Michael Jackson, the world's most famous and controversial pop star, has died at the age of 50 after a suspected heart attack.
Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop" who once moonwalked above the music world, died Thursday as he prepared for a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50. Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.
"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.
Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.
His 1982 album "Thriller" — which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.
At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.
As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.
"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."
The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."
He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.
"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."
Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson's death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.
As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."
"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."
Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.
In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.
The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.
Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers — Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito — in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.
The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."
The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean."
The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.
By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical "The Wiz," a pop-R&B version of "The Wizard of Oz," that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.
During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.
He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.
Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.
Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, now 12; and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.
Jackson also had a third child, Prince Michael II. Now 7, Jackson said the boy nicknamed Blanket as a baby was his biological child born from a surrogate mother.
Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.
Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."
Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.
"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."
__
AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch and AP writers Derrik J. Lang, Solvej Schou, Anthony McCartney and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles; and Virginia Byrne, Hillel Italie, Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.
پاپ سنگر مائیکل جیکسن انتقال کر گئے
مائیکل جیکس جولائی میں لندن میں اپنے فن کا مظاہرہ کرنے والے تھے۔
لاس اینجلس سے موصول ہونے والی اطلاعات کے مطابق مشہور پاپ گلوکار مائیکل جیکسن ہسپتال میں انتقال کر گئے ہیں۔ ان کی عمر پچاس سال تھی۔
اطلاعات کے مطابق انہیں دل کا دورہ پڑا جس کی وجہ سے طبی عملے کو طلب کیا گیا۔ طبی عملے کو معائنہ کرنے پر معلوم ہوا کہ وہ سانس نہیں لے پا رہے جس کی وجہ سے ہسپتال پہنچا دیا گیا۔ تاہم انہیں کوشش کے باوجود کبھی بھی ہوش میں نہیں لایا جا سکا۔
مائیکل جیکسن کے بھائی جرمین کے مطابق خیال کیا جارہا ہے کہ انہیں دل کا دورہ پڑا تھا۔ ان کی میت کو ایک ہیلی کاپٹر کے ذریعے شہر کے کورونر کے دفتر پہنچا دیا گیا ہے۔
ابتدائی طور پر مائیکل جیکسن کی صحت کے بارے میں متضاد اطلاعات سامنے آ رہی تھیں۔ امریکی ٹی وی چینل سی بی ایس اور اخبار لاس اینجلس ٹائمز کا کہنا تھا کہ ان کا انتقال ہو چکا ہے جبکہ دوسری طرف سی این این کا کہنا تھا کہ وہ ہسپتال میں کومے کی حالت میں ہیں۔
لیکن بعد میں لاس اینجلس کے کورونر اس بات کی تصدیق کر دی کہ مائیکل جیکسن انتقال کر گئے ہیں۔
لاس اینجلس کے فائر ڈیپارمنٹ کے مطابق طبی عملے کو شہر کے بیل ایئر علاقے میں واقع مائیکل جیکسن کے گھر بلایا گیا تھا۔
فائر ڈیپارٹمنٹ کے مطابق گھر سے انہیں یونیورسٹی کالج ہسپتال لے جایا گیا۔ ڈیپارٹمنٹ کے مطابق راستے میں طبی عملے ان کو ہوش میں لانے کی کوشش کرتارہا۔
پاپ سٹار مائیکل جیکسن کی عمر پچاس سال تھی اور وہ جولائی میں لندن میں اپنے فن کا مظاہرہ کر کے شوبز کی دنیا میں واپس آ رہے تھے۔
مائیکل جیکسن کے پرستار یونیورسٹی کالج ہسپتال اور ان کی رہائیش کے باہر اکٹھے ہو گئے ہیں جبکہ پولیس نے رکاوٹیں کھڑی کر دی ہیں۔
مائیکل جیکسن نے اپنے فنی کیریئر کا آغاز اپنے فیملی گروپ جیکسن فائیومیں ایک چائلڈ سٹار کی حیثیت سے گیارہ سال کی عمر میں کیا تھا۔ بعد میں انہوں نے عالمی شہرت حاصل کر لی اور سولو آرٹسٹ کے طور ’تھرِلر‘ اور ’بیڈ‘ جیسے شہرہ آفاق گانے تخلیق کیے۔
لیکن حالیہ سالوں میں ان کی شخصیت تنازعات اور مالی مشکلات میں گھری ہوئی نظر آئی اور وہ تقریباً گوشہ تنہائی میں چلے گئے۔ چار سال پہلے ان پر بچوں سے جنسی زیادتی کا مقدمہ چلایا گیا جس سے وہ بری تو ہو گئے لیکن مقدمے کی وجہ سے ان کی شہرت کو بہت نقصان پہنچا۔
انہوں نے دو مرتبہ شادی کی تھی اور ان دو شادیوں سے ان کے تین بچے ہیں۔
مائیکل جیکسن کے پرستاروں اور دوستوں نے انہیں زبردست خراجِ عقیدت پیش کیا ہے۔ مائیکل جیکسن کے ذاتی دوست اور امریکہ میں شہری حقوق کے کارکن ال شارپٹن کا کہنا ہے کہ مائیکل جیکسن ایک تاریخی شخصیت تھے جنہوں نے امریکی معاشرے میں سیاہ فام افراد کی سلیبرٹی کی حیثیت سے قبولیت کے عمل کو آگے بڑھایا۔
مائیکل جیکسن کی سابق اہلیہ لیزا میری پریسلے کا کہنا ہے کہ مائیکل کے انتقال کی خبر سن کر انہیں دکھ پہنچا ہے۔
مائیکل جیکسن کے دیرینہ دوست اُری گیلر نے بی بی سی کو بتایا ہے کہ اس افسوس ناک خبر نے انہیں فرط جذبات سے نڈھال کر دیا ہے۔
"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.
Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.
His 1982 album "Thriller" — which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.
At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.
As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.
"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."
The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."
He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.
"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."
Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson's death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.
As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."
"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."
Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.
In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.
The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.
Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers — Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito — in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.
The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."
The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean."
The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.
By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical "The Wiz," a pop-R&B version of "The Wizard of Oz," that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.
During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.
He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.
Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.
Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, now 12; and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.
Jackson also had a third child, Prince Michael II. Now 7, Jackson said the boy nicknamed Blanket as a baby was his biological child born from a surrogate mother.
Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.
Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."
Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.
"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."
__
AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch and AP writers Derrik J. Lang, Solvej Schou, Anthony McCartney and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles; and Virginia Byrne, Hillel Italie, Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.
پاپ سنگر مائیکل جیکسن انتقال کر گئے
لاس اینجلس سے موصول ہونے والی اطلاعات کے مطابق مشہور پاپ گلوکار مائیکل جیکسن ہسپتال میں انتقال کر گئے ہیں۔ ان کی عمر پچاس سال تھی۔
اطلاعات کے مطابق انہیں دل کا دورہ پڑا جس کی وجہ سے طبی عملے کو طلب کیا گیا۔ طبی عملے کو معائنہ کرنے پر معلوم ہوا کہ وہ سانس نہیں لے پا رہے جس کی وجہ سے ہسپتال پہنچا دیا گیا۔ تاہم انہیں کوشش کے باوجود کبھی بھی ہوش میں نہیں لایا جا سکا۔
مائیکل جیکسن کے بھائی جرمین کے مطابق خیال کیا جارہا ہے کہ انہیں دل کا دورہ پڑا تھا۔ ان کی میت کو ایک ہیلی کاپٹر کے ذریعے شہر کے کورونر کے دفتر پہنچا دیا گیا ہے۔
ابتدائی طور پر مائیکل جیکسن کی صحت کے بارے میں متضاد اطلاعات سامنے آ رہی تھیں۔ امریکی ٹی وی چینل سی بی ایس اور اخبار لاس اینجلس ٹائمز کا کہنا تھا کہ ان کا انتقال ہو چکا ہے جبکہ دوسری طرف سی این این کا کہنا تھا کہ وہ ہسپتال میں کومے کی حالت میں ہیں۔
لیکن بعد میں لاس اینجلس کے کورونر اس بات کی تصدیق کر دی کہ مائیکل جیکسن انتقال کر گئے ہیں۔
لاس اینجلس کے فائر ڈیپارمنٹ کے مطابق طبی عملے کو شہر کے بیل ایئر علاقے میں واقع مائیکل جیکسن کے گھر بلایا گیا تھا۔
فائر ڈیپارٹمنٹ کے مطابق گھر سے انہیں یونیورسٹی کالج ہسپتال لے جایا گیا۔ ڈیپارٹمنٹ کے مطابق راستے میں طبی عملے ان کو ہوش میں لانے کی کوشش کرتارہا۔
پاپ سٹار مائیکل جیکسن کی عمر پچاس سال تھی اور وہ جولائی میں لندن میں اپنے فن کا مظاہرہ کر کے شوبز کی دنیا میں واپس آ رہے تھے۔
مائیکل جیکسن کے پرستار یونیورسٹی کالج ہسپتال اور ان کی رہائیش کے باہر اکٹھے ہو گئے ہیں جبکہ پولیس نے رکاوٹیں کھڑی کر دی ہیں۔
مائیکل جیکسن نے اپنے فنی کیریئر کا آغاز اپنے فیملی گروپ جیکسن فائیومیں ایک چائلڈ سٹار کی حیثیت سے گیارہ سال کی عمر میں کیا تھا۔ بعد میں انہوں نے عالمی شہرت حاصل کر لی اور سولو آرٹسٹ کے طور ’تھرِلر‘ اور ’بیڈ‘ جیسے شہرہ آفاق گانے تخلیق کیے۔
لیکن حالیہ سالوں میں ان کی شخصیت تنازعات اور مالی مشکلات میں گھری ہوئی نظر آئی اور وہ تقریباً گوشہ تنہائی میں چلے گئے۔ چار سال پہلے ان پر بچوں سے جنسی زیادتی کا مقدمہ چلایا گیا جس سے وہ بری تو ہو گئے لیکن مقدمے کی وجہ سے ان کی شہرت کو بہت نقصان پہنچا۔
انہوں نے دو مرتبہ شادی کی تھی اور ان دو شادیوں سے ان کے تین بچے ہیں۔
مائیکل جیکسن کے پرستاروں اور دوستوں نے انہیں زبردست خراجِ عقیدت پیش کیا ہے۔ مائیکل جیکسن کے ذاتی دوست اور امریکہ میں شہری حقوق کے کارکن ال شارپٹن کا کہنا ہے کہ مائیکل جیکسن ایک تاریخی شخصیت تھے جنہوں نے امریکی معاشرے میں سیاہ فام افراد کی سلیبرٹی کی حیثیت سے قبولیت کے عمل کو آگے بڑھایا۔
مائیکل جیکسن کی سابق اہلیہ لیزا میری پریسلے کا کہنا ہے کہ مائیکل کے انتقال کی خبر سن کر انہیں دکھ پہنچا ہے۔
مائیکل جیکسن کے دیرینہ دوست اُری گیلر نے بی بی سی کو بتایا ہے کہ اس افسوس ناک خبر نے انہیں فرط جذبات سے نڈھال کر دیا ہے۔
