Michael Jackson

Alex Andrea Di Lisa

Life - When he was a kid

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on 29th August 1958, in Indiana. He was the 8th of Katherine and Joe Jackson’s
ten children. When he was very young, his family discovered his incredible singing talent, so in 1964 he joined
“The Jackson Brothers” band (later, it became “The Jackson 5”), composed by him and some of his brothers. After
they won an important talent show, they signed a contract with the Motown Records and they made the famous
song “I want you back”. From this moment, Michael started became very famous, so in 1971 he made his first song,
called "Got to Be There" and it reached n. 4 in the Billboard 100.
The best years in his career

Then, from 1976, “The Jackson 5” made many important albums and they got their own TV show.

Michael, in 1978, acted also in the new version of “The Wizard of Oz”, with only black actors. In 1978, he
made an album with Quincy Jones, called “Off the wall”, and he won a Grammy Award for best male R&B
performance.

In 1982 he made the ET’s soundtrack, called “Somewhere in the dark”. In the same year he published the
first single of “Thriller”, “The girl is mine”. About a month later, the entire album was released and it
became the best-selling album of all time! The next year, he also made three songs with Freddie Mercury.
In 1984, he and The Jackson filmed a Pepsi Cola commercial. All the money Pepsi gave to Michael (1,5 million
dollars), he gave it to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City. During the same year Michael won eight
American Music Awards (he is the only one that have done this in history). He also won the Best International
Solo Artist and Best International Album at the BRIT Awards.

In 1985 he and Lionel Richie wrote “We are the world” to make money for African people (it was recorded by USA
for Africa). It sold over than 20 million copies and it won four Grammy Awards. This song was sung by 21 singers,
like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Tina Turner.
One of his most important albums was “Dangerous”, that was released in 1991. In 1992 started the
Dangerous World Tour and all of the money Jackson made from the tour was given to charities like the
“Heal the World Foundation”. In 1993, Michael performed at Super Bowl XXVII.

In 1996, the video of his single “Scream” went in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the
most expensive short film ever made.

In next years he won many awards, like “Artist of the 80s” and the “American Music Award for Artist of
the Century”.

He died when he was fifty for a cardiac arrest