awards Michael was nominated for were: the award for the legendary male artist and the award for the legendary album for the album «Thriller».
In the evening of August 29, 2003, Michael Jackson, along with his fans and friends, celebrated his 45th birthday in a hall in Los Angeles.
The host of the ceremony was Steve Harvey, the famous comedian and Michael’s friend. Several singers and artists also performed on stage at this celebration, including Mitey G Kids, Remedy, Brett Ratner, Slash, Usher, Bling Dynasty, Nawi, and Raven Simon. The event was broadcast live on the M.S.N. network.
Michael watched the ceremony from the balcony, but came on stage to cut his birthday cake. He also threw a piece of cake into the crowd.
In his speech at this celebration, Michael informed his fans about his upcoming plans and new work he was working on. He said:
”What a performance..... amazing... don’t you think so?
I want to thank all my wonderful fans around the world for tonight. I want you to know that I appreciate my fans not only in situations like this, but every day of my life. It is your presence, your belief, and your loyalty that have given me incredible strength through the hardships and struggles of my life. And it was you who inspired me to work hard and reach the result. I owe you. Over the years, we have become a family. All of you are my family. My children are your children. All the children of the world are our children, and we are responsible to them.“
In his speech, Michael said that he had formed a team made up of the best. He also announced the launch of an official website and said that he intends to make his home, Neverland, more accessible to fans. At the end, he reported that he was working on new songs and music videos and promised: ”I will do something that will make all of you proud to be fans of Michael Jackson.“
Michael ended his speech with this line: ”You are the best. But remember that the best is yet to come. I love all of you from the depths of my heart.“
At the same ceremony, Michael knelt on the ground to put one fan’s shoe back on his foot after it had come off while the fan was passing across the stage.
On the same night, coinciding with Michael’s birthday, the first Persian fan website titled eMJey.com was launched, and the next day BBC Radio announced its opening.
In late August (Shahrivar 82), a wax statue of Michael Jackson was displayed among forty-five wax statues in the Niaavaran Cultural Center gallery in Tehran. These statues were made by Russian artists based on the wax statues of the Madame Tussauds museum in Saint Petersburg. In addition to Michael Jackson, whose wax figure did not resemble him, among the political, scientific, and artistic personalities whose statues were displayed in this gallery, one could mention Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, Peter the Great, Genghis Khan, Christopher Columbus, Albert Einstein, Salvador Dalí, Leonardo da Vinci, Freddie Mercury, Louis de Funès, Marilyn Monroe, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Marlene Dietrich.
On September 13, Michael arranged a charity event at his Neverland home. Many famous people such as Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys, and his brother Aaron, the famous boxer Mike Tyson, Penny Marshall, Pink, Ashanti, and the group Boyz II Men were present at this event, and some also performed songs.
Before Michael began his speech, the international choir Harvost, made up of children, together with fans and guests, sang the birthday poem for Michael in unison.
Then Michael addressed the attendees:
”Thank you all for coming here tonight. In my opinion, the reason you are here is a very special one, and that is the future of us and the future of our children. I will continue fighting for them until the end of my life. I love you. Thank you.“
The Carter brothers presented a birthday cake to Michael. By throwing pieces of this cake into the crowd, Michael started a cake fight among the guests.
Parts of this ceremony were also shown on Entertainment Tonight. The K.S.F.M. network also broadcast the ceremony live.
On the first day of October, Michael attended a charity ceremony held at the Beverly Hills Hotel to help patients suffering from lupus. He appeared on stage together with Dr. Alan Metzger.
On the same day, in the auction in the city of London, a design that Michael Jackson had drawn and signed from Charlie Chaplin was sold for four thousand one hundred and twelve British pounds—three times its actual value.
Later that month, Michael Jackson was among one hundred sixty-five nominees introduced for the Nobel Peace Prize. That year’s Nobel Peace Prize went to Ms. Shirin Ebadi, a human rights and women’s rights activist in Iran.
Being a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize is a great honor that has happened to Michael three times so far.
On October 25, in a ceremony at ”Art Of Music Store“, the mayor of Las Vegas presented Michael Jackson with the key to this city in the presence of more than three hundred supporters.
In a brief speech, Michael thanked the mayor and the attendees and told the fans: ”I love you more.“
Michael then walked through the crowd and, while meeting fans, also signed their papers. At this event, Michael wore black pants and a red shirt, and silver boots, and he also wore sunglasses.
At this ceremony, memorabilia from Michael Jackson was also sold.
On October 27, before the new song video «What More Can I Give» was shown to the public for the first time in the conference hall of the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Michael received the first award for humanity on stage at the ”Radio Music“ awards from the pop singer Beyoncé Knowles.
After receiving the award, Michael said: ”I want to thank you for the love, support, and everything you have done for me. I’m very honored to be here tonight.
The song «We Are The World» was a project to help famine victims around the world. As you may know, it was a great success. And now it’s time again to show our feelings and hopes to those who need them. This project took two years, but with the help of more than one hundred people, it finally reached its result.“
As Michael pointed to the crowd, he continued: ”And this wouldn’t have happened without you. Without Beyoncé, it wouldn’t have succeeded. She was one of many artists who took part in this project. I love her. She is lovable. She is an amazing, talented artist who helped create this song that was written by me.
Two years ago, we went through terrorist attacks that changed not only our country but the world... I love you more (in response to the fans’ cries)... We will never forget it... I love you more... That painful tragedy brought us together and made this project possible.
Making this song itself was a miracle. And this video shows parts of our collaboration. And you will see it tonight. I thank the ”Radio Music Awards“ for giving us the opportunity to air this video tonight. I hope that once again we can send a message to the people of the world using this question: ”What More Can I Give _ what more can I give?“, so that we can move the world toward harmony.“
This song was released to help the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Singers such as Luther Vandross, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, the group Incync, and Beyoncé Knowles participated in this song.
In the same month, it was announced that Michael Jackson planned to auction his Bentley car on January 25 of the following year. This car had been used to transport guests to Neverland. Also, the artists who had collaborated in the charity song «What More Can I Give» had left their signatures on the roof of this car as a keepsake; besides Michael, famous people such as Beyoncé, Nick Carter, Tom Petty, Reba McEntire, and Shawn Stockman from Boyz II Men were mentioned. It was reported that Michael would be present during the auction of this car.
In this month, Ebony magazine, on the occasion of its fifty-eighth year of publication, dedicated the cover design to the image of fifty-eight prominent Black singers. Michael Jackson, along with Jannet Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Kobe Bryant, and Beyoncé, were among the Black artists whose images were printed on the cover in the form of a design.
On November 8, Celine Dion delayed her show ‘A New Day’ by one hour because Michael was late.
In this show, held in Las Vegas, four thousand one hundred people were present as spectators.
Celine Dion, whose performance had started one hour later than the scheduled time, told the audience on stage that tonight there was a special guest among them. Following that, the image of Michael Jackson standing backstage was displayed on the monitors inside the hall, and at the same time the shouts and cheers of the attendees rose. After the show ended, Michael had a brief meeting with Celine Dion in the backstage dressing room.
On November 15, in a ceremony at the Universal Studios studio in the Gollab cinema hall in Los Angeles, Michael received an award for a lifetime of artistic achievement.
Michael received this award for a lifetime of work in songwriting, performing on stage, and speaking about the needs of children around the world and people’s responsibility toward them, as well as speaking about building a better world.
The songs «Man In The Mirror», «Heal The World», «Black Or White», «The Lost Children», «We Are The World» and «What More Can I Give» are examples of his songs that show how music can be used to entertain others, heal, and teach.
After this ceremony, items were auctioned on-site in order to raise financial help for those in need. Michael Jackson was among those who had donated items to be sold at this charity auction.
The next day, the new album ‘Number Ones’ was released in the UK and immediately took the top spot on the album sales chart. Another version of this album, made available to the public in the United States the day after, had differences from the UK version.
In the album released in the United States, the songs «Human Nature» and «Blood On The Dance Floor» were replaced with «Man In The Mirror» and a live performance of the song «Ben». But the new song «One More Chance» existed in both versions.
‘Number Ones’ included Michael Jackson’s greatest hits and was released to the market with four different covers. Each of these four covers represented four periods of Michael Jackson’s career.
On the morning of November 17, 2003, another event shook the world. Following the proposal of sexual abuse charges against Michael Jackson by a thirteen-year-old boy, more than seventy Santa Barbara police forces stormed Michael’s home, Neverland. The police forces were busy inspecting and searching the premises until the middle of the night.
After this widespread raid, Michael Jackson strongly denied the allegations and called it a huge lie.
Michael was not present at Neverland during the police raid.
On November 20, in an article published in the newspaper by Corey Moss titled ”Why is the prosecutor in Michael Jackson’s case smiling?“, it said:
”The satisfied smile of Thomas Sneddon, the prosecutor of the city of Santa Barbara, at the press conference on Wednesday, November 19, revealed everything. This case is a private case.
With thirty-three years of professional experience, Sneddon is certainly a professional prosecutor. But during the issuance of an arrest warrant for the pop superstar, he showed unusual satisfaction.
This completely obvious grudge stems from two events. Ten years ago, Thomas Sneddon was also the prosecutor in the case of sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson.
First, at that time Sneddon did not have a witness willing to testify against Michael Jackson. And second, later Michael attacked the prosecutor in his song named «D.S».
In this song, Michael sings about Sneddon as a cold, emotionless man.
He says in this song:
”He wanted to trap me no matter what / whether dead or alive / he really tried to bring me down / he messes with your mind in every situation /