Consipracy Theory!
I am always up for a good conspiracy theory... and man, do those theories surround Michael Jackson's posthumous album, "Michael," release last Tuesday. I was going to download it, having been a Jackson fan since I saw him live on the Bad tour in 1988, but I started reading reviews from fans saying that some of the vocals are not his - that they are fake, sung by an impersonator. The song "Breaking News" was especially pointed out.
To me, this was undoubtedly Michael Jackson.
But then I started hearing more and more about Jason Malachi.
Malachi, who hails from the Washington DC area, is a Jackson vocal impersonator who also has his own singing career. I just about fell over when I heard how incredibly similar this guy sounds to Michael Jackson. Here is a link to one of his (Malachi's) songs. The guy you see on the link is evidently Malachi himself. I have to admit my jaw dropped when I heard this. (Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video on my blog because for whatever reason the embedding code has been disabled. But I do encourage you to take a listen.)
I wanted to hear this guy pull this off live, the true litmus test of talent, to be sure this wasn't some kind of studio trickery, but he evidently doesn't perform live and no live footage of him singing seems to exist on the internet (believe me, I've looked). Strange. Really, really strange. I've found supposed live video which has been "removed due to copyright violation."
I also stumbled upon an interesting slip by Jermain Jackson while being interviewed in Australia. He says that Michael was "not with us way before he arrived to the airport." The reporter says, "What do you mean?" Then he quickly changed "airport" to "hospital." Could have been an honest mistake, but makes you go hmmmmmm.... airport???
Remember the album that Garth Brooks put out years ago in which he assumed the character of Chris Gaines? Well, maybe not, because the album flopped, but that's beside the point.
The reason I bring this up is because many say that Jason Malachi actually is Michael Jackson - Malachi is a fictional character. It's also interesting that Malachi means "my messenger" in Hebrew and Jason means "healer/physician" (Jackson died by the hands of his personal physician). Also Malachi's initials are JM, a mirror image of MJ, Michael Jackson's initials.
Of course, more conventional thinking simply says that Jackson is dead and Malachi is for real and is a terrific impersonator, who was hired by Sony - Jackson's record company (which Jackson was at war with when he died) - to finish his unfinished work, after which Sony slapped the Michael Jackson brand name on the fake product and is selling it for a profit to fans who want to hear more from the King of Pop. A nice conspiracy theory for sure.
The boring truth is probably closer to the fact that the entire album really is Michael Jackson and rumors of this conspiracy were planted by the Sony company in order to sell albums ("Michael" sold 400,000 copies in its first week of release, which in today's digital age is a very large number). If true, the plan seems to be working.
So I haven't downloaded "Michael" yet because I don't want to get ripped off if it's really not him, but when I preview the album it actually sounds very well done (even though the critics call the songs "half-baked" - which probably means they are really good). We'll see....
To me, this was undoubtedly Michael Jackson.
But then I started hearing more and more about Jason Malachi.
Malachi, who hails from the Washington DC area, is a Jackson vocal impersonator who also has his own singing career. I just about fell over when I heard how incredibly similar this guy sounds to Michael Jackson. Here is a link to one of his (Malachi's) songs. The guy you see on the link is evidently Malachi himself. I have to admit my jaw dropped when I heard this. (Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video on my blog because for whatever reason the embedding code has been disabled. But I do encourage you to take a listen.)
I wanted to hear this guy pull this off live, the true litmus test of talent, to be sure this wasn't some kind of studio trickery, but he evidently doesn't perform live and no live footage of him singing seems to exist on the internet (believe me, I've looked). Strange. Really, really strange. I've found supposed live video which has been "removed due to copyright violation."
I also stumbled upon an interesting slip by Jermain Jackson while being interviewed in Australia. He says that Michael was "not with us way before he arrived to the airport." The reporter says, "What do you mean?" Then he quickly changed "airport" to "hospital." Could have been an honest mistake, but makes you go hmmmmmm.... airport???
Remember the album that Garth Brooks put out years ago in which he assumed the character of Chris Gaines? Well, maybe not, because the album flopped, but that's beside the point.
The reason I bring this up is because many say that Jason Malachi actually is Michael Jackson - Malachi is a fictional character. It's also interesting that Malachi means "my messenger" in Hebrew and Jason means "healer/physician" (Jackson died by the hands of his personal physician). Also Malachi's initials are JM, a mirror image of MJ, Michael Jackson's initials.
Of course, more conventional thinking simply says that Jackson is dead and Malachi is for real and is a terrific impersonator, who was hired by Sony - Jackson's record company (which Jackson was at war with when he died) - to finish his unfinished work, after which Sony slapped the Michael Jackson brand name on the fake product and is selling it for a profit to fans who want to hear more from the King of Pop. A nice conspiracy theory for sure.
The boring truth is probably closer to the fact that the entire album really is Michael Jackson and rumors of this conspiracy were planted by the Sony company in order to sell albums ("Michael" sold 400,000 copies in its first week of release, which in today's digital age is a very large number). If true, the plan seems to be working.
So I haven't downloaded "Michael" yet because I don't want to get ripped off if it's really not him, but when I preview the album it actually sounds very well done (even though the critics call the songs "half-baked" - which probably means they are really good). We'll see....
