I remember the day Princess Diana died. I was on holiday with my family and my 12 year old brain could not comprehend why so many people were showing such emotion for a person they hadn’t met. I couldn’t understand how someone can cry for a person who wasn’t a direct family member, or a close personal friend.
I remember a news correspondent saying that Diana’s death will go down in history as one of those, ‘Where were you when…’ moments. Where were you when JFK got shot? Where were you when Dr King died? Where were you when Elvis passed? I just didn’t understand it until Thursday 25th June 2009.
Michael Jackson played a huge role in my life. While all my friends wanted to listen to ‘Definitely Maybe’ by Oasis, I was listening to Dangerous. While everyone was doing the Macarena dance, I was studying the Motown 25 Billie Jean performance. When everybody was ‘Living La Vida Loca’, I was unashamedly asking ‘Who’s bad?’
Michael Jackson’s music was (*cliché alert*) the sound track to my youth and I can’t believe that this myth like figure is dead.
There will be those like Maureen Ogre (*mistake*)… Maureen Orth who will not be able to see past the lurid unsubstantiated allegations, there will be those who genuinely were not fans of his music and there will be those who had genuine reservations about his mental state but there will also be many like myself who will be grieving for someone who felt like a direct family member or a close family friend. We will be grieving for an icon who through his music and performances made us feel like moon-walking was as easy as ABC.
