Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Known as the "King of Pop", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. His musical achievements broke American racial barriers and made him a dominant global figure. Through his songs, music videos, concerts, and fashion, he transformed visual performance in popular music, popularizing street dance moves such as the moonwalk, the robot, and the anti-gravity lean.
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Known as the "King of Pop", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. His musical achievements broke American racial barriers and made him a dominant global figure. Through his songs, music videos, concerts, and fashion, he transformed visual performance in popular music, popularizing street dance moves such as the moonwalk, the robot, and the anti-gravity lean. Jackson is often deemed the greatest entertainer of all time.
The eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, he made his public debut at age six as the lead singer of the Jackson 5. Jackson rose to solo stardom with Off the Wall (1979) and achieved unprecedented global success with Thriller (1982), the best-selling album in history. The music videos for "Thriller", "Beat It", and "Billie Jean" redefined the medium. Bad (1987) was the first album to produce five US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana". Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995) were also successful. Jackson's final album, Invincible (2001), is the most expensive ever made. The 2026 film Michael is the highest-grossing biographical film of all time.
From the mid-1980s, Jackson came under public scrutiny for his relationships, lifestyle, and changing appearance. He was accused of sexually abusing a child in 1993 and settled out of court in 1994. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted on other child sexual abuse charges. While preparing for This Is It, a series of comeback concerts, he died in 2009 from an overdose of propofol administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray. His death caused unprecedented surges in internet traffic and a spike in music sales. The 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland detailed further abuse allegations.
Jackson is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of more than 500 million records worldwide as a solo artist. He is one of three musicians to have sold more than 100 million records both as a solo artist and as a principal member of a band. He scored 13 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the only artist to have a US top-ten single in six decades. His accolades include 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards, 12 World Music Awards, 8 MTV Video Music Awards, 6 Brit Awards, and 3 US presidential honors. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Dance Hall of Fame. Having donated an estimated $500 million, Jackson is credited with setting a standard for celebrity charity.
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Known as the "King of Pop", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. His musical achievements broke American racial barriers and made him a dominant global figure. Through his songs, music videos, concerts, and fashion, he transformed visual performance in popular music, popularizing street dance moves such as the moonwalk, the robot, and the anti-gravity lean.
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Known as the "King of Pop", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. His musical achievements broke American racial barriers and made him a dominant global figure. Through his songs, music videos, concerts, and fashion, he transformed visual performance in popular music, popularizing street dance moves such as the moonwalk, the robot, and the anti-gravity lean. Jackson is often deemed the greatest entertainer of all time.
The eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, he made his public debut at age six as the lead singer of the Jackson 5. Jackson rose to solo stardom with Off the Wall (1979) and achieved unprecedented global success with Thriller (1982), the best-selling album in history. The music videos for "Thriller", "Beat It", and "Billie Jean" redefined the medium. Bad (1987) was the first album to produce five US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana". Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995) were also successful. Jackson's final album, Invincible (2001), is the most expensive ever made. The 2026 film Michael is the highest-grossing biographical film of all time.
From the mid-1980s, Jackson came under public scrutiny for his relationships, lifestyle, and changing appearance. He was accused of sexually abusing a child in 1993 and settled out of court in 1994. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted on other child sexual abuse charges. While preparing for This Is It, a series of comeback concerts, he died in 2009 from an overdose of propofol administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray. His death caused unprecedented surges in internet traffic and a spike in music sales. The 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland detailed further abuse allegations.
Jackson is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of more than 500 million records worldwide as a solo artist. He is one of three musicians to have sold more than 100 million records both as a solo artist and as a principal member of a band. He scored 13 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the only artist to have a US top-ten single in six decades. His accolades include 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards, 12 World Music Awards, 8 MTV Video Music Awards, 6 Brit Awards, and 3 US presidential honors. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Dance Hall of Fame. Having donated an estimated $500 million, Jackson is credited with setting a standard for celebrity charity.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana. He was the eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, an African-American working-class household living in a two-bedroom home on Jackson Street. His mother, Katherine Jackson (née Scruse), a Jehovah's Witness, played clarinet, cello, and piano; she aspired to be a country-and-western performer, and worked part-time at Sears. His father, Joe Jackson, was a former boxer and a crane operator at US Steel, who also played guitar for the local rhythm and blues group the Falcons. Through his father, Michael had Native American (Choctaw) ancestry; his great-grandfather, Israel Nero Jackson, utilized and sold traditional Indigenous herbal medicine, a practice passed down from his father, July "Jack" Gale, an US Army scout who had married a Black slave named Gina before the Civil War. Michael had three sisters—Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet—and five brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy. A sixth brother, Brandon, Marlon's twin, died shortly after birth.
Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers in 1964, a band their father formed that already included Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine. They initially performed as backup musicians, playing congas and tambourine. Michael later said that his father physically and emotionally abused him during rehearsals, recalling that Joe often sat with a belt in hand, ready to punish mistakes. Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped him. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon denied that their father was abusive, saying the whippings—felt more intensely by Michael because he was younger—kept the group disciplined. Michael described his youth as lonely.
By late 1965, Michael began sharing lead vocals with Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. They won a talent show that year in which Michael danced to Robert Parker's "Barefootin'" and sang the Temptations' "My Girl". From 1966 to 1968, the Jackson 5 toured throughout the Midwest, performing frequently on the Chitlin' Circuit as an opening act for artists such as Sam & Dave, the O'Jays, Gladys Knight, and Etta James. They also performed in clubs and cocktail lounges that featured striptease shows, as well as at local auditoriums and high school dances. In August 1967, while touring the East Coast, they won a weekly amateur night competition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
The Jackson 5 recorded several songs for the Gary-based label Steeltown Records, releasing their first single, "Big Boy", in 1968. Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers brought the group to Motown after they opened for him at Chicago's Regal Theater that year. Taylor produced some of their early Motown recordings, including a version of "Who's Lovin' You". After signing with Motown, the Jackson family relocated to Los Angeles. In 1969, Motown executives decided that Diana Ross would introduce the Jackson 5 to the public—partly to support her emerging television career—launching what was considered Motown's final product of its "production line". The group made its first television appearance that year at the Miss Black America pageant, performing a cover of "It's Your Thing". Rolling Stone later described the young Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts" who quickly became the group's main attraction and lead singer.
In January 1970, "I Want You Back" became the Jackson 5's first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining at the top for four weeks. Three additional Motown singles—"ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There"—also reached number one. In May 1971, the Jackson family moved into a large home on Hayvenhurst Avenue, a 2-acre (0.81 ha) estate in Encino, California. During this period, Michael developed from a child performer into a teen idol. Between 1972 and 1975, he released four solo studio albums with Motown: Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973), and Forever, Michael (1975). "Got to Be There" and "Ben", the title tracks from his first two solo albums, sold well as singles, as did his cover of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin".
Michael remained involved with the Jackson 5. The group was later described as "a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists". They grew frustrated with Motown's refusal to grant them creative input. Michael's performance of their top five single "Dancing Machine" on Soul Train helped popularize the robot dance.
Jackson released his highly anticipated seventh studio album, Bad, on August 31, 1987. Bad sold more than 2.25 million copies in its first week in the US, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200, where it remained for six weeks. It became the first album to produce five US number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana". "Smooth Criminal" reached number seven.
Bad won the 1988 Grammy for Best Engineered Recording—Non Classical and the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Leave Me Alone". Jackson received an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards in 1989 after Bad generated five number-one singles, became the first album to top the charts in 25 countries, and was the best-selling album worldwide in 1987 and 1988. The Bad tour ran from September 12, 1987, to January 27, 1989. In Japan, it had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record for a single tour. The 504,000 people who attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium set a new Guinness world record. Bad cemented Jackson's status as a dominant music force; the album has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide, placing it among the best-selling albums of all time.
In 1988, Jackson released his autobiography, Moonwalk, with input from Stephen Davis and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It sold 200,000 copies, and reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller list. Jackson discussed his childhood, the Jackson 5, and the abuse he experienced from his father. He attributed his changing facial appearance to three plastic surgeries, puberty, weight loss, a strict vegetarian diet, a change in hairstyle, and stage lighting. On June 28, 1988, during the Bad World Tour, Jackson was presented with the Grand Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris by Mayor Jacques Chirac. On July 20, he became the first commoner in history to enter London's Guildhall through the building's Royal Entrance. In October, Jackson released the film Moonwalker, comprising live footage, music videos and narrative sequences Jackson and Joe Pesci. In the US, it was released direct-to-video and became the best-selling music videocassette in history. It was certified eight times platinum.
In March 1988, Jackson purchased 2,700 acres (11 km2) of land near Santa Ynez, California, to build a home, Neverland Ranch, at a cost of $17 million (equivalent to $46 million in 2025). He installed a Ferris wheel, a carousel, a movie theater, and a zoo. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. Shortly afterward, Jackson appeared in the first Western television advertisement broadcast in the Soviet Union. Around this time, Jackson became known as the "King of Pop", a nickname embraced by his publicists. When Elizabeth Taylor presented him with the Soul Train Heritage Award in 1989, she called him "the true king of pop, rock and soul". President George H. W. Bush designated him the White House's "Artist of the Decade". At the 38th BMI Awards in 1990, Jackson became the first person to be honored with an award named after its recipient. From 1985 to 1990, Jackson donated $455,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all profits from his single "Man in the Mirror" went to charity. His performance of "You Were There" at Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th birthday celebration earned Jackson a second Emmy nomination. Jackson was the best-selling artist of the 1980s.
In June 1995, Jackson released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, is a greatest hits compilation (reissued in 2001 as Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I). The second disc, HIStory Continues, contains 13 original songs and two cover versions. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for eight million shipments in the US. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. The New York Times described it as "the testimony of a musician whose self-pity now equals his talent".
The first single from HIStory was "Scream/Childhood". "Scream", a duet with Jackson's youngest sister Janet, protests the media's treatment of Jackson during the 1993 child abuse allegations. The single reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The second single, "You Are Not Alone", holds the Guinness world record as the first song to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance in 1995.
In 1995, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups criticized the original lyrics of "They Don't Care About Us" ("Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me") as antisemitic. Jackson released a revised version of the song. In late 1995, he was hospitalized after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance, the result of a stress‑related panic attack. In November, Jackson merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony's music publishing division, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He retained ownership of half the company, earning $95 million up front (equivalent to $201 million in 2025) as well as rights to additional songs.
"Earth Song" was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995. It became the 87th-best-selling single in UK history. At the 1996 Brit Awards, Jackson's performance of "Earth Song" was interrupted by Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker, who said he was protesting what he viewed as Jackson's "Christ-like" persona. Jackson called the stage invasion "disgusting and cowardly".
In 1996, Jackson won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form, for "Scream" and an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. In July 1996, he performed for Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's 50th birthday at Jerudong Park Amphitheater in Brunei, which had been built specifically for the event. Jackson was reportedly paid $17 million (equivalent to $35 million in 2025). He promoted HIStory with the HIStory World Tour, from September 7, 1996, to October 15, 1997. He performed 82 concerts across five continents, 35 countries, and 58 cities to more than 4.5 million fans, making it his most‑attended tour. It grossed $165 million (equivalent to $331 million in 2025). During the tour, in Sydney, Australia, Jackson married Debbie Rowe, a dermatology assistant who was six months pregnant with his first child.
Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (commonly known as Prince) was born on February 13, 1997. His sister Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson was born on April 3, 1998. Jackson and Rowe divorced in 2000; Rowe conceded custody of the children and received an $8.5 million settlement (equivalent to $15.9 million in 2025). In 2004, after the second child abuse allegations against Jackson, she returned to court seeking to regain custody. The suit was settled in 2006.
In 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies, making it the best-selling remix album of all time. It reached number one in the UK, as did the single "Blood on the Dance Floor". In the US, the album reached number 24 and was certified platinum.
Jackson's posthumous releases and productions are administered by the estate of Michael Jackson, which owns Jackson's trademarks and rights to his name, image and likeness. The first posthumous Jackson song, "This Is It", co-written in the 1980s with Paul Anka, was released in October 2009. The surviving Jackson brothers reunited to record backing vocals. It was followed by a documentary film about the rehearsals for the canceled This Is It tour, Michael Jackson's This Is It, and a compilation album. Despite a limited two-week engagement, the film became the highest-grossing documentary or concert film ever, with earnings of more than $260 million worldwide. Jackson's estate received 90% of the profits. In late 2010, Sony released the first posthumous album, Michael, and the lead single "Hold My Hand", a duet with Akon. The Jackson collaborator will.i.am expressed disgust, saying that Jackson would not have approved the release.
The video game developer Ubisoft released a music game featuring Jackson for the 2010 holiday season, Michael Jackson: The Experience. It was among the first games to use Kinect and PlayStation Move, the motion-detecting camera systems for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In October 2011, the theater company Cirque du Soleil launched Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, a $57 million production in Montreal. A larger and more theatrical Cirque show, Michael Jackson: One, designed for residency at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas, opened on May 23, 2013, in a renovated theater.
In 2012, in an attempt to end a family dispute, Jackson's brother Jermaine retracted his signature on a public letter criticizing executors of Jackson's estate and his mother's advisors over the legitimacy of his brother's will. T.J. Jackson, the son of Tito Jackson, was given co-guardianship of Michael Jackson's children after false reports of Katherine Jackson going missing. Xscape, an album of unreleased material, was released on May 13, 2014. The lead single, a duet between Jackson and Justin Timberlake, "Love Never Felt So Good", reached number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making Jackson the first artist to have a top-10 single on the chart in five different decades.
Later in 2014, Queen released a duet recorded with Jackson in the 1980s. A compilation album, Scream, was released on September 29, 2017. A jukebox musical, MJ the Musical, premiered on Broadway in 2022. Myles Frost won the 2022 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Jackson. On November 18, 2022, Epic released a 40th-anniversary edition reissue of Thriller. Since Jackson's death, his estate has grossed $2 billion in ticket revenue from MJ the Musical, Michael Jackson's This Is It and two Cirque du Soleil productions. A biographical film, Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson, premiered in April 2026. It received generally negative reviews from critics. The film broke records for biopics on opening day and opening week, with an opening weekend gross estimated at $97 million domestically and $217 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 2026.
At the 2009 American Music Awards, Jackson won four posthumous awards, including two for his compilation album Number Ones, bringing his total American Music Awards to 26. In the year after his death, more than 16.1 million copies of Jackson's albums were sold in the US alone, and 35 million copies were sold worldwide, more than any other artist in 2009. He became the first artist to sell one million music downloads in a week, with 2.6 million song downloads. Thriller, Number Ones and The Essential Michael Jackson became the first catalog albums to outsell any new album. Jackson also became the first artist to have four of the top-20 best-selling albums in a single year in the US. Within the year following his death, Jackson sold over 75 million records worldwide. By the end of 2013, Jackson had sold over 50 million albums worldwide since his death.
Following the surge in sales, in March 2010, Sony Music signed a $250 million deal (equivalent to $370 million in 2025) with the Jackson estate to extend their distribution rights to Jackson's back catalog until at least 2017; it had been due to expire in 2015. It was the most expensive music contract for a single artist in history. They agreed to release ten albums of previously unreleased material and new collections of released work. The deal was extended in 2017. That July, a Los Angeles court awarded Quincy Jones $9.4 million of disputed royalty payments for Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. In July 2018, Sony/ATV bought the estate's stake in EMI for $287.5 million.
In 2015, Thriller became the first album to be certified for 30 million shipments in the US. A year later, it was certified 33-times platinum after Soundscan added streams and audio downloads to album certifications. In February 2024, Sony Music acquired half of Jackson's publishing rights and recording masters for $600 million. The deal includes assets from his Mijac publishing catalog, but excludes royalties from several Jackson-related productions, such as the MJ Broadway musical and the 2026 Michael film. The transaction is possibly the largest for a single musician's work.
Jackson has been referred to as the "King of Pop" for having transformed the art of music videos and paving the way for modern pop music. For much of Jackson's career, he had an unparalleled worldwide influence over the younger generation. His influence extended beyond the music industry; he impacted dance, led fashion trends, and raised awareness for global affairs. Jackson's music and videos fostered racial diversity in MTV's roster and steered its focus from rock to pop music and R&B, leading to the discontinuation of the album-oriented rock format previously dominant on the channel. In songs such as "Black or White", "Heal the World", "Earth Song" and "They Don't Care About Us", Jackson's music emphasized racial integration and environmentalism and protested injustice. He is considered one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century, and his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.
Jackson's meteoric rise in the 1980s catapulted him to global stardom, and his influence transcended borders. In Africa, his influence was compared to Nelson Mandela for his ability to inspire and unite diverse audiences through his music. Similarly, in India, Jackson was likened to Mahatma Gandhi, with his art championing themes of social justice and humanitarianism, and his influence extending to Bollywood where it was said that anyone who danced well was compared to Jackson. In Europe, Jackson's impact was compared to that of the Pope; huge crowds gathered to see him in public and even more attended his concerts, which spread messages of love and healing during rough economic and political times. His presence in the Middle East was considered as widespread as Coca-Cola, symbolizing a shared global culture through his music. Additionally, Jackson is considered the backbone of the K-pop industry in South Korea, influencing countless artists and shaping the genre's development.
So vast, far-reaching and was his impact—particularly in the wake of Thriller's colossal and heretofore unmatched commercial success—that there weren't a whole lot of artists who weren't trying to mimic some of the Jackson formula.
— J. Edward Keyes of Rolling Stone
Danyel Smith, chief content officer of Vibe Media Group and the editor-in-chief of Vibe, described Jackson as "the greatest star". Steve Huey of AllMusic called him "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the skills to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power". BET said Jackson was "quite simply the greatest entertainer of all time" whose "sound, style, movement and legacy continues to inspire artists of all genres". In 1984, Time pop critic Jay Cocks wrote that Jackson was the biggest phenomenon since the Beatles and Elvis Presley, while possibly "the most popular black singer ever". Cocks declared him a "star of records, radio, rock video" and the "dancer with the fanciest feet". In 2003, The Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley described Jackson as "extremely important" and a "genius". At Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009, Motown founder Berry Gordy called Jackson "the greatest entertainer that ever lived". Jackson is recognized as the "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time" by Guinness World Records. He has also appeared on Rolling Stone's lists of the "Greatest Singers of All Time".
Craig Glenday, the editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, called Jackson the most famous person in the world in 2006. Following Jackson's death, Glenday wrote in an obituary that Jackson had maintained this status up until his death, later remarking that his fame had exceeded that of Confucius. The Guardian wrote that he was in a league of his own in terms of fame, noting that Jackson had become so famous that the number of people who might not know who he was had become statistically insignificant. Due to his unprecedented influence, Jackson is widely recognized as one of the most famous and globally renowned figures in history. Reports of his fame extend from the Middle East, Africa, India, and China to tribes in the Amazon. His influence even reached remote corners of the world such as São Tomé and Príncipe, or Tristan da Cunha, where tribute artists keep his legacy alive by celebrating his music.
In 2018, the National Portrait Gallery named Jackson the most depicted cultural figure of the century, later stating that Jackson's influence on art rivaled that of Jesus Christ. Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery and curator of the Michael Jackson: On the Wall exhibition, described Jackson's impact on art as unprecedented and claimed in 2018 that Jackson was the most depicted figure in the history of contemporary art. In 2014, a comprehensive study conducted by researcher Young-Ho Eom at the University of Toulouse identified Jackson as one of the most influential people of all time. The study utilized advanced ranking methods, including 2D Rank and PageRank algorithms, to analyze the impact of historical figures. Jackson was prominently placed on the list of top influencers, alongside Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, Adolf Hitler, and Jesus Christ. Another study conducted in 2013 also identified Jackson as one of the most influential people of all time. This study ranked Jackson at the top of the list, alongside Napoleon Bonaparte, highlighting the extraordinary influence and global recognition that Jackson achieved throughout his career. Numerous publications and academic studies have noted his impact beyond music in fields such as psychology, law, chemistry, and engineering.
Jackson was influenced by musicians including James Brown, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr., Gene Kelly, and David Ruffin. Little Richard had a substantial influence on Jackson, but Brown was his greatest inspiration. When Jackson was a small child, his mother would wake him whenever Brown appeared on television. Jackson described being "mesmerized".
Jackson's vocal technique was influenced by Diana Ross; his use of the oooh interjection from a young age was something Ross had used on many of her songs with the Supremes. She was a mother figure to him, and he often watched her rehearse. He said he had learned from watching how she moved and sang, and that she had encouraged him to have confidence in himself. The choreographer David Winters, who met Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV special Diana!, said that Jackson watched the musical West Side Story almost every week and it was his favorite film. Jackson paid tribute to it in the "Beat It" and "Bad" videos.
Source: wikipedia
Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana. He was the eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, an African-American working-class household living in a two-bedroom home on Jackson Street. His mother, Katherine Jackson (née Scruse), a Jehovah's Witness, played clarinet, cello, and piano; she aspired to be a country-and-western performer, and worked part-time at Sears. His father, Joe Jackson, was a former boxer and a crane operator at US Steel, who also played guitar for the local rhythm and blues group the Falcons. Through his father, Michael had Native American (Choctaw) ancestry; his great-grandfather, Israel Nero Jackson, utilized and sold traditional Indigenous herbal medicine, a practice passed down from his father, July "Jack" Gale, an US Army scout who had married a Black slave named Gina before the Civil War. Michael had three sisters—Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet—and five brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy. A sixth brother, Brandon, Marlon's twin, died shortly after birth.
Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers in 1964, a band their father formed that already included Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine. They initially performed as backup musicians, playing congas and tambourine. Michael later said that his father physically and emotionally abused him during rehearsals, recalling that Joe often sat with a belt in hand, ready to punish mistakes. Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped him. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon denied that their father was abusive, saying the whippings—felt more intensely by Michael because he was younger—kept the group disciplined. Michael described his youth as lonely.
By late 1965, Michael began sharing lead vocals with Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. They won a talent show that year in which Michael danced to Robert Parker's "Barefootin'" and sang the Temptations' "My Girl". From 1966 to 1968, the Jackson 5 toured throughout the Midwest, performing frequently on the Chitlin' Circuit as an opening act for artists such as Sam & Dave, the O'Jays, Gladys Knight, and Etta James. They also performed in clubs and cocktail lounges that featured striptease shows, as well as at local auditoriums and high school dances. In August 1967, while touring the East Coast, they won a weekly amateur night competition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
The Jackson 5 recorded several songs for the Gary-based label Steeltown Records, releasing their first single, "Big Boy", in 1968. Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers brought the group to Motown after they opened for him at Chicago's Regal Theater that year. Taylor produced some of their early Motown recordings, including a version of "Who's Lovin' You". After signing with Motown, the Jackson family relocated to Los Angeles. In 1969, Motown executives decided that Diana Ross would introduce the Jackson 5 to the public—partly to support her emerging television career—launching what was considered Motown's final product of its "production line". The group made its first television appearance that year at the Miss Black America pageant, performing a cover of "It's Your Thing". Rolling Stone later described the young Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts" who quickly became the group's main attraction and lead singer.
In January 1970, "I Want You Back" became the Jackson 5's first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining at the top for four weeks. Three additional Motown singles—"ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There"—also reached number one. In May 1971, the Jackson family moved into a large home on Hayvenhurst Avenue, a 2-acre (0.81 ha) estate in Encino, California. During this period, Michael developed from a child performer into a teen idol. Between 1972 and 1975, he released four solo studio albums with Motown: Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973), and Forever, Michael (1975). "Got to Be There" and "Ben", the title tracks from his first two solo albums, sold well as singles, as did his cover of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin".
Michael remained involved with the Jackson 5. The group was later described as "a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists". They grew frustrated with Motown's refusal to grant them creative input. Michael's performance of their top five single "Dancing Machine" on Soul Train helped popularize the robot dance.
Jackson released his highly anticipated seventh studio album, Bad, on August 31, 1987. Bad sold more than 2.25 million copies in its first week in the US, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200, where it remained for six weeks. It became the first album to produce five US number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana". "Smooth Criminal" reached number seven.
Bad won the 1988 Grammy for Best Engineered Recording—Non Classical and the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Leave Me Alone". Jackson received an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards in 1989 after Bad generated five number-one singles, became the first album to top the charts in 25 countries, and was the best-selling album worldwide in 1987 and 1988. The Bad tour ran from September 12, 1987, to January 27, 1989. In Japan, it had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record for a single tour. The 504,000 people who attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium set a new Guinness world record. Bad cemented Jackson's status as a dominant music force; the album has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide, placing it among the best-selling albums of all time.
In 1988, Jackson released his autobiography, Moonwalk, with input from Stephen Davis and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It sold 200,000 copies, and reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller list. Jackson discussed his childhood, the Jackson 5, and the abuse he experienced from his father. He attributed his changing facial appearance to three plastic surgeries, puberty, weight loss, a strict vegetarian diet, a change in hairstyle, and stage lighting. On June 28, 1988, during the Bad World Tour, Jackson was presented with the Grand Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris by Mayor Jacques Chirac. On July 20, he became the first commoner in history to enter London's Guildhall through the building's Royal Entrance. In October, Jackson released the film Moonwalker, comprising live footage, music videos and narrative sequences Jackson and Joe Pesci. In the US, it was released direct-to-video and became the best-selling music videocassette in history. It was certified eight times platinum.
In March 1988, Jackson purchased 2,700 acres (11 km2) of land near Santa Ynez, California, to build a home, Neverland Ranch, at a cost of $17 million (equivalent to $46 million in 2025). He installed a Ferris wheel, a carousel, a movie theater, and a zoo. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. Shortly afterward, Jackson appeared in the first Western television advertisement broadcast in the Soviet Union. Around this time, Jackson became known as the "King of Pop", a nickname embraced by his publicists. When Elizabeth Taylor presented him with the Soul Train Heritage Award in 1989, she called him "the true king of pop, rock and soul". President George H. W. Bush designated him the White House's "Artist of the Decade". At the 38th BMI Awards in 1990, Jackson became the first person to be honored with an award named after its recipient. From 1985 to 1990, Jackson donated $455,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all profits from his single "Man in the Mirror" went to charity. His performance of "You Were There" at Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th birthday celebration earned Jackson a second Emmy nomination. Jackson was the best-selling artist of the 1980s.
In June 1995, Jackson released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, is a greatest hits compilation (reissued in 2001 as Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I). The second disc, HIStory Continues, contains 13 original songs and two cover versions. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for eight million shipments in the US. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. The New York Times described it as "the testimony of a musician whose self-pity now equals his talent".
The first single from HIStory was "Scream/Childhood". "Scream", a duet with Jackson's youngest sister Janet, protests the media's treatment of Jackson during the 1993 child abuse allegations. The single reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The second single, "You Are Not Alone", holds the Guinness world record as the first song to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance in 1995.
In 1995, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups criticized the original lyrics of "They Don't Care About Us" ("Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me") as antisemitic. Jackson released a revised version of the song. In late 1995, he was hospitalized after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance, the result of a stress‑related panic attack. In November, Jackson merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony's music publishing division, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He retained ownership of half the company, earning $95 million up front (equivalent to $201 million in 2025) as well as rights to additional songs.
"Earth Song" was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995. It became the 87th-best-selling single in UK history. At the 1996 Brit Awards, Jackson's performance of "Earth Song" was interrupted by Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker, who said he was protesting what he viewed as Jackson's "Christ-like" persona. Jackson called the stage invasion "disgusting and cowardly".
In 1996, Jackson won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form, for "Scream" and an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. In July 1996, he performed for Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's 50th birthday at Jerudong Park Amphitheater in Brunei, which had been built specifically for the event. Jackson was reportedly paid $17 million (equivalent to $35 million in 2025). He promoted HIStory with the HIStory World Tour, from September 7, 1996, to October 15, 1997. He performed 82 concerts across five continents, 35 countries, and 58 cities to more than 4.5 million fans, making it his most‑attended tour. It grossed $165 million (equivalent to $331 million in 2025). During the tour, in Sydney, Australia, Jackson married Debbie Rowe, a dermatology assistant who was six months pregnant with his first child.
Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (commonly known as Prince) was born on February 13, 1997. His sister Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson was born on April 3, 1998. Jackson and Rowe divorced in 2000; Rowe conceded custody of the children and received an $8.5 million settlement (equivalent to $15.9 million in 2025). In 2004, after the second child abuse allegations against Jackson, she returned to court seeking to regain custody. The suit was settled in 2006.
In 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies, making it the best-selling remix album of all time. It reached number one in the UK, as did the single "Blood on the Dance Floor". In the US, the album reached number 24 and was certified platinum.
Jackson's posthumous releases and productions are administered by the estate of Michael Jackson, which owns Jackson's trademarks and rights to his name, image and likeness. The first posthumous Jackson song, "This Is It", co-written in the 1980s with Paul Anka, was released in October 2009. The surviving Jackson brothers reunited to record backing vocals. It was followed by a documentary film about the rehearsals for the canceled This Is It tour, Michael Jackson's This Is It, and a compilation album. Despite a limited two-week engagement, the film became the highest-grossing documentary or concert film ever, with earnings of more than $260 million worldwide. Jackson's estate received 90% of the profits. In late 2010, Sony released the first posthumous album, Michael, and the lead single "Hold My Hand", a duet with Akon. The Jackson collaborator will.i.am expressed disgust, saying that Jackson would not have approved the release.
The video game developer Ubisoft released a music game featuring Jackson for the 2010 holiday season, Michael Jackson: The Experience. It was among the first games to use Kinect and PlayStation Move, the motion-detecting camera systems for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In October 2011, the theater company Cirque du Soleil launched Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, a $57 million production in Montreal. A larger and more theatrical Cirque show, Michael Jackson: One, designed for residency at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas, opened on May 23, 2013, in a renovated theater.
In 2012, in an attempt to end a family dispute, Jackson's brother Jermaine retracted his signature on a public letter criticizing executors of Jackson's estate and his mother's advisors over the legitimacy of his brother's will. T.J. Jackson, the son of Tito Jackson, was given co-guardianship of Michael Jackson's children after false reports of Katherine Jackson going missing. Xscape, an album of unreleased material, was released on May 13, 2014. The lead single, a duet between Jackson and Justin Timberlake, "Love Never Felt So Good", reached number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making Jackson the first artist to have a top-10 single on the chart in five different decades.
Later in 2014, Queen released a duet recorded with Jackson in the 1980s. A compilation album, Scream, was released on September 29, 2017. A jukebox musical, MJ the Musical, premiered on Broadway in 2022. Myles Frost won the 2022 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Jackson. On November 18, 2022, Epic released a 40th-anniversary edition reissue of Thriller. Since Jackson's death, his estate has grossed $2 billion in ticket revenue from MJ the Musical, Michael Jackson's This Is It and two Cirque du Soleil productions. A biographical film, Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson, premiered in April 2026. It received generally negative reviews from critics. The film broke records for biopics on opening day and opening week, with an opening weekend gross estimated at $97 million domestically and $217 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 2026.
At the 2009 American Music Awards, Jackson won four posthumous awards, including two for his compilation album Number Ones, bringing his total American Music Awards to 26. In the year after his death, more than 16.1 million copies of Jackson's albums were sold in the US alone, and 35 million copies were sold worldwide, more than any other artist in 2009. He became the first artist to sell one million music downloads in a week, with 2.6 million song downloads. Thriller, Number Ones and The Essential Michael Jackson became the first catalog albums to outsell any new album. Jackson also became the first artist to have four of the top-20 best-selling albums in a single year in the US. Within the year following his death, Jackson sold over 75 million records worldwide. By the end of 2013, Jackson had sold over 50 million albums worldwide since his death.
Following the surge in sales, in March 2010, Sony Music signed a $250 million deal (equivalent to $370 million in 2025) with the Jackson estate to extend their distribution rights to Jackson's back catalog until at least 2017; it had been due to expire in 2015. It was the most expensive music contract for a single artist in history. They agreed to release ten albums of previously unreleased material and new collections of released work. The deal was extended in 2017. That July, a Los Angeles court awarded Quincy Jones $9.4 million of disputed royalty payments for Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. In July 2018, Sony/ATV bought the estate's stake in EMI for $287.5 million.
In 2015, Thriller became the first album to be certified for 30 million shipments in the US. A year later, it was certified 33-times platinum after Soundscan added streams and audio downloads to album certifications. In February 2024, Sony Music acquired half of Jackson's publishing rights and recording masters for $600 million. The deal includes assets from his Mijac publishing catalog, but excludes royalties from several Jackson-related productions, such as the MJ Broadway musical and the 2026 Michael film. The transaction is possibly the largest for a single musician's work.
Jackson has been referred to as the "King of Pop" for having transformed the art of music videos and paving the way for modern pop music. For much of Jackson's career, he had an unparalleled worldwide influence over the younger generation. His influence extended beyond the music industry; he impacted dance, led fashion trends, and raised awareness for global affairs. Jackson's music and videos fostered racial diversity in MTV's roster and steered its focus from rock to pop music and R&B, leading to the discontinuation of the album-oriented rock format previously dominant on the channel. In songs such as "Black or White", "Heal the World", "Earth Song" and "They Don't Care About Us", Jackson's music emphasized racial integration and environmentalism and protested injustice. He is considered one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century, and his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.
Jackson's meteoric rise in the 1980s catapulted him to global stardom, and his influence transcended borders. In Africa, his influence was compared to Nelson Mandela for his ability to inspire and unite diverse audiences through his music. Similarly, in India, Jackson was likened to Mahatma Gandhi, with his art championing themes of social justice and humanitarianism, and his influence extending to Bollywood where it was said that anyone who danced well was compared to Jackson. In Europe, Jackson's impact was compared to that of the Pope; huge crowds gathered to see him in public and even more attended his concerts, which spread messages of love and healing during rough economic and political times. His presence in the Middle East was considered as widespread as Coca-Cola, symbolizing a shared global culture through his music. Additionally, Jackson is considered the backbone of the K-pop industry in South Korea, influencing countless artists and shaping the genre's development.
So vast, far-reaching and was his impact—particularly in the wake of Thriller's colossal and heretofore unmatched commercial success—that there weren't a whole lot of artists who weren't trying to mimic some of the Jackson formula.
— J. Edward Keyes of Rolling Stone
Danyel Smith, chief content officer of Vibe Media Group and the editor-in-chief of Vibe, described Jackson as "the greatest star". Steve Huey of AllMusic called him "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the skills to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power". BET said Jackson was "quite simply the greatest entertainer of all time" whose "sound, style, movement and legacy continues to inspire artists of all genres". In 1984, Time pop critic Jay Cocks wrote that Jackson was the biggest phenomenon since the Beatles and Elvis Presley, while possibly "the most popular black singer ever". Cocks declared him a "star of records, radio, rock video" and the "dancer with the fanciest feet". In 2003, The Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley described Jackson as "extremely important" and a "genius". At Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009, Motown founder Berry Gordy called Jackson "the greatest entertainer that ever lived". Jackson is recognized as the "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time" by Guinness World Records. He has also appeared on Rolling Stone's lists of the "Greatest Singers of All Time".
Craig Glenday, the editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, called Jackson the most famous person in the world in 2006. Following Jackson's death, Glenday wrote in an obituary that Jackson had maintained this status up until his death, later remarking that his fame had exceeded that of Confucius. The Guardian wrote that he was in a league of his own in terms of fame, noting that Jackson had become so famous that the number of people who might not know who he was had become statistically insignificant. Due to his unprecedented influence, Jackson is widely recognized as one of the most famous and globally renowned figures in history. Reports of his fame extend from the Middle East, Africa, India, and China to tribes in the Amazon. His influence even reached remote corners of the world such as São Tomé and Príncipe, or Tristan da Cunha, where tribute artists keep his legacy alive by celebrating his music.
In 2018, the National Portrait Gallery named Jackson the most depicted cultural figure of the century, later stating that Jackson's influence on art rivaled that of Jesus Christ. Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery and curator of the Michael Jackson: On the Wall exhibition, described Jackson's impact on art as unprecedented and claimed in 2018 that Jackson was the most depicted figure in the history of contemporary art. In 2014, a comprehensive study conducted by researcher Young-Ho Eom at the University of Toulouse identified Jackson as one of the most influential people of all time. The study utilized advanced ranking methods, including 2D Rank and PageRank algorithms, to analyze the impact of historical figures. Jackson was prominently placed on the list of top influencers, alongside Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, Adolf Hitler, and Jesus Christ. Another study conducted in 2013 also identified Jackson as one of the most influential people of all time. This study ranked Jackson at the top of the list, alongside Napoleon Bonaparte, highlighting the extraordinary influence and global recognition that Jackson achieved throughout his career. Numerous publications and academic studies have noted his impact beyond music in fields such as psychology, law, chemistry, and engineering.
Jackson was influenced by musicians including James Brown, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr., Gene Kelly, and David Ruffin. Little Richard had a substantial influence on Jackson, but Brown was his greatest inspiration. When Jackson was a small child, his mother would wake him whenever Brown appeared on television. Jackson described being "mesmerized".
Jackson's vocal technique was influenced by Diana Ross; his use of the oooh interjection from a young age was something Ross had used on many of her songs with the Supremes. She was a mother figure to him, and he often watched her rehearse. He said he had learned from watching how she moved and sang, and that she had encouraged him to have confidence in himself. The choreographer David Winters, who met Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV special Diana!, said that Jackson watched the musical West Side Story almost every week and it was his favorite film. Jackson paid tribute to it in the "Beat It" and "Bad" videos.
Source: wikipedia