- My earliest memory of Michael Jackson was his Black and White song - that was the first time i heard about him. I think i was about 9 or 10. I always associated the song with United Colors of Benetton; did they put it in their ad? Or was that just my imagination? I remember thinking what an absurd song to sing for someone who 'changed his color' coz he didn't like the one he was born with (it was what the gossip mags were saying at the time - I was into celeb gossip early on). Whenever I’m shopping at Benetton I find myself humming Black and White..
- I remember googleing his different looks trying to find out how it changed - i guess i yahoo-ed it, coz Google wasn't there at the time. I might have even used Lycos or webcrawler.
- I remember taping his single "Scream" off the radio on a mix tape from the show 'At your request' on the European radio broadcast channel. The show came on from 10 to 12 every Friday - my sister and I woke up especially for it on the weekends. The presenter, Hala Hasheesh, spoke over the end of the song; and on my mix tape the next song after (or maybe the one before, i can't remember) Scream was Bryan Adam's 'To really love a woman'. We didn't leave enough space between the two songs, so they were almost merged as one song. Whenever i hear the Bryan Adam's song i think of MJ's Scream and vice versa. I also still remember the words that the presenter spoke during the song...
- I remember watching 'Free Willie' in the movie theater, and later renting it from the video store next to my house (for 3 pounds) and from the video store at the sporting club and singing along to "Childhood". Whenever i listen to the song i think of the scene where Willie jumps to the other side of the ocean with the little boy standing underneath him. I remember being a little apprehensive the second time I watched thinking the whale might end up squashing the kid. The first time I watched I was emotionally invested in the scene, i.e. crying my eyes out
- I remember the school band singing 'we are the world' - with Susi (my class mate) on the Drums and doing the back up vocals
- I remember buying the HIStory cassette tape by the label 'Voice of America’; I was captured by the song "Little Suzy". One of my frenemies at the time was called Suzy (not the one in the band that one is still a friend) and found it very disturbing that he was singing about the murder of a little girl called Suzy. I was about 13 at the time.
- HIStory, along with some Whitney Houston album and Elvis Greatest hits were my favorite Voice of America cassette tapes at the time. 'Help' was my favorite movie at the time - i would go watch it at the British Council right up the street from my house.
- I remember loving all his collaborations with the Beatles - especially 'The girl is mine' with Paul McCartney. I distinctly remember the line 'Paul, I think i told you, I’m a lover not a fighter'. I think i've quoted that in a conversation once.
- I remember the chain emails where peole claimed he said "if i had known muslims would listen to my music, i would not be singing". I thought these emails were ridiculous.
- I remember following all his gossip online (still do now)
- I am a big fan of a movie called 'Center Stage' which is all about Ballet. Their final act is with MJ's 'the way you make me feel' - it was really good! I remember thinking if I were a Ballerina I'd want to do that dance with this song.
- Earlier this year I downloaded his King of Pop album and put it on my mp3 player. I read about his concerts and was sure they would be an amazing success and he'd be back in no time. Around that time American Idol had a MJ theme in one of their episodes. I had never heard P.Y.T till then, and the girl who covered Dirty Diana did it very well. Goes without saying that Adam rocked Black and White...
- I checked out the tickets for his concert and took a pen and paper and saw if I could make it up there, but decided: It's ok, he's still young, there'll always be next year. I was even more sure of that after they increased his concerts to 50.
- I followed two friends (Sherif and Shireen) on Facebook because I thought they would definitely go and I admit I was a little jealous. I remember reading their walls and statuses where they complained about how they couldn't get tickets coz it sold out only hours after the tickets went on sale. I might have evil eyed them, but I doubt that was true since i was very confident i'd see him live in the next couple of years...
- Last week I tried to enter the Nile FM raffle for a trip to the UK to see him live, I remember thinking 'if i win, i may have to ditch my friend who was coming to visit me in July'; I tried to make up what i'd say to her in that case. It seems so long ago now.
Life is short
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