Michael (album)

Michael
Michael Jackson's compilation album
Publication (s)	December 10, 2010
admission	1982-2009
Label (s)	Sony Music Entertainment , Epic Records
Genre (s)	R'n'B / Pop / Soul
Title (number)	10
running time	41:42 min
production	Michael Jackson Akon Giorgio Tuinfort Teddy Riley Neff-U Tricky Stewart Angelikson Brad Buxer Lenny Kravitz John McClain
chronology This Is It (2009) Michael Immortal (2011)
Single releases November 15, 2010 Hold my hand February 11, 2011 Hollywood Tonight February 21, 2011 Behind the mask

Michael is the first posthumously published music album by the American singer Michael Jackson . It was released in late 2010 by Sony Music Entertainment .

background

After Michael Jackson's unexpected death in June 2009, it was announced in March 2010 that Sony Music was pursuing the release of several albums that would contain previously unreleased material by the singer. In fact, well over 100 unreleased songs by Michael Jackson can be documented. As a result, a public discussion ensued about whether these songs should be published or whether such an approach was tasteless. In addition to numerous music critics, well-known artists such as Akon and will.i.am , who had worked with him before Jackson's death , also spoke up . While Akon was in favor of publication, will.i.am withheld the material he had recorded. On November 8, 2010, the song Breaking News was released for one week as a stream on the official Michael Jackson website . It served as a teaser . The largest poster in the world was made from the album cover for advertising purposes.

Content and production

The album contains unreleased pieces from Jackson's last, but also from his early creative years. With Behind The Mask and Much Too Soon it contains two songs from the thriller era. Behind The Mask is originally a song by the Yellow Magic Orchestra . Jackson recorded a new version in the early 1980s and added lyrics. While Jackson never released his version of the song during his lifetime, it was interpreted by other artists, including a. by Eric Clapton and Greg Phillinganes . The track (I Can't Make It) Another Day , co- written and produced with Lenny Kravitz , was originally planned for Jackson's album Invincible . The song (I Like) The Way You Love Me was previously released in a demo version on the best-of album The Ultimate Collection (2004) under the title The Way You Love Me . Breaking News , Monster and Hold My Hand are from Jackson's last creative years between 2007 and 2009. Best Of Joy is one of the last songs that Michael Jackson wrote and recorded in 2009.

Controversy

In addition to criticism of the quality of the songs, doubts about their authenticity were voiced: Members of the Jackson family claimed that some of the songs were not sung by Jackson himself. The critics include a. Jackson's mother Katherine and the dead musician's two oldest children. In her opinion, for example, the voice in Breaking News does not sound like Michael Jackson's voice. Furthermore, the authenticity of Keep Your Head Up and Monster has been questioned. It has been suggested that these songs feature the voice of singer Jason Malachi , which is very similar to Michael Jackson's. An alleged admission of Malachi to have sung the songs was denied.

Track list

#	title	Featuring	producer	length
1	Hold my hand	Akon	Akon, Giorgio Tuinfort, Michael Jackson *	3:33
2	Hollywood Tonight		Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley , Neff-U *	4:31
3	Keep your head up		Michael Jackson, Tricky Stewart, Angelikson, Eddie Cascio	4:51
4th	(I Like) The Way You Love Me		Michael Jackson, Neff-U	4:34
5	monster	50 cents	Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley, Angelikson, Eddie Cascio	5:04
6th	Best of Joy		Michael Jackson, Neff-U, Brad Buxer *	3:03
7th	Breaking news		Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley, Angelikson, Eddie Cascio	4:14
8th	(I Can't Make It) Another Day	Lenny Kravitz	Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson *	3:55
9	Behind the mask		Michael Jackson, John McClain	5:02
10	Much Too Soon	Tommy Emmanuel	Michael Jackson, John McClain	2:48

(*) Co-producer

Singles

Hold My Hand , a duet originally recorded with Akon in 2007 , was released as the first single. It entered the German single charts at number 18 in the first week of its release, and was at number 7 the following week. It stayed in the German charts for a total of 19 weeks, including 8 weeks in the top 20. On February 11, 2011, Hollywood Tonight (a song from the time of Invincible ) was released as the second single from the album. The video shot for the single premiered on the same day. Although it was rated as a highlight of the album by critics, Hollywood Tonight failed to match the success of Hold My Hand . It only reached number 55 in the German single charts and had to say goodbye to the hit list just three weeks after the new entry. The single failed to achieve the expected success in the USA either, reaching number 60 on the US charts. Behind The Mask was released as the third single on February 21, 2011, but so far only in France. Like Hollywood Tonight , Behind The Mask received mostly positive reviews. The release of the music video was preceded by the Behind The Mask Project . Fans could send in video clips they had shot themselves, for example how they dance the moonwalk or how Jackson sing in disguise to the song. Director Dennis Liu eventually selected 1,600 clips for the final video. It premiered on June 14th on Facebook .

Commercial win

Commercially, the album could not build on Jackson's successes in the 1980s and early 1990s, but it sold quite well. In the Netherlands, the album was sold over 30,000 times on the day of publication and thus achieved gold status. In Australia, it sold over 35,000 times during its release week. In Great Britain, the album managed the fastest sales start of a Michael Jackson album since Dangerous (1991) and sold 113,000 copies within a week. The album debuted at number 1 on the album charts in Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Taiwan. It reached the top 5 in the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Spain, Switzerland, France, Japan, Belgium and Denmark. It received Platinum in 14 countries: in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France (2 ×), Italy ( 3 ×), Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belgium, the Czech Republic (4 ×), Canada, Korea and the Middle East. In Japan, it is Michael Jackson's fourth album to debut in the top 3 (after Thriller , Bad and This Is It ). The album achieved gold status in 17 countries: Japan, China, Norway, Australia, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, India, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Reviews

Michael received many positive reviews that rated it “better than expected”.

“There is good reason to believe that the perfectionist Jackson would never have published it like this. (...) Jackson's song sketches, however, contain the DNA of current R&B productions - and can therefore be trimmed to the zeitgeist as desired on the computer. (...) In general, a lot on the album did not go wrong. "

- Excerpt from the review by Andreas Borcholte in Spiegel Online

"The bottom line is this: Michael contains some very impressive new material. (...) His habits, his obsessions, his versatility, and his genius are on display at every turn. Who else could move so seamlessly from social anthem to floor burner, fleet hip hop to cosmic rock, vintage funk to poignant folk ballad? "

- Excerpt from Joe Vogel's review in the Huffington Post

"It is certainly a great deal better than anyone had any right to expect .. Jackson is finally about to get the comeback he craved."

- Excerpt from Neil McCormick's review in The Telegraph

"This is not a Michael Jackson album. (...) He would not have released anything like this compilation, a grab bag of outtakes and outlines assembled by Jackson's label. And yet, it's a testament to the man's charisma that Michael can be compelling. "

- Extract from the review of Rolling Stone

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Record contract for $ 200 million signed. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 23, 2010 ; Retrieved December 12, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Record deal with Sony for the dead "King of Pop". Retrieved December 12, 2010 . 
3. ↑ List of unreleased Michael Jackson material in the English language Wikipedia
4. ↑ Will.i.am Blast's “Disrespectful” Michael Jackson album; Akon Defends Collaboration. Retrieved December 12, 2010 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} "Breaking News" - listen now !! . michaeljackson.com. November 8, 2010. Archived from the original on November 11, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 12, 2010. 
6. ↑ Michael Jackson Poster Creates New Guinness Record . (English) accessed on January 1, 2011.
7. ↑ letmeentertainyou.de
8. ↑ Michael: The Story Behind The Album. Retrieved December 12, 2010 . 
9. ↑ Is Michael Really Michael? A Review of the King of Pop's New Album. Retrieved December 12, 2010 . 
10. ↑ New Michael Jackson songs are 'fake', says his mother. Retrieved December 12, 2010 . 
11. ↑ Is Jason Malachi behind new Jackson songs? on blackbeats.fm
12. ↑ Jens-Christian Rabe: Michael Jackson: Posthumous Album - His last will. In: sueddeutsche.de. December 8, 2010, accessed February 21, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Single-flop - is Michael Jackson really singing here? . December 14, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
14. ^ Goud voor Michael Jackson. on parool.nl
15. ↑ ariacharts.com.au
16. ↑ Sony: 'Michael' Marks His Return. on: kingofpop.info December 19, 2010.
17. ↑ The "King of Pop" grabs the crown of the charts . December 21, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
18. ↑ MICHAEL album number 1 worldwide  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on mjfc-jam.com December 26, 2010.  
19. ^ New Michael Jackson album better than critics feared. Retrieved December 12, 2010 . 
20. ↑ Critics say Michael Jackson album better than feared. Retrieved December 12, 2010 . 
21. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Thrill of the Unheard - Posthumous Michael Jackson Album . Spiegel Online ; Retrieved December 16, 2010.
22. ↑ Joe Vogel: Is Michael Really Michael? A Review of the King of Pop's New Album . Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
23. ^ Neil McCormick: Michael Jackson from beyond the grave . In: The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved December 8, 2010.
24. ↑ Jody Rosen: Michael by Michael Jackson . In: Rolling Stone . Retrieved December 6, 2010.