2003
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 /