14 DAY TRIAL // When Michael Jackson took the stage on March 6 in London to announce that he would be performing again come summer of 2009 at London’s O2 Arena, fans were certain they were in the presence of a living legend. With all this, speculation is now running rampant that the person they got to cheer for and applaud was not even Michael to begin with, but a very convincing look-alike – at least that’s what Paul Harris of the British publication Daily Mail seems to believe.
There are more things that simply seem off about Michael’s recent appearance, which would indicate that he was not the real deal, Harris says. For starters, the star’s chin was too square, even when accounting recent plastic surgery he might have had. However, if the chin is not enough to prove that the person on stage was not Michael, then there is the question of his voice, which was, according to Harris, too bassy to be Jackson’s. And that of his walk, which suddenly seemed more hunched – a strange thing for such a skilled dancer as Michael is.
“Was the quivering figure in the aviator shades and sparkly jacket that day an imposter?” Harris asks. “[…] The walk, an awkward, loping stride. He paused momentarily beside a golf cart, probably assuming it was going to take him into the arena – but was ushered in on foot. Next, the voice. The few words he stumbled over at the microphone had far more bass than many expected. If you closed your eyes you would surely have had trouble identifying him as the more familiar, childlike 50-year-old. […] Trouble is, surgery and image enhancement mean that few people really know what MJ will look like when they meet him.” Harris further explains.
According to this theory, and many others now circulating freely on the Internet, Michael himself decided to go for a double for the press announcement either because of a tumble he had taken only hours before (which was caught on tape), or because he was too ill to attend. Canceling the announcement was not, understandably, an option on account of the fact that many fans and reporters had already gathered for it, and there was a lot of money at stake.
Be that as it may, Michael’s team insists the theory is as “ridiculous” as it gets. If the person on stage was not Michael Jackson, this is perhaps because Elvis Presley was at the press conference too, says a statement coming from the singer’s camp.