Jackson fans mourn around the world
Dancing, vigils, moments of silence and T-shirts were among the tributes to Michael Jackson flooding in from around the world on Friday as the Los Angeles coroner prepared to perform an autopsy on the King of Pop.
Jackson, 50, died in a Los Angeles hospital on Thursday after apparently suffering cardiac arrest at his home. The legendary performer was pronounced dead at the UCLA Medical Center at 2:26 p.m. PT.
| Tributes to Michael Jackson |
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| "I can't stop crying, this is too sudden and shocking. I am unable to imagine this. My heart is hurting. I am in prayer for his kids and the family." — Diana Ross "Michael Jackson will live forever through the thing that he put all of his life energy into: his music. I will do my part to keep the melody alive, to keep the energy forever changing form, but never ever dying. Long live Michael Jackson." — singer-songwriter, producer Ne-Yo "When we worked together on Bad, I was in awe of his absolute mastery of movement on the one hand, and of the music on the other. Every step he took was absolutely precise and fluid at the same time. It was like watching quicksilver in motion." — Martin Scorsese "He was a superstar. It is an extremely tragic loss. But it is fantastic he was able to give so many dreams and so much hope to the people of the world." — Yoichi Masuzoe, health minister of Japan "From the beginning of my career, he was my idol in show business." — Céline Dion "We are out of our joy. He is out of his pain.... He was constantly challenged in the press and all he really wanted to be was the greatest entertainer and he was that." — Rev. Jesse Jackson "The incomparable Michael Jackson has made a bigger impact on music than any other artist in the history of music. He was magic. He was what we all strive to be." — Beyoncé Knowles |
A mob of fans and mourners continued to congregate at several sites in the U.S. on Friday, including at Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and his family's home in Gary, Ind. They left flowers, candles, balloons, handwritten notes and other mementoes in tribute.
Though officials said preliminary results might be released from the autopsy by the afternoon, it could be up to eight weeks before toxicology tests are returned.
There had been recent reports that Jackson was in poor health and his comeback London concert series, billed as a farewell to the British city, had been postponed by a few days to begin July 13.
Fans who purchased the 750,000 tickets to the 50-night series are still awaiting word from concert promoter AEG Live as to whether they will receive refunds.
In London, shocked fans gathered at the Lyric Theatre, where a live show based on Thriller is being performed. The show was scheduled to go ahead Friday with a minute of silence before the performance. A candlelight vigil at London's Trafalgar Square was also planned to honour the singer.
Also in London, a flash mob numbering in the hundreds and assembled via social networking sites Facebook and Twitter gathered outside the Liverpool Street tube station just after 6 p.m. local time to celebrate Jackson by dancing to some of his best-known hits, including Thriller, Billie Jean and Bad.
Several performers at the U.K.'s popular Glastonbury Festival also honoured Jackson's memory on Friday by singing his songs or discussing his influence on them.
'So sudden'
Jackson also had large fan bases in Japan, South Korea and China, and his dance moves were widely imitated by regional performers.
Aaron Kwok, one of Chinese pop's most accomplished singer-dancers, said he was deeply saddened by the news.
"It's so sudden," Kwok said in a statement. "No one can replace Michael Jackson's contributions to pop music."
Several government ministers in Japan expressed their shock and sorrow Friday.
The news of Jackson's death interrupted morning programs from Sydney to Seoul, and was splashed across newspaper front pages worldwide on Friday.
Even world leaders weighed in the death. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called it "lamentable news" while former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, who had met Jackson, said, "We lost a hero of the world."
Former South African president Nelson Mandela, whom Jackson had serenaded at a birthday concert in 1998, also issued a statement saying Jackson's loss would be felt worldwide.
A condolence board went up in downtown Bucharest, Romania, where a Jackson concert in 1992 helped mark the country's new freedoms after the fall of the Soviet bloc.
Meanwhile, inmates at Cebu prison in the Philippines were expected to perform their Thriller synchronized dance on Saturday that has been made famous on YouTube.
Crowds gather
In Canada, some fans of the pop icon held a candlelight vigil at Toronto's Dundas Square on Thursday night while sidewalk-chalk pictures and memorials were laid down on Friday.
In Vancouver, a custom T-shirt shop downtown made commemorative shirts, while prominent members of Montreal’s music and entertainment scene remembered the performer who played in the city in 1996.
Jesse Jackson Jr. called for a moment of silence in Michael Jackson's memory in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday.
Hundreds of fans stayed outside the UCLA hospital while others gathered at the Apollo Theater in New York City. Crowds also gathered near Jackson's former Neverland Ranch and the street of his rented mansion in Holmby Hills where paramedics responding to an emergency call found the pop star not breathing.
Tributes to Jackson also continued to flood social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Within hours of his death, Thriller — the bestselling album of all time with hits like Billie Jean, Beat It and the title track — had shot back atop the charts on iTunes Canada and top spots on other sites, including Amazon.com.
"There's a direct line from Ne-Yo to Michael Jackson. There's a direct line from Beyoncé to Michael Jackson. There's a direct line from Jay-Z to Michael Jackson. I think they'll want to pay tribute in their own way," Stephen Hill, executive producer of the Black Entertainment TV Awards, said Friday.
Organizers said that Sunday's BET awards gala will be dedicated to Jackson and that many of the evening's performers are now changing their performances at the last minute to honour him. Hill added that he thinks many of the night's acceptance speeches will reference Jackson and his vast influence on entertainment.
"This is going to be the first gathering of people who really cared for and were influenced by him since his death," Hill said. "It's a tall order for us but we have every intention of paying respect to Michael Jackson."
With files from The Associated Press