#Little-KnownFacts about the life of the King of Pop.

Fact No. 1. Vitiligo disease

Around 1984, Michael disappeared from the media sphere. And this at the height of its own popularity! This is because his vitiligo disease began to progress. This is a disease that appears on the skin in the form of dead-pale spots due to the loss of melanins (dark pigments). This disease is quite common these days, but not in 1987. It has unpleasant consequences: if a patient with vitiligo is exposed to open sunlight for even a short period of time, his temperature will rise significantly, and burns on the body are also possible. When he reappeared in 1987 with a new album,America has simply gone crazy - yesterday's African American came out as a white guy with chiseled facial features. On the body, where there were few spots, they were covered over with white skin. Jackson himself had dark spots on his arms and chest, and they were often caught under the lens. Jackson first admitted to his illness only in 1993 in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

General appearance of the disease.

Visible dark marks where there is little makeup and pigmentation is still present.

Jackson gives an interview for the first time since 1979 and talks about himself and his illness.

Fact No. 2. Love for children

Because of his lost childhood, Michael made up for it in an overly peculiar way: he acquired a ranch and set up a whole zoo there. Then he began to allow charitable excursions there for children from low-income families, as well as children with serious illnesses supported by the state. Jackson often said that he considered children to be “innocent creatures” whose interactions with them were the height of pleasure and positive mood.

Jackson bought a ranch and set up a whole zoo there

For families of children and medical centershe donated absolutely immodest sums for treatment and maintenance. The payments were very high - more than $100 million a year.

Fact No. 3. Thick trolling of the yellow press

In the late eighties, Jackson, being at the peak of his fame, became interested in a carelessly dangerous thing - he began trolling the press. He was once photographed during a tour of the museum lying in a pressure chamber and his right hand Frank DiLeo, on the instructions of the artist himself, gave the photo to the magazine"Time" , accompanied by a touching story that Michael sleeps in a pressure chamber because he wants to live 150 years.

In the late 80s, Jackson, at the peak of his fame, began trolling the press

Coupled with the artist’s strange appearance, the story gained popularity and the prank was a success. Jackson liked it and came up with a story about how he wanted to buy back the elephant man's skeleton. Then - about the fact that he built an altar to Elizabeth Taylor in the bedroom. In the media, such facts began to diverge with enormous resonance. In the early nineties, the press realized that Jackson was having fun and you couldn’t expect stories from this man. The tabloids got down to business, and Michael realized that he was no longer able to control this process.

Fact No. 4. Accusation of molestation

This happened in 1993, immediately after the interview with Oprah. Jordan Chandler's family has filed a lawsuit against the singer, accusing him of molestation. The world tour had to be interrupted, and Jackson was dragged through the seven circles of hell. The examination procedure reached its apogee when District Attorney Tom Sneddon, accompanied by a photographer and police officers, showed up at Michael’s home and presented a warrant “to photograph the artist’s genitals.” This was necessary in order to confirm the description of them to the victims.

It turned out that the singer’s genitals were not at all the same as the boy described them - the singer was not circumcised, and other facts indicated deception on the part of the child. After this story, Jackson had a nervous breakdown, he ordered to sign a settlement agreement and pay compensation, just to end this story.

After completing this story, an exhausted Jackson made a statement in which he spoke about all the humiliations that had befallen him.

After Jackson’s death in 2009, this same Chandler openly admitted that he deceived everyone and Michael did not pester him, but was forced to lie by his father, who wanted to earn money and become a producer of the film “Robin Hood and Men in Tights” (this idea, by the way , was implemented by him). Literally 4 months later, his father committed suicide.

After Jackson's death, Chandler openly admitted that he had deceived everyone.

Fact No. 5. Numerous plastic surgeries

The official version is why Michael began medical interventions on his appearance - a broken nose at a rehearsal in 1979. As he himself stated, he decided to correct this misunderstanding and had only 2 plastic surgeries. However, the metamorphoses with your appearance were more likely due to despair: you are the most popular artist in the world, but at the same time you turn white and turn into someone unknown. An African-American with a white body - for him this was a serious complex. And then he saw only one way out for himself - to give his face Caucasian features.

What does an African American look like after going through the entire cycle of vitiligo?

Fact No. 6. Shoulder straps “Behold the Master” (CTE - C (see) The Entertainer)

He loved the army theme in his clothes and his costume designers managed to somehow harmoniously combine all these military paraphernalia with the sophisticated image of the artist. Since the early eighties, he loved tunics, shoulder straps, cockades, and stripes. A separate interesting feature were the bandages on the right hand.

And with the shoulder straps the story was like this: at some point the letters CTE appeared on the shoulder straps. Fans and journalists racked their brains, looking for some meaning and decoding. Agreed on"Children of the earth" . And later, much later, Michael’s costume designer in his book told the story of the appearance of these shoulder straps:

CTE shoulder straps

« When Michael saw the first shirts we made for him, they didn't have any embellishment on them, so he pointed his finger at his shoulder and said, “Bush, there's something missing here. Add some letters." So Dennis and I put the letters of the alphabet in a hat and pulled out three at random, which turned out to be CTE.

The whole world thought it meant something, like some kind of secret code. Later Michael really made sense of it, he often called people by their professions rather than their names. I was the “costume designer,” Karen Fey was the “makeup artist.” That's why we started calling him "entertainer". That's when he decided that CTE stood for "With (see) The Entertainer."«

Fact No. 7. The original video for the song They Don’t Care About Us was banned in the media due to censorship.

The video had to be re-shot, and a version appeared in the favelas of Brazil. Both videos were directed by Spike Lee.

previously banned video for the song« They don't care about us»

Fact No. 8. Quarrel with Paul McCartney.

In 1982, ATV was going through hard times, but by this time it had already collected a catalog of copyrights for 4,000 songs, of which, by far, the most popular today are the 250 composed by the Beatles. ATV decided to withdraw money from the music publishing business and sold the catalog to Australian investor Rupert Holmes a" Court. Both Yoko Ono and McCartney offered to buy the ATV catalog in 1981, but they agreed that the asking price of $40 million was too high.

Around the same time, Michael Jackson came to London to contribute to McCartney's album"Pipes of Peace" , recording “Say, Say, Say,” which would become a No. 1 hit in the U.S. They came to McCartney’s estate every evening, after a day of studio work, to have dinner and talk. One night, Paul pulled out a thick notebook containing copies of all the songs he had begun acquiring through his own post-Beatles publishing company. Jackson was smitten by the idea of ​​owning song copyrights as an investment. Taking the idea home, he shared it with his lawyer, John Branca, to begin searching for song catalogs to purchase. Soon after this, one of his first acquisitions was a number of songs written by"Sly Stewart" from Sly and Family Stone.

In 1984, Jackson received word that the Beatles catalog was up for sale as part of ATV Music's assets. He has instructed his lawyers to acquire the songs if possible. After more than ten months of difficult negotiations, beating out four other powerful bidders, and spending more than one million dollars in legal and accounting fees to conduct due diligence on the catalog and its income, the deal was finally completed and Michael Jackson became the owner of the publishing rights to what is perhaps the most legendary catalog of songs in popular music. The acquisition price was $47.5 million, plus Jackson's personal presence in Australia on behalf of Holmes a" Court. McCartney and Lennon's estates continued to receive their royalties, regardless of who owned the publishing rights.

It is worth noting that Jackson behaved diplomatically and allowed Paul to take a time out to try to raise funds himself, and after Paul was unable and began to speak critically about Michael in the press, the latter reacted extremely coldly and ordered the deal to be completed.

Fact No. 9. He shook hands with three US presidents without taking off his gloves.

George HW Bush and Michael Jackson

Yesterday, at the age of 89, Joe Jackson, musician, father of Michael Jackson and producer of the Jackson 5, died in Los Angeles. But fans of the star family are in no hurry to get upset. Why?

Jackson beat his children

The Jackson 5

Joe's wife Catherine (88) bore him 10 children (one of them died during childbirth). The main star of the family is, of course, the King of Pop Michael Jackson. After he fired Joe as his manager in 1979, Joe's other children also slowly began to drift away from their father. The reason is simple - they were afraid of him.

Michael and Janet Jackson

In the book of memoirs “The Michael Jackson Tapes,” which was published by his friend Shmuley Boteach, the singer openly talks about domestic violence in his family. “I have always craved fame and success for one reason only - I wanted to be loved! I missed this feeling from an early age. I never knew what it was like to be loved... As a child, I dreamed of one thing with all my soul. I wanted my father to smile at me one evening and ask, “Michael, today is our day off. What are we going to do? And I would answer him: “Great, Dad. Let's go to the movies!" It would mean an incredible amount to me... And what did my brothers and sisters and I get in return? First, Joe made us strip naked. Oh, it was a whole ritual! Then he smeared us in oil. And after that I picked up the cord from the electric iron. It was a nightmare. When I felt the end of the cord touching my body, I felt like I was going to die. I knew well what would follow. He started flogging us with this cord. He hit me in the face, on the back, everywhere. And I knew that my mother was always behind him. I heard her voice: “No, Joe! No, you will kill them! You’ll kill...” Poor mom! She couldn't help it. And so do we. All we had to do was resign ourselves and submit. What could we do? Just hate. I hated him, Shmuley..."

Michael's sister La Toya (62) confirmed Jackson's words. Moreover, she said that the abuse continued into adulthood. “You see Michael at awards shows, he wins awards. And in the evenings he runs around the house from his father in horror.” And, by the way, according to her, Michael talked about how he saw Joe beating Katherine too. “But I didn’t see it myself.” Moreover, La Toya said that Joe raped her and her sister Ribi (68).

Joseph himself denied to the last that he used any violence against members of his family. He told Larry King that he had never hit children and believed that he had made no mistakes in raising them. “Michael didn’t roam the streets like other kids in our neighborhood. He had his own brothers and sisters to play with. He was raised right." And only in an interview with Oprah Winfrey did he finally admit: he beat children with a belt. “I don’t regret it,” said the head of the Jackson clan. “It kept them out of jail.” And at the same time he hastened to reproach his wife for being too soft, saying that that’s why she had to resort to extreme measures.

The little boy first performed on stage at the age of 5. Then he was not at all handsome; his face was strewn with pimples and ulcers.

But hard work, patience and time did their job. Introducing interesting facts about Michael Jackson

During his life, Michael received 13 Grammy awards. The first African American who was able to earn such prestige among the public and achieve "bird's eye view." In addition, he was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful artist of all time.

As befits an African American, Michael was born with dark skin. However, he was diagnosed with a skin pigmentation disorder - vitiligo, which directly affected the color of his body. It is for this reason that Jackson had plastic surgery so often.

During his life, Jackson managed to create unusual shoes, as well as patent the brand. Thus, thanks to his developments, shoes were created that, when used, could allow a person to lean far forward, which goes against the law of gravity.

The main character of the film "Home Alone" - Macaulay Culkin is a close relative of Jackson.

It was Culkin who became the godfather for his children.

For the first time, Jackson's star on the Walk of Stars in Hollywood appeared when he was only 26 years old.

Did you know that Jackson's image adorns several Madame Tussauds museums? More precisely 5.

All the years spent on stage, Michael's calling card was his gait. Now everyone recites it as best they can. And for the first time the king himself demonstrated it in 1983 in one of the show programs on TV.

As a child, Jackson was not a very caring brother. So, having a sister, he always put his spiders in her bed. After which the poor girl screamed throughout the house.

Taylor was one of those “close to the king.” She was the first to call Michael the “King of Pop.” Years of unrestrained work passed and Michael was recognized as such by the entire society.

In 2009, the King of Pop died from a possible drug overdose. Whether it was a natural death or whether someone had a hand in it has remained a sealed secret for 5 years now. Although the results of recent studies do not exclude the possibility that Michael washed down the pills with grapefruit juice, which has a multiple effect of sharply enhancing the effect of the drugs taken on the human body with extremely negative consequences for the patient.

However, this artist will forever remain in the hearts of many of his fans, because he is one of those who was able to turn the history of music upside down.

Happy Birthday, King of Pop... During his lifetime, Michael Jackson was one of the most discussed people, and a lot of the information was fictitious. For the legend's birthday, we have selected only the most truthful and interesting facts.

Today, August 29, the legendary King of Pop would have celebrated his next anniversary - 60 years old, but, unfortunately, he died in 2009. There have always been a lot of rumors around Michael Jackson, which do not subside even years after his death. We have selected for you the most interesting and confirmed facts about the singer, about whom millions of fans around the world went crazy.

1. Psychological disorder

Jackson had a problem called body dysmorphic disorder, in which a person is constantly dissatisfied with his own appearance. Because of this, the singer underwent a large number of plastic surgeries. There are suggestions that he corrected his nose, chin, lips and cheeks. However, Jackson did not officially admit to any operation.

2. Own ranch

In the late 80s, the pop singer purchased the Neverland ranch, which has an area of ​​12 square meters. km. Then its price was $19.5 million, and after renovations made by the celebrity, the amount increased to $100 million. On this territory, Jackson built a karting track, an amusement park, a railroad, an Indian village and a zoo.

3. Scarecrow

As a teenager, Jackson landed the role of the scarecrow in the Broadway musical The Wiz. During filming, he struck up an acquaintance with music director Quinky Johnson, who eventually became his producer.

4. Spender

When Michael was at the peak of his career, his fortune was estimated at $500 million, and a decade and a half later he already had a debt of $350 million. They said about Jackson that he earns like a millionaire and spends like a billionaire.

5. Pressure chamber

At one time, journalists and the public actively discussed that the King of Pop was sleeping in a pressure chamber in order to stay young longer. In fact, this is not true, and the myth began after Jackson was photographed wearing it to promote the film "Captain IO".

6. Sweet ritual

The King of Pop never went on stage until he drank Ricola caramel, which he dissolved in hot water. He did this to improve the sound of his voice.

7. Imaginary pedophilia

The first trial in which Jackson was accused of pedophilia occurred in 1993. The singer made a mistake that had serious consequences for his life - he decided to agree to pay money to his family, which was perceived by the public as an admission of guilt. 26 years later, the grown-up boy admitted that he had slandered Michael.

8. Special videos

Thanks to Michael, video clips with a plot appeared, because each of his videos was filled with meaning and carried some kind of idea.

9. Video game

Sega released the game Moonwalker, where the main character was Jackson, who saved kidnapped children, fighting off the main villain with signature dance moves.

10. Skin lightening

Many people wondered why Jackson's skin color changed. People thought he was doing this on purpose, but in fact it was the result of an incurable disease called vitiligo, which causes white spots to appear on the body.

11. Spider-Man

The King of Pop had a huge love for Spider-Man and had a dream to play him in a film. To fulfill his desire, Michael even tried to buy out Marvel Comics, but the deal did not go through.

12. Famous walk

Jackson is not the inventor of his favorite movement, which is repeated by millions. He simply made it his calling card, nothing more.

13. King of Pop

This nickname is already an integral part of the story about Michael Jackson. Elizabeth Taylor first introduced him as the "King of Pop" at the American Music Awards.

14. Precious glove

At his concerts, Jackson performed with a glove strewn with stones. It was intended to emphasize hand movements. The singer created his first accessory with his own hands, using a golf glove and rhinestones.

15. Unusual dedication

Most of the songs have a dedication, for example, the famous Billie Jean was written about girls who accompany celebrities on tour, and after a while accuse them of getting pregnant.

16. Breaking the law of nature

Today, August 29, would have been the 55th birthday of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. His entire short life was filled with bright events, and on this day we remember the most interesting facts from the singer’s biography.

1. The fact that Michael was a great man during his lifetime is an indisputable fact. In 2008, a large-scale flash mob took place, which brought together more than 4 thousand people, who, at a signal, put on white gloves. The flash mob was dedicated to the anniversary of the hit Thriller. The event took place in ten countries around the world. The participants sent the funds they earned to a charity foundation.

2. Jackson suffered from one of the rarest diseases in the world - Alpha 1 trepsin deficiency. In the world, one person in twenty thousand suffers from this disease. However, the singer had the most severe form of the disease, in which skin diseases develop and the person loses weight.

3. At the peak of his popularity, in the mid-eighties, the King of Pop paid for the treatment of a monkey with cancer. When the treatment ended in one of the clinics in Texas, Jackson took the monkey for himself, and the chimpanzee visited many of Michael's tours. During his lifetime, Jackson gave the chimpanzee to a shelter because the monkey became very angry. However, during the singer’s visits, the chimpanzee’s mood immediately changed, and he recognized his owner.

4. Jackson patented unique shoes that created the illusion that their owner could change the force of gravity by leaning forward. Jackson first used this movement in the “Smooth Criminal” video.

5. The singer had a unique oxygen bed. Jackson believed that he would live to be a hundred years old and used all kinds of methods to improve his health and prolong his youth. This did not help him... Now the bed is in a center for emergency care for burn patients located in California.

6. Although Michael was the King of Pop during his lifetime, Madame Tussauds has only five wax figures of the singer. He is inferior in the number of figures to Elvis Presley and Madonna. These celebrities have six copies each.

7. Michael is the King of West Africa. This title is real, and the singer received it from the state of the Ivory Coast in 1992.

8. Like all performers, Jackson had his own way of maintaining his voice. Before each performance, the king of the pop scene drank hot water with ricol caramel.

9. Macaulay Culkin was one of the singer's best friends. He is godfather to Jackson's two children. In addition, Macaulay, together with the singer, designed his amusement park in Neverland.

10. In 1997, Michael was named the most famous person in the world.

11. For a long time, Michael was the advertising face of Pepsi. However, in 1984, while filming a commercial, pyrotechnics exploded and Jackson suffered second-degree burns to his face. Pepsi paid one and a half million dollars as compensation, but the singer's close friends claim that after this incident, Jackson began to be very careful about his appearance.

12. Michael's star on the Walk of Fame appeared in 1984, when he was only 27 years old.

13. For each show, Jackson lost at least 10 pounds of body water.

14. In 2006, Jackson appeared in public after several months of imprisonment. This happened at the World Music Awards in the British capital. After this, he also appeared at the Guinness Book of Records awards. He was included in the book in eight categories at once.

15. That same year, Michael was in financial crisis. He had to part with the Neverland estate. They say he made an unusual deal with Sony's company, and only this helped him avoid going bankrupt. Even after the death of the king of the pop scene, no one found out the details of the agreement.

16. In 2003, the King of Pop's reputation deteriorated significantly due to legal proceedings related to the molestation of young boys. That same year, Michael insisted that video cameras be installed in his house for filming a documentary. Jackson wanted to attract public attention and prove his innocence. In addition, he gave an interview to Martin Bashir, where he talked about all his antics and relationships with underage boys.

17. In 2001, Michael celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of his creative activity. He performed a show at Madison Square Garden with his brothers, with whom he had not appeared on stage for more than seventeen years.

18. Jackson married nurse Deborah Rowe when they had two sons together. The marriage lasted only three years, and after the divorce the boys remained with their father.

19. In 1995, the singer’s mental problems worsened. During rehearsal, Jackson had an attack: he suffered from attacks of persecutory mania. After this incident, Jackson spent some time in the clinic.

20. The first scandal involving the seduction of little boys happened twenty years ago. Then the case did not go to court, and the singer reached an agreement with the parents of 13-year-old Jordan. Many journalists then wrote that Michael went unpunished because he paid the boy’s family a large sum for silence.

21. In 1991, Michael became the first performer to sign a contract with Sony for a record amount for that time - 65 million.