Michael Jackson’s Memorial Service

The Michael Jackson memorial, which took place on July 7, 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, 12 days after he died on June 25, was the King of Pop’s final act, going down in history as one of the biggest celebrity farewells of all time.

Michael Jackson Memorial

The Michael Jackson memorial was preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s Hall of Liberty in Hollywood Hills, and followed by a gathering in Beverly Hills for family and close friends.

The Michael Jackson memorial was set to begin at 1:00 ET/10:00PT, but got pushed back to 1:30 ET/10:30PT, which is understandable given the memorial’s number of attendees and list of attendees. Like most Michael Jackson concerts, the Michael Jackson memorial was a performance as well. A great deal of planning, as well as raw emotion, went into putting on the Michael Jackson memorial.

The Michael Jackson memorial began with music and a eulogy from Pastor Lucious Smith. The stage was filled with floral arrangements while photographs and film of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 were projected onto screens at the back. Music and video montages traced Michael Jackson’s life from the beginning of his career to the end. One video montage included scenes from Jackson’s beloved Neverland Ranch, his meeting with Ronald Reagan, “Billie Jean”, “Smooth Criminal”, “Thriller”, “Scream”, “You Are Not Alone”, “We Are the World”, scenes from his film The Wiz, and his appearance at Super Bowl XXVII.

Michael Jackson Memorial Live Broadcast

The Michael Jackson memorial service was broadcast live around the world, and was viewed by 31.1 million U.S. TV viewers and one billion elsewhere in the world. The number of U.S. TV viewers is comparable to the 35.1 million that watched the 2004 burial of President Ronald Reagan, and the 33.1 million that watched the 1997 funeral for Diana, Princess of Wales. Furthermore, President Obama’s inauguration garnered about 38 million viewers, and the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics garnered about 34.2 million viewers.

Viewership  of the Michael Jackson memorial was extremly high given that the service was unusually held on a workday (Tuesday) and host of people reported watching the service during work.

According to official news sources from around the world, the Michael Jackson memorial exceeded 2,500 million viewers, making the event the most watched live television broadcast of the history of humanity worldwide, surpassing the level of hearing in the television broadcast of the Apollo 11 space mission in July 1969, until then considered the live television broadcast with higher worldwide audience.

Michael Jackson Memorial Attendance

The Michael Jackson memorial service was being organized by Michael Jackson’s concert promoter, AEG Live, who gave away 17,500 free tickets to fans worldwide through an online lottery that attracted over 1.2 million applicants in 24 hours, and over a half-billion hits to the webpage. The sheer number of requests is a tribute in itself to the late King of Pop. Due to state-specific sweepstakes rules, New York, Florida and Rhode Island were not allowed to participate in the online ticket lottery.

An estimated 750,000 up to a million fans were expected to congregate outside Staples Center in Los Angeles for Michael Jackson’s memorial service. However, due to California’s $530 million budget crisis, city and police officials urged fans to stay home. Street and highway exits around the Staples Center were sealed off, and 3,000 officers, the largest security effort planned since the 1984 Olympics, were on duty at a cost of $1.4 million to the city.

The motorcade for Jackson’s casket was headed by two police motorcycle outriders, and the LA freeways were closed for the journey of approximately 11 miles (18 km) from Forest Lawn to the Staples Center for the Michael Jackson memorial service.

Michael Jackson Memorial Celebrity Guest List

Some of the biggest names in pop music participated in the Michael Jackson memorial service, including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson and John Mayer. Civil rights leader Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, and basketball stars Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, also attended the Michael Jackson memorial.

Debbie Rowe, Jackson’s ex-wife and mother of two of his three children, hoping not to be a distraction, did not attend the Michael Jackson memorial; nor did his first wife, Lisa Marie Presley. Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Ross, two of Michael Jackson’s closest friends, as well as Macaulay Culkin also did not attend.

Other attendees with tickets were CNN-anchor Larry King, Barbara Walters, Dionne Warwick, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Brown, Evan Ross (Diana Ross’s son), Riley Keough (Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter), Chris Tucker, and Gladys Knight. Actor Wesley Snipes (who starred in the Bad video with Jackson) was also in attendance.

Michael Jackson Memorial Performances

Smokey Robinson, the first speaker at the Michael Jackson memorial, said, “Thank you, Katherine and Joe, for sharing your son with the world.” Smokey Robinson also shared messages of condolences from Diana Ross and Nelson Mandela.

Mariah Carey and Trey Lorenz then sang “I’ll Be There”, a number one single for both The Jackson 5 and Carey and Lorenz.Maya Angelou said, “He gave us all he had been given.”

Lionel Richie sang “Jesus is Love.”

Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, said, “He was the consummate student. He studied the greats and then became greater. He was the greatest entertainer that ever lived.”

Stevie Wonder said, “This is a moment that I wished I didn’t live to see come.” Stevie Wonder sang “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” at the Michael Jackson memorial service. Interesting Fact – Although Jackson had already become the youngest artist to ever record a number-one (”I Want You Back” with The Jackson 5, in 1970), “Ben” made him the third-youngest solo artist, at fourteen, to score a number-one hit single. Only Stevie Wonder, who was thirteen when “Fingertips, Pt. 2″ went to number one, and Donny Osmond, who was months shy of his fourteenth birthday when “Go Away Little Girl” hit number one in 1971 were younger.

Jennifer Hudson sang “Will You Be There,” one of Michael Jackson’s most powerful songs. Michael’s voice remained at the end of the song, as in the original version.

Reverend Al Sharpton spoke about the strength of the Jackson family, saying to Michael Jackson’s kids, “There wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what he had to deal with.”

John Mayer got the crowd clapping with an instrumental version of “Human Nature,” backed by a few singers.

Brooke Shields talked about her relationship with Michael, stating that, “It was the most natural and easiest of friendships. Both of us needed to be adults very early. But when we were together, we were two little kids, having fun.” Brooke Shields also read excerpts from The Little Prince, and said that his favorite song was Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile”, which was then performed by Jermaine Jackson.

Martin Luther King III spoke at the Michael Jackson memorial with his sister, Bernice King, by his side. Bernice King said, “He was indeed a shining light, like our father Martin…May we all be inspired to go and let our lights shine.”

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee talked about Michael Jackson’s leadership in the fight against AIDS and his devotion to people in need, saying, “Michael Jackson never stopped giving.”

Usher sang “Gone Too Soon” and left us all with the powerful image of him looking longingly at Michael Jackson’s casket.

Smokey Robinson admired Michael Jackson’s maturity in his age 10 performance of “Who’s Lovin’ You,” adding, “I’m glad I lived in this era.”

Michael Jackson Memorial Family Eulogies

The Jackson family coordinated their outfits for the Michael Jackson memorial, wearing sunglasses, yellow ties and black suits. Jackson’s brothers, sitting in the front row, each wore a single white sequined glove in tribute of the late Michael Jackson.

Toward the end, the family gathered on stage to offer the final eulogies. Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, tearfully told the crowd, “Ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine … I just wanted to say I love him so much.” Additionally, an emotional Marlon Jackson said, “Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone.”

Michael Jackson Memorial Service Cost

The city of Los Angeles, which is $530 million in debt, stated that the Michael Jackson memorial had cost the city $1.4 million for 1,400 police officers, trash pick-up, sanitation, and traffic control. The city set up a webpage asking fans for donations to help with the expenses, though it kept crashing.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich said it would be wrong to expect taxpayers to finance a private event. “The city attorney does not want something like this happening again, the city paying for a private event,” spokesman John Franklin told CNN. “That’s especially in a cash-strapped city, where people have been furloughed or even lost jobs.”

Tagged as: 2009, july 7, memorial service, michael jackson memorial, staples center