Michael Jackson organized this two hour spectacular that was proposed to be an audio trip down memory lane of his past hits as a solo singer in a somewhat bizarre dedication to himself. Presented over two nights in September 2001 at Madison Square Garden, New York, Michael Jackson was to make a noticeable comeback to perform a few of his own hits and to reunite and perform with the original Jackson 5 line-up for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Popular pop acts of today such as Destiny's Child, N*Sync, Usher, Mya, Whitney Houston and Shaggy graced the stage to perform some of their own hits along with some of Michael's. The biggest highlight of the show was Billy Gilman performing "Ben", and the strangest highlight of the show can be awarded to Liza Minelli for performing a rather haunting and shaky rendition of "You Are Not Alone".
Playing to a sold-out audience, Destiny's Child also performed "Bootylicious" and Shaggy performed "It Wasn't Me" - two chart hits personally requested by Michael Jackson himself.
While this two-hour special was to also prepare the world for the release of Michael's latest album "INVINCIBLE", it also showcased the talents of the original Jackson 5 line-up as they performed such hits as "ABC" and "I Want You Back". Perhaps the biggest roar in the audience went up when Michael performed his famous dance moves in his solo acts such as the 'Moonwalk' and 'grabbing his crotch'.
The concert closed out with Michael performing his latest hit from "INVINCIBLE", "You Rock My World" with Chris Tucker providing a few un-choreographed dance moves for laughs. Other highlights of the night would include the 'unification' of three former child stars of separate generations, Michael, Elizabeth Taylor and Macauley Culkin who sat together in the audience while enjoying the concert.
Unfortunately, other highlights of the two-night concert were left on the cutting room floor, including Marlon Brandon's infamous 'couch speech', a performance by Britney Spears (who apparently could not be shown on this television special due to legal reasons surrounding her recently aired concert special on HBO) and special presentations given by Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse and Jennifer Jones.
Overall, this was a spectacular showcase for both Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 and was widely received by his fans and critics alike with lots of praise and admiration for the man who gave us such timeless hits as "Thriller", "Beat It" and "Bad".
This concert gets a special 'gloved' thumb up!
