A number of times before his death, the late pop singer, Michael Jackson, made reference to his contemporary, Prince. Jackson named his son after Prince, which the latter took a dig at on stage. Jackson also briefly spoke about Prince in his final concert documentary "This Is It."
Prince
The pop superstar clearly regarded Prince and his musical abilities, even attempting to outdo his Guinness World Book record for the most performances at the O2 arena in London, England. This tidbit came up in the involuntary manslaughter trial of his doctor, Conrad Murray, who overmedicated and overdosed him in 2009.
17-year-old Canadian pop singer, Justin Bieber, who is the new "prince of pop" dethroning Justin Timberlake, has surpassed the late crooner, Michael Jackson, in sales, who is referred to as the "king of pop." No, not record sales. Concert documentary sales.
"This Is It"
The Bieber's "Never Say Never" has outsold Jackson's "This Is It" at the North American Box Office. Jackson formerly held the title of best selling concert documentary film. Previously, the title was held by former Disney starlet, Miley Cyrus.
A few months ago, it was publicly said, the late pop singer, Michael Jackson, is worth more dead and to Sony this is proving quite true. The documentary film of his last concert rehearsals, titled "This Is It" has reportedly grossed $250 million dollars worldwide, with an additional 7 million CDs sold of his past work and millions more dollars generated in memorabilia and merchandising sales.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm quite logical and rational. However, when one looks at the circumstances surrounding Michael Jackson's death, one can't help but think something terrible and questionable transpired.
With Hollywood's history of destroying black people with too many copyrights and influence (see Sam Cooke and Michael Jackson), one can't discount that something very disgraceful transpired. Then, one looks at Jackson's archenemies at Sony, some of whom have mafia ties and much to gain from his death and you realize the terrible situation he found himself in.
Something very bad happened to this man and it is the government's duty to properly investigate it and bring justice. The world is not amused. I didn't agree with everything Michael did in life, but a human life is gone and certain industry entities have gotten filthy rich as a result. Someone needs to impartially look into that, as it is not sending a good message.
Michael Jackson's documentary film "This Is It" has opened to moderate sales, thus far, in a swan song that has one wondering if this is what the singer would have wanted.
His last work that he will be remembered by, is now essentially a rehearsal video that is not even the finished product. It's hardly what an entertainer would call their best, as it is a behind the scenes view. A fly on the wall feature.
What makes it worse is Jackson looked so emaciated, skeletal and strained with his skin sporting an almost gray hue. It showcased a Jackson deep in thought, preparing for his big comeback that was cut short. It was an incomplete thought.
An unfinished, unpolished product, for a man that was a musical perfectionist, wanting to get everything just so. I do not think this is how he would want to be remembered, as a man that time, tragedy and temptation got the better of. This was not it, pardon the pun.
$20.1 million is it for 'This Is It'
October 29, 2009 | 10:54 am - Sony's unusual Wednesday launch for its Michael Jackson movie "This Is It" yielded decidedly mixed results.
The documentary sold $20.1-million worth of tickets around the world, with $7.4 million coming from the U.S. and Canada and $12.7 million from 97 foreign countries.
The United Kingdom was the biggest foreign market for "This Is It," bringing $1.9 million. France was next with $1.4 million, followed by Japan with $1.2 million, German with $1.1 million, and China with $730,000.
A small amount of the total came from night-time shows in the Western United States on Tuesday starting at 9 PM Pacific, but the vast majority is from screenings on Wednesday.
Opening movies worldwide on a Wednesday outside of summer of the holidays is extremely rare. On that basis, Sony can claim a solid launch when measured against any comparable films.
However, given the huge amounts of hype surrounding the movie and the $60 million Sony spent to make the movie, outside of its marketing costs, the opening is none too impressive...
According to reports, Michael Jackson's mom, Katherine, was absent from the premiere of the documentary movie "This Is It" showcasing his last rehearsals, for his ill-fated tour of the same name.
Jackson never made it to the tour, overdosing on copious amounts of prescription pills and illegally administered anesthetic, days before the tour was to begin.
Numerous entertainers showed up for the premiere, such as Jennifer Lopez:
Does Rush Limbaugh know there's a black lady on the website! (LOL)
The Republican Party relaunched its website today (www.gop.com). The conservative party is also known as the GOP (pronounced "GOP" as in the word "Lop" - just kidding, don't say that or you'll look stupid. GOP is an acronym for the words the "Grand Old Party").
Their website launch went about as smoothly as that of the unveiling of Michael Jackson's new single, "This Is It." But at least we know the GOP actually owns the item it launched (disdainfully looks at Sony).
However, something went wrong, rendering software bugs and glitches, that caused the page to display incorrectly. Let's hope it wasn't sabotaged by a hacker, as it is not the norm for such an expensive site, worked on by several techs, to perform in that manner.
New Republican Party 2.0 website unveiled
WASHINGTON — The Republican Party launched a redesigned website Tuesday with a heavy emphasis on the social media tools that Democrat Barack Obama used so effectively to win the last presidential election.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said GOP.com, which stands for "Grand Old Party," the party's nickname, will "help Republicans compete in any race, in any state, at any time."
Obama relied heavily on the Internet during his presidential campaign for organizing, fundraising and communicating and has created MySpace, Facebook and Flickr pages and a Twitter feed since entering the White House.
The revamped GOP.com prominently features links on its home page to the Republican National Committee page on Facebook, its Twitter feed, its YouTube channel and its Flickr photo-sharing site.
"It takes advantage of various online tools to connect Republicans and concerned Americans across the country to each other and party leaders, creating a larger, more informed, more organized, and more energized Republican community," Steele said.
GOP.com also features a number of blogs including a main blog titled "Sound Reasoning."
A section on "Republican Heroes" provides brief biographies of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League baseball, former presidents Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln and others...
In the now settled copyright infringement dispute between legendary singer/songwriter Paul Anka, composer of the tune "My Way" and the scurrilous, stinky, silly Sony, Michael Jackson's former label, one of the executor's of the late pop star's will, music producer, John McClain, made a regrettable statement regarding the song that was ripped off, titled "This Is It."
McClain enraged Jackson supporters yesterday, when he told Anka, "Now we know why the song was so good" implying Michael could not have written the pilfered tune on his own, as it is written in a classic pop format, reminiscent of "Human Nature" that was also penned by another songwriter and given to Jackson.
Who told McClain to say that! Jackson supporters wanted his head on a platter, almost as badly as the late singer's doctor, Conrad Murray, who gave into the singer's demands and ridiculously gave him anesthetic to sleep each night, which killed him at the age of 49.
Note to McClain: based on what I've read in feedback sections, you may want to think about getting a new identity...and take Murray with you (kidding).
Paul Anka -- Michael 'Stole' from Me
Posted Oct 12th 2009 8:13PM by TMZ Staff
It's the quickest resolution in Hollywood history -- Paul Anka says the special administrators of Michael Jackson's estate gave him a 50% cut of "This Is It" ... after he said Michael "stole" the original recordings from his studio back in the 80s.
Paul also said John McClain told him, "Now we know why the song was so good ... it wasn't the type of Michael Jackson song that he could write."
Litigation was initiated once again, against lying, thieving Sony, for engaging in copyright infringement. Michael Jackson’s new song “This Is It” which debuted at 12AM today.
When I heard the song I thought to myself that it did sound familiar. Due to the problems I’ve had with Sony stealing from me, which has resulted in this case, I decided to check it against my Copyrighted Catalog. It came up clear and I was relieved, as I am tired of the theft and contention, which is extremely upsetting.
Paul Anka
But I was right in that the song did sound familiar. Turns out it was a 1991 song by singer Sa-fire, written by legendary singer/songwriter, Paul Anka. I’d bought the Sa-fire CD years ago and that’s where I’d heard it.
When I was growing up, the Latin girl group/female artist “Freestyle” genre was very popular in Miami in the 80’s and early 90’s (groups such as Expose, The Cover Girls, Sweet Sensation and solo artists such as Sa-fire and Stevie B). Miami has a very large Hispanic community.
Based on reports, Anka wrote the song in the 1980’s and Jackson contributed to it. However, Jackson "stole the tape" from Anka’s recording studio and lawyer, John Branca, who represents both artists, was instructed to go to Michael with legal action if he didn’t bring the tape back. Jackson brought the tape back, but made a copy of it.
Years later, Sony seeking to make a quick buck off Jackson’s death, released it without credit or payment to Paul Anka. PAUL ANKA!
They are so disgusting. They did the same to my godmother’s husband, Clement Dodd, who was also a legendary musician/producer. They've done it to so many others as well.
Howard Stringer
Just last month, The Mexican government raided Sony’s office in their nation, for criminal copyright infringement, in pressing up and releasing an album’s worth of music by artist, Alejandro Fernández,which they did not have the rights to. Sony should be embarrassed about that, as it is a worldwide disgrace. But the problem is, Sony is full of animals with no shame.
He completed his contract with Sony, left the label and they illegally grabbed a copy of the studio version of his forthcoming album, that was to be released by another label, stamped Sony's logo on it and pressed them up, released them under their label, which is a criminal violation of domestic and international law.
Sony continues to steal copyrights and patents from people all over the world. Their misconduct regarding me has not desisted either, even in the face of an FBI lawsuit and worldwide publicity exposing their criminal misdeeds.
One tries to shame them into discontinuing breaking the law, as the FBI has failed in this endeavor, which almost got me killed (read the lawsuit), but Sony C.E.O. Howard Stringer and his fellow criminals at Sony keep stealing anyway.
Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller
The new song “Happy” by Leona Lewis and the recently released music video for the song “Bad Boys” by Alexandra Burke, both on Sony and Syco/Sony (Simon Cowell's record label of fraud) are criminal infringements of years old copyrights from my Copyrighted Catalog (the FBI is free to check the copyrights, both preexisting and now the rip-offs and compare).
So much for the FBI’s rubbish speech about “preventing crime” – clearly not if it is profitable. And this is why the U.S. economy collapsed in 2008 – the FBI and national regulators in Washington, look the other way to crimes that are profitable to large corporations, such as the aforementioned case and the Madoffs and the Stanfords of the corporate world, when anyone in their right mind knows, no nation can build an economy on robbing others and gouging the public, without disastrous, foundation shaking result cropping up.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller
What a great example to set for law enforcement nationwide, FBI. Millions of people have read about this case in the 6 weeks it has been filed, yet the criminal mischief continues unabated.
Copyrights that were to benefit AIDS and Cancer victims are going to such frivolities and extravagances as underwriting a $2,000,000 birthday party for Simon Cowell, to guzzle and quaff champagne and caviar. A man who stars on a show "American Idol" that was criminally stolen from a Texas man, after the preexisting copyright was pitched to Simon Fuller (Cowell's partner).
Sony, Fuller and Cowell, among others, have become very rich off criminal activity, as they have no accomplishments, opting to steal from everyone else.
Paul Anka Claims 'This Is It' is a Rip-Off
Posted Oct 12th 2009 4:58PM by TMZ Staff - If you think Michael Jackson's "This Is It" sounds familiar, it's because the song is a rip-off that was released nearly two decades ago by another artist ... and the man making this claim is none other than music legend Paul Anka.
Anka tells TMZ in 1983, he wrote a song with Jackson called "I Never Heard" -- and the demo of the song was recorded in Anka's studio in Carmel, CA. Anka says he took the tape to a studio in Hollywood to put the finishing touches on it for Anka's duets album, "Walk a Fine Line." Anka claims Jackson -- who was just blowing up at the time with "Thriller" -- got a big head and "stole the tapes" from the studio.
Anka tells us he called the lawyers who repped both he and Jackson -- ironically one of them was John Branca -- and threatened them with a lawsuit if he didn't get the tapes back. Anka got them back but insists Jackson made a copy of the tapes and used the track with his voice from "I Never Heard" -- and simply retitled it, "This Is It."
Anka gave "I Never Heard" to another artist -- Safire -- who recorded it in 1990.
We called Sony Music who released "This Is It" ... no comment so far.
Anka tells us he's talking with his lawyers about his legal options.
Posted Oct 12th 2009 6:18PM by TMZ Staff - Paul AnkaPaul Anka tells TMZ the people handling Michael Jackson's estate are falling over each other ... apologizing for "ripping-off my song" and offering "anything you want" to make the mess go away.
And, John Branca just told TMZ, "We acknowledge that Michael and Paul wrote this song together."
As we first reported, Anka claims the new Jackson song, "This Is It" is the Michael Jackson track Anka co-wrote with Jackson in 1983, which Jackson originally recorded under the title, "I Never Heard."
Anka tells TMZ he just got off the phone with John McClain, the co-Special Administrator for Jackson's estate. Anka says McClain apologized profusely, saying he knew "Michael couldn't have written this song alone. It's not his style."
Anka says McClain now acknowledges that "This Is It" is really Paul's song, and said, "We'll give you whatever you want, whatever it takes we'll do the right thing."
Anka says he's not trying to hold the estate up but he wants them to be fair.
And how's this ... Anka says McClain asked him to do promotion for the song.
Sony Mexico raided for 'unauthorised' Alejandro Fernández material
Mexican police have seized CDs by one of Latin music's biggest stars following a legal dispute between him and his record label
Police have raided Sony Music's offices in Mexico City, seizing albums, master recordings and cover art for one of Latin music's biggest stars.
Mexico's public ministry and federal police were acting on a court order concerning ranchera singer Alejandro Fernández. A two-time Latin Grammy winner, Fernández was signed to Sony Music from 1998 to 2008 but left last year for Universal. Sony has gone ahead with plans to release an album of unreleased material, called Diferente, which Fernández alleges they have no right to do... http://www.guardian.co.uk
Footage has surfaced online of Michael Jackson’s last performance, filmed before he died, which reveals the singer at his absolute skinniest, frailest and palest. He did not look like he was in a good place, as he appeared conflicted, unsure and troubled.
However, his voice was as lovely as ever, take note Mariah Carey. Jackson's dance moves were still there as well, but he seemed somewhat restrained and deliberately careful, as he mechanically moved through the dance sequence, as if trying to protect himself from injury and keep it all together.
Side Bar: I’m sorry, I have to go there. Some of Michael’s moves looked a little, how do you say it, delicate. Did you catch that swish at 0:10 and that shimmy at 0:34 (grin). I'm just teasing.
