It has often been said that each of us are two persons wrapped up in one, having a good nature as well as the other, an equally vile and twisted one.
Paradoxical as this may all sound, there may be some truth in it.
However, no one else makes this paradox become more of a reality other than the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
For while he was ‘King’, a sovereign on the dance floor with his electrifying moonwalk dances, he was also Wacko Jacko – a term coined to mock Michael Jackson’s bizarre lifestyle. From multiple plastic surgery, sharing his room with a chimpanzee pet called ‘Bubbles’ to Michael’s questionable fondness for little boys, Jackson was the sheer epitome of bizarre.
The death of the King of Pop last week came as a huge blow to the music industry, considering that Jackson was set to stage 50 concerts worldwide starting this month up to March 2010.
An estimated 750 000 people were billed to watch Jackson’s ‘comeback’, which would have seen him raking in millions of dollars and, more importantly, restoring his damaged reputation.
Ever frail and pale looking, yet mesmerising and electric on the dance floor, Michael Jackson was never at odds with himself and was able to woo fans into a frenzy all over the world.
The ‘master of the moonwalk’ captivated billions of people with his talent that made him a legend, alongside the likes of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles.
On stage, Jackson came alive inviting the world to come and watch him, yet after his performances he quietly ducked away from the limelight leading a reclusive lifestyle.
His double life makes us wonder as to who the real Michael Jackson was. Was he the one of the 1980s era of the best selling album, ‘Thriller’, who trumped boisterously across stages all over the world or the one who would dress in black from head to toe shying away from the media?
Maybe he was simply both and we never figured it out soon enough that he was like so many other people, just two people in one, still perfectly at peace with himself.
It is fitting for many people to project an image to others and live the rest of their lives trying to uphold that image.
For the very few however, they show to the rest of the world their true self at different times in their lives and bear the criticism that falls on them.
Michael Jackson was no exception saying, “I believe I’m one of the loneliest people in the world.”
This was oddly said against a background of breathtaking success as a pop entertainer who commanded a legion of fans and had immense wealth that could buy anything he so desired
Even in his death, the King of Pop’s wealth has been brought into the spotlight as his debts are a dark cloud that hangs over his grand empire but yet again exposing that Michael Jackson’s life was always matched with equal oddities.
It would be a sham to blame the current economic blitz that is blowing all over the world for Jackson’s woes as his own lavish exercises had a bearing on his financial status.
A ‘king’ of Jackson’s scale with a career spanning over five decades having debts reveals that probably there were deficits in his personal life as a human being that we might never know of.
Whatever the case for or against the King of Pop, Michael Jackson came, he saw, he conquered and went.
