This Is It

This is it. It is as if a part of my childhood and a great part of my soul was taken from me. I never imagined a world without my one idol, Michael Jackson the King of Pop.



He was to me a true musical genius. He was my jam music, comfort in sad times... he was of my lifestyle, my daily routine, my dance inspiration, even my attitude. For the past 9 years, I've listened to his music... every cd, every song, every concert, every interview. And probably the worst of all is that I started liking him just about when he stopped doing what he does best, when he exiled himself from the continental USA. And I've waited so patiently for the past 9 years, hoping for a brand new album and more concerts, and it seemed like 'This Is It' was the start of a grand new beginning. One of my biggest dreams was to indeed see MJ live in concert... I'd like to take this time to go through my history with MJ in my life.

The first time I ever listened to Michael Jackson was in grade 6 when my mom got me his 2001 album 'Invincible' (which is still my favorite album of all, even though it sold the least). I love his songs "Unbreakable", "Whatever Happens" and "You Rock My World". "Unbreakable" was one of the first songs I learned to 'sing' (I still remember singing it in the shower). "Whatever Happens" became my study music in secondary 2 for my history final (I listened to it around 50 times). And "You Rock my World" most likely influenced my so-called 'romantic' poetry.

I then learned that my best friend also liked MJ. I still remember the day we were talking on the phone and he was asking me if a certain song was on my Invincible cd. I placed my headphones across the telephone and played all of the songs (the song he was looking for turned out to be Billie Jean). I found MJ's Thriller album (cassette form) not long after and I fell in love with practically all the songs on it! Except for the song Thriller which I found too long and unconventional. It was not until a little longer that I started to enjoy the song. An acquired taste.

I have other memories of me and my best friend discovering MJ's concert videos and his moonwalk! The most memorable videos I have of MJ is his "Billie Jean performance at his 30th Anniversary concert", his "Billie Jean performance at Bucharest", his "duet on The Way You Make Me Feel with Britney Spears at his 30th" and his "1988 Grammy performance of Man in the Mirror".

I remember kaka and poopoo giving me this awesome birthday card with MJ in it! I remember doing the moonwalk in secondary 1 during la periode d'etude for the surveillante, learning by heart the Billie Jean dance sequence, dancing MJ in religion class in sec 4 and 5 (which involved humping directly in front of the teacher), recording a song called Tesser which was a spinoff of Beat It for a sec 2 project (amz and chiu forced me to sing!), doing a dance off in Kenny's basement, redoing the Thriller video clip for a sec 3 english project (however, the video is lost forever...), having an MJ dance scene in both of my Halloween movies, teaching the moonwalk at my swing dance practices in Cegep, my gf and I buying the Thriller 25 album for each other without knowing so for Valentine's day...

I think MJ made me strong also in the sense that I've taken some insults towards MJ personally but held my head high. I've been intrinsically linked with everything that has to do with MJ. Whenever some new gossip came up, people would talk to me about it. Even more surprising is all the support I received from friends when they learned of the King's death. A lot of my friends tend to insult MJ, calling him a pedophile (probably the most common) and commenting on his nose or whatnot. And I know that most of them don't do it with anger or anything, but just to tease a bit. But in any case, I didn't let any of these comments ruin my image of him or destroy my passion for him. In fact, all of the hater comments probably made me stick closer to MJ, defending him as much as possible and trying to show people that even though he has a different (and perhaps weird) lifestyle, his music is of the greatest in the world. I've learned to defend what I love most in my life the hard and only way. Get knocked down here and there and just keep on coming back right up.

As of today, my two favorite songs of all time are "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Break of Dawn", both by MJ. If you ever get the chance to listen to these songs, please do. I find that there's so much passion in his lyrics and his voice that it just blows me away every single time I listen to them!

Michael Jackson is my hero and will forever be the true King of Pop. I don't think there will ever be someone like him. His charisma, his charm, his voice, his moves, his sales, his global impact, they are out of this world. I can promise you that for the rest of my life, I will always listen to Michael Jackson's music. For me, his music is much more than pop, it's the elixir of creativity and love. And I will always look towards his music for inspiration in everything I do in life. I might feel that part of my soul has gone, but I know that bits of MJ's soul lies embedded in his music. And as long as I (and we) listen to his music, MJ can live on inside all of us. May you rest in peace. You will be dearly missed Michael.

Andy