Michael Jackson died tragically just three weeks before the commencement of his sold-out tour, This Is It, in 2009. The singer had been preparing for the event set to run from July that year through March 2010 at the O2 Arena in London, but sadly, he did not live to make the events happen.
The show was canceled, and the last record of him performing was a rehearsal video taken 48 hours before he died. As evidenced in the clip, people around him at the time also claimed that they saw something different about the King of Pop during the session.
The footage showed Michael rehearsing “They Don’t Care About Us” with his backup singers at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. As the song ended, the lights went down, and all the backup, who wore red, faded into the darkness, while Michael remained the only visible figure on stage.
A voice then tells the performers to “hold for applause”, and as the lights went out slowly, Michael’s face could be seen with eyes closed and seeming skeptical before he let out a smile. His longtime vocal director, Dorian Holley, told Time magazine that the singer was “glowing” and was “finally seeing it all come together” at that moment.
While it has been fourteen years since Michael died at age 50 in his Los Angeles home, his legacy echoes even today. The clip resurfaced, and fans commented with nostalgia, calling his smile “priceless.'” A fan added that his smile “Puts a knot in my throat every time.”
Dorian said that Michael performed in a way that “you couldn’t take your eyes off him” and that he left the crew with their jaws open. “Brings me to tears every time,” a touched fan said. Dorian pointed out that he was glad to be able to isolate Michael’s rehearsal performances from the rest of the show, helping him further appreciate how much of a genius the late singer was.
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