Photo Credit: Madonna/Twitter
A movement to make Michael Jackson’s name mud, much like that of R Kelly has been occurring recently, even though the two young accusers that starred in the HBO documentary about the alleged abuse they experienced at the hand of the pop star were found to have lied about the timeframe they claimed it happened. But what’s the truth anyway once the public’s been whipped up into a frenzy. At that point the cat’s already out the bag and it’s no turning back. So far Mariah Carey and Quincy Jones have both removed songs of MJ’s from their set lists. Mariah has been performing the Jackson 5 hit I’ll Be There for the last 27 years but quietly pulled it two weeks after the Leaving Neverland documentary aired.
Quincy Jones has a June 23rd concert at O2 Arena in London where it was marketed saying “Quincy Jones Presents ‘Off the Wall,’ ‘Thriller,’ ‘Bad,’” promising “three iconic albums performed back to back with live symphony orchestra.” It’s since been re-billed as “Quincy Jones Presents Soundtrack of the 80s: Iconic Sounds & Defining Albums.” While the songs “P.Y.T.,” “Off the Wall” and “Man in the Mirror,” are still featured, music from other artists such as Patti Austin and James Ingram have also been added, which isn’t as bad, but it’s still an indictment of someone not only no longer here to defend himself but based on shaky facts as stated above.
Madonna’s not as easily influenced. If there’s anything we’ve learned about her over her nearly 40 year career, it’s that she does anything but follow the pack. During an interview for British Vogue for their June issue, she spoke on the controversy saying, “I don’t have a lynch-mob mentality, so in my mind, people are innocent until proven guilty,” the “Material Girl” singer told British Vogue. “I’ve had a thousand accusations hurled at me that are not true. So my attitude when people tell me things about people is, ‘Can you prove it?’ ” When pushed further about some of what people have claimed to be fact, she said “I don’t know, I haven’t seen the film. But I guess it would be people recounting actual events ― but then, of course, people sometimes lie. So I always say, ‘What’s the agenda? What do people want out of this? Are there people asking for money, is there some kind of extortion thing happening?’ ” she added. “I would take all of those things into consideration.”
People forget how she gave a creepy tribute to Michael Jackson at the MTV VMAs after he died that sounded more like a monologue about a long lost love affair she had decades ago than a tribute so if you remember that, you wouldn’t be surprised that she chose to take his side here. After all, does innocent until proven guilty mean anything to people?