People who worked with Michael Jackson said they saw something different about him in his final days of rehearsals before his death.
The singer had been preparing for his comeback tour titled This Is It which had been due to begin on 13 July, 2009 and last until March the following year at the O2 Arena in London.
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However, Jackson died in his Los Angeles home at the age of 50 on 25 June – less than three weeks before the show was about to start with all 50 concerts sold out.
On 28 August, a day before Jackson would have turned 51, the coroner concluded that his death had been a homicide after being administered a series of drugs by his doctor, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
This Is It was cancelled, leaving footage of Jackson rehearsing 48 hours before his death as the final recorded video of him before he died and people who knew him have said they could see something different about the music star in it.
Dorian Holley, Jackson’s vocal director for This Is It who had worked with him for years, told Time Magazine that the singer was ‘glowing’ as ‘he was finally seeing it all come together’.
Holley said that he was amazed by Jackson’s ability to keep up with the backing dancers but revealed the singer would ‘sometimes talk about how it made him sore’.
The final footage of Jackson shows him rehearsing the song ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ along with backup dancers at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, but one part which particularly affected people is what happened at the end.
The song ended, the lights went down and suddenly the only clearly visible figure on stage was Jackson while the backing dancers were shrouded in red.
A voice can be heard telling the performers to ‘hold for applause’ and as the lights faded out completely the only visible face was Jackson’s as he had his eyes closed and looked contemplative before smiling.
People viewing the footage have said that the final smile they saw was ‘priceless’, while someone else said it ‘puts a knot in my throat every time’.
A third said Jackson’s smile as the song concluded and the lights went down ‘brings me to tears every time’.
Holley said that during rehearsals ‘you couldn’t take your eyes off him’ and he left the rest of the crew ‘with our jaws open’.
One particular thing the vocal director enjoyed was being able to isolate Jackson’s performance during rehearsals from the rest of the show, which he said gave him a new appreciation for ‘what a genius he was’ with his voice.
