Grammy tribute to Michael Jackson
Usher and Carrie Underwood performed during a Michael Jackson tribute at the Grammys (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
One of the segments during the Grammys Sunday night included a tribute to the late Michael Jackson in 3-D.
A video played on the screen while Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood, Usher and Smokey Robinson performed Jackson’s “Earth Song.”
It was a great vocal performance from the musicians who participated in the tribute.
However, I was disappointed that Grammy producers chose a laid-back approach.
The Grammys billed the segment as a tribute to Michael Jackson. It was a tribute, but it wasn’t the type of tribute I expected.
At previous award shows, when they gave a tribute to MJ, it included dance segments where artists would perform Jackson’s dance moves. It was high energy, and the audience stayed on their feet.
The MJ tribute at the MTV Awards and the BET Awards are a perfect example of how a tribute should have been done.
The Grammy tribute seemed too subdued. Maybe it was because the Grammys are supposed to be reserved.
Meanwhile, the best part of the tribute was at the end when two of Jackson’s children spoke.
The video clip of the tribute is posted below.
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Most awards shows on television feel they have to compete for ratings, attention and credibilty. The Grammy’s are no exception.
Yes, the leading ladies did seem to be waging a public
‘anything-you-can-do’ competition between themselves, but that’s nothing new. It’s the nature of the music business, and shock viewing is the nature of modern programming. It’s why the only person who lost out at the VMA’s was Kanye West. Taylor Swift benefited and so did the VMA’s.
And so to this Grammy’s. This was a truly worldwide event. The eyes of millions – fans and non-fans alike, were watching to see the tribute to Michael Jackson, and the rumours of his children appearing only added to the anticipation.
With an artist like Michael Jackson, it must have been a nightmare knowing where to start in putting together something worthy. Would one song be enough? Even with the singers assembled, could the sheer immensity of Michael’s talent, innovation and revolutionary contribution to the industry – and indeed, the cultural life of more than three generations possibly be reflected?
Short of watching an endless montage of his body of work, footage of his visits to countless orphanages, and a listing of the extraordinary extent – both monetary and timewise – of his humanitarian efforts, I’m not sure any tribute to Michael Jackson could ever be enough. Certainly not one with the time constraints the Grammy’s had to contend with.
But I think Erlich got it right. Instead of quantity, we got quality. And the advanced 3-D component demonstrated that Michael could keep up with Cameron’s and Pixar’s of today.
However, the denouement came when Michael’s children accepted their father’s lifetime achievement. The agony of the moment not lost on anyone with a degree of humanity in their hearts, the true meaning of Prince’s word’s will surely resonate in people’s understanding as being the moment Michael’s children declared their defence of their father’s – and their, name.
In short, we witnessed a beginning.
The beginning of a journey that will undoubtedly hand Michael Jackson’s reputation back to him. A journey we will all participate in – which is as it should be, seeing as we all participated in the reason for its existence in the first place.
Today, though, while observing the various comments in the media decrying the Grammy’s and/or the Jackson family for supposedly exploiting Prince and Paris; I wonder if the media reaction could have its roots in something other than benign concern for Michael’s children.
Because it’s interesting isn’t it, that when the media narrative on Mr Jackson dominating the networks, print and online press from 1993 onwards, notably 2003-2005, and more recently post 25th June 2009 was overwhelmingly negative, salacious – and in many cases actually dishonest; nobody in the media was saying ‘enough’ or ‘too much.’
It would seem that while the appetite to damn or forget Mr Jackson remains present, it is only when his children, friends and fans want to give some degree of respect and honour to his memory, that suddenly detractors start tiring of the subject.
Science has a lot going for it. Its abiding mantra being, if something has not been proven to be so – then it is not so. If, after over a decade of forensic investigation by both the FBI and the LAPD, no evidence of criminal wrongdoing could be attibuted to Mr Jackson, that is because there was no criminal wrongdoing to be attributed.
It was, however, proven to the satisfaction of a conservative jury in republican Santa Barbara, that not only were the charges of molestation baseless, but also that the minor misdemeanours such as intent to intoxicate were also completely unfounded.
In light of the release of the FBI files now confirming Michael’s innocence, no doubt the media and the American criminal justice system who allowed one man – Tom Sneddon’s, deeply personal vendetta against Mr Jackson to become the prosecutorial obscenity that it did, would prefer that people forgot about what was done to Michael Jackson.
For Michael’s children sake I hope we do not.
One day, if not now, they will have difficult questions. I hope those answers will consist of more than the self-interested misinformation promoted by Diane Dimond and her ilk, many of whom still populate the American media. A media, incidentally that has been deliberately askewing and witholding key facts about the details and fact of Mr Jackson’s innocence regarding the molestation accusations of 1993 and 2005 for many years now.
A media, that is also now clearly running scared from the reality that the existence of, and obvious love Michael Jackson’s children have for their father, profoundly negates the fiction of the ‘monster’ they created.
Paris and Prince were nervous because the Grammy’s are an awe-inducing event, not because they did not want to speak. Michael Jackson is their father and they have every right to speak. And by God, after months of being suddenly removed from rooms or out of earshot of offensive youtubes, rants from Peter King, the shameless self-promotion of Shmuley, Geller and just about anyone else Michael knew – these children have a right to be heard.
Will anyone be listening this time I wonder?
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