If you plan to be in Vienna on September 26, then we’re afraid we’ve got a little bit of bad news for you.
You’re terrible at choosing holiday destinations. Oh, and also, if you were visiting Vienna to see the Michael Jackson tribute concert, then you might be the only one. Because the flipping thing’s been jolly well cancelled.
According to reports, Mary J Blige, Natalie Cole and Chris Brown all dropped out of the Michael Jackson tribute concert, causing it to be rescheduled to take place next year in London. Sweet mercy, will nobody think of Sister Sledge?
In a way, the treatment of Michael Jackson after his death has been exceedingly well-handled, in that every aspect of his life has been perfectly catered to. For instance, Michael Jackson’s star-studded memorial service was a throwback to when Michael had the world at his feet. And his burial – in a tomb stuffed with gaudy replica artworks – demonstrated his questionable taste in possessions. And now the Michael Jackson tribute concert in Vienna seems to be marking the fact that Michael Jackson spent the last decade or so of his life being a bumbling, shambolic flake.
And it looks as though Jermaine Jackson should take the credit for this last one. It’s almost like he channelled all of Michael Jackson’s most abnormal behaviour – the Hurricane Katrina single that never was, the botched comebacks, the constant lawsuits from everyone he’d ever met – and threw it all into this month’s tribute concert. And by golly it seems to have paid off. Because, well, it isn’t happening.
Earlier this week we reported on the embarrassing paucity of stars scheduled to appear at the Michael Jackson tribute concert. But it was OK because, between Sister Sledge and Shanice and US-5, there were a handful of genuine stars ready to buoy everything up. Mary J Blige was going to perform. Natalie Cole was going to perform. Even Chris Brown was supposed to make an appearance.
Except, somewhat inevitably, they dropped out and now it’s been cancelled. Reuters reports:
A scheduled Michael Jackson tribute concert in Vienna has been cancelled because of poor treatment by local Austrian media and the event will be shifted to London next year, organisers said. Organiser Georg Kindel told reporters that the tribute would be held at Wembley Stadium in London in June 2010, to mark the first anniversary of the pop star’s death
That’s right, the Michael Jackson tribute concert was cancelled because the Austrian media was being a bit sniffy about it. Not because people are sick of hearing about Michael Jackson all the time, or because Vienna was always a ludicrous place to ask megastars to travel to at short notice. It was because of the famously vindictive Austrians. You bloody Austrians with your silly hats and your famously low crime rates, buggering everything up for the Jacksons.
Because, make no mistake, this whole thing was a snafu of extraordinary magnitude. Not even Chris Brown wanted to perform there. And things can’t be great if Chris Brown – a convicted woman-beater who’s so desperate for attention at the moment that he’s willing to go on TV at regular intervals to reel off one incredibly ill-advised soundbite after another – thinks that going to Austria to directly associate himself with Michael Jackson would be bad for his image.
But still, at least the organisers are smart enough to put this behind them and focus on a new Michael Jackson tribute concert to be held in London in June 2010. No, actually, let’s say that it’ll be held up a nun’s bottom in Junetember 20poo. It’s probably just as accurate a prediction given the track record, wouldn’t you say?
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Ironlung says
keep up heritage. this is gloriously out of date already.
JoeMomma says
So are diehard fans that cling to this no talen looser, kiddie diddler, alien hybrid rotting corpse going to hell.
Janice says
Nobody wants to attend this tribute because a Big Scandal is soon to drop. John Lennon the Beatle had a lovechild daughter who Michael Jackson was supposed to give an inheritance to along with part of the Beatle catalogue. He hid this under Ono’s approval for 24 years. That is why you are seeing so many Beatle things on sale in stores. The marketers know this scandal will happen. Latoya says the world will be in shock and everything will come out with the investigation. The singers know if they tribute Michael at this late date and then they drop the inheritance. People will view them as frauds who support the crook Michael Jackson. That is why Jackson was doping himself up to forget his problem.