Michael Jackson: From child prodigy to iconic thriller, a star who fell amid scandal and strangeness

Published on Friday 26 June 2009 02:46

MICHAEL Jackson saw his musical versatility and head-turning dance moves propel him from child prodigy to solo superstar before child sex abuse scandals tarnished his reputation and his career.

News of his death broke as the 50-year-old singer was poised for a comeback with a string of 50 concerts scheduled to start in London on 13 July.

They were to be his first concert series for 12 years and were expected to earn Jackson more than $400 million (244m) according to concert promoters AEG Live.

Jackson's fame reached a climax in 1982 with the iconic album and music video Thriller. He sold an estimated 750 million records and won 13 Grammys throughout a career spanning four decades.

But the moon-walking, sequin-gloved performer was beset by eccentricities that in 2008 had turned him into a virtual recluse with a mountain of financial woes.

Concerns about his health had been rampant during his 2005 trial in California on charges of child sex abuse – at which he was acquitted – and in 2008 when he was photographed in Las Vegas in a wheelchair for reasons that were never explained.

AEG Live said Jackson passed a lengthy physical exam in early 2009, before the London concerts were announced.

Jackson was credited as the first black entertainer to gain a strong crossover following on music channel MTV. Music videos such as Thriller, featuring dancing zombies, and Beat It, pushed the boundaries of the fledgling art of music videos, while his spectacular stage performances created armies of devoted fans around the world.

After the release of Thriller, Time magazine described him as "the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley" and said he was a "star of records, radio, rock video".

But Jackson's belief that "I am Peter Pan in my heart", his preference for the company of children, his friendship with a chimp called Bubbles, his high-pitched voice and numerous plastic surgeries earned him the nickname "Wacko Jacko".

The gradual change in his skin colour to a pale white – which he said was caused by the skin pigmentation condition vitiligo – and his penchant for wearing surgical masks and shrouding his children with veils in public, added to his reputation as an eccentric.

Born on 29 August, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, Jackson started singing as the youngest member of the brother group the Jackson 5, who clinched their first record deal in 1968 when he was 11.

Hits like ABC and I'll Be There helped the brothers become the first group in pop history to have their first four singles top the US pop charts, and by 1972 Jackson released his first solo album.

Those early years, under a strict father, took their toll. Jackson said later that he built his home Neverland with a zoo, train rides, movie theater and carousel, because he "wanted to have a place that I could create everything I never had as a child".

He teamed up with producer Quincy Jones to make Off the Wall (1979), which yielded four hit singles, and then Thriller with its dance, rock and pop tunes that produced seven Top Ten singles and stayed in the US charts for over two years. By 2009, it had sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.