The service began with
Smokey Robinson reading messages of condolences from
Diana Ross and former
South African President Nelson Mandela. A gospel choir sang
Andrae Crouch's "Soon and Very Soon" as Jackson's casket entered (culminating around the line "you will see the King"), followed by statements from Pastor Lucious Smith.
Mariah Carey and Trey Lorenz then sang "
I'll Be There", a No. 1 single for both
the Jackson 5 and Carey and Lorenz. This was followed by a statement from
Queen Latifah, who also read "We Had Him", a poem written by
Maya Angelou for the occasion.
Lionel Richie, Jackson's friend and his co-writer on "
We Are the World", performed the song "
Jesus Is Love" by
the Commodores. In the eulogy of
Berry Gordy, founder of
Motown Records, he stated, "In fact, the more I think and talk about Michael Jackson, I feel the King of Pop is not big enough for him. I think he is simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived." The statement was met with the longest standing ovation of the service. A video montage of Michael Jackson's life followed.
Stevie Wonder spoke, played a small portion of "I Can't Help It", a song from
Off the Wall that Wonder co-wrote, then performed a version of his songs "
Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" and "
They Won't Go When I Go". Next,
Kobe Bryant spoke about Jackson's humanitarian work, and
Magic Johnson (who had appeared in the music video for "
Remember the Time") recalled his memories of Jackson. Accompanied by a dancing chorus along with the dancers who would have been on stage for the O2 concerts,
Jennifer Hudson performed "
Will You Be There". Jackson originally wrote, produced and performed the song for his
Dangerous album before it was used as the theme for the 1993 film
Free Willy. And like the album and end credits version, the song ended with Jackson's spoken outro. The Reverend
Al Sharpton then spoke and received a standing ovation when he told Jackson's children, "Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with."
John Mayer played guitar on a mainly instrumental version of "
Human Nature" from Jackson's
Thriller.
Brooke Shields then spoke about the personal time she spent with Jackson, read excerpts from
The Little Prince, and said that his favorite song was
Charlie Chaplin's "
Smile", which was then performed by
Jermaine Jackson.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s children,
Martin III and
Bernice, then stated that Jackson was the best that he could be.
Sheila Jackson Lee (
D-
Texas, Houston), representing the
United States House of Representatives, emphasized that in the US, people are "
innocent until proven guilty" (as the crowd cheered) then spoke about his "American story" plus his meetings with foreign diplomats, and that "Michael never stopped giving". She then went on to claim him as an American legend and world humanitarian (House Resolution 600), closing her speech with a military salute as she said, "Michael Jackson, I salute you."
Usher walked to the casket and then sang Larry Grossman and Buzz Kohan's "
Gone Too Soon", which Jackson recorded as a tribute for
Ryan White after his death; Usher cried near the end of the song as he placed his hand on the casket, but managed to finish. Following Usher, a clip from
The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969 featuring the Jackson 5's rendition of
the Miracles' "
Who's Lovin' You" was shown. Following this, the song's composer and Miracles lead singer,
Smokey Robinson, spoke about and made joking remarks about the Jackson 5 covering his song, and continued with a speech.
Shaheen Jafargholi from ''
Britain's Got Talent'' then performed the song. Jackson choreographer
Kenny Ortega presented Jafargholi, honored Jackson, and introduced the final performance of the memorial, which Jackson had been slated to perform during the
This Is It dates. The concerts' chorus singers, Darrell Phinnessee, Ken Stacey,
Dorian Holley,
Judith Hill and guitarist
Orianthi performed "
We Are the World" and were joined on the stage by several of the guest speakers and performers as well as the Jackson family for the final chorus. With the entire group still on stage, Hill then led a performance of "
Heal the World", with the remainder of the group joining in the chorus. Jackson's family then addressed the crowd. Jermaine—who had earlier performed a tearful rendition of "Smile"—gave a brief speech, followed by a eulogy by
Marlon, where he tributed his twin brother Brandon, who died shortly after birth, telling his younger brother to "give him a hug" for himself as a favor. Marlon then handed the microphone over to
Janet, but in a move that came as a surprise to the show's organizers, she said that her niece, Paris, had something to say. Surrounded by her paternal aunts and uncles, Paris emotionally addressed the crowd before collapsing into tears and being escorted off the stage by her family. She said, "I just want to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine...and I just want to say I love him... so much." Marlon Jackson then thanked the crowd in attendance, and the family escorted the casket out of the arena while an instrumental version of "
Man in the Mirror" was performed. A microphone placed center stage was lit by a spotlight while the instrumental version of "Man in the Mirror" played out, symbolizing the 'absence' of Jackson. Many in the crowd applauded and cheered as Jackson's coffin was carried out of the building. Pastor Lucious Smith closed the service with a prayer and quote saying "I'm alive and I'm here forever" from the
Paul McCartney/
Michael Jackson duet song "
The Man". The memorial was finished at 12:48 p.m. Before broadcast of the service ended, a final slideshow of photos starting with Jackson's childhood and concluding with his final years played with Mariah Carey's version of "I'll Be There" playing.
Guest list The participants were Ron Boyd (family friend),
Los Angeles Lakers greats
Magic Johnson and
Kobe Bryant, fellow
Motown Records alumni
Berry Gordy,
Lionel Richie,
Smokey Robinson, and
Stevie Wonder,
Mariah Carey,
Andrae Crouch (choir),
Queen Latifah,
Judith Hill (recruited 'This Is It' performer),
Jennifer Hudson (in her first public appearance since the double murder of her brother and nephew),
Shaheen Jafargholi (a child finalist on the
third season of ''
Britain's Got Talent'', who sang Jackson's song, "
Who's Lovin' You" and was originally invited to perform with Jackson in one of This Is It series concerts, due to be held in
London),
Martin Luther King III,
Bernice A. King,
John Mayer,
Omer Bhatti (a Norwegian rapper),
Rev. Al Sharpton,
Brooke Shields, Pastor Lucious Smith (family friend),
Lil' Kim, and
Usher. In addition to the above persons,
ABC News reported,
Lionel Richie's daughter
Nicole, who was Jackson's goddaughter, singer
Akon and producer/rapper
Sean Combs would attend the services.
Taj Jackson later said on
Twitter that
Wade Robson begged to come to the memorial and brought in his family there proving it with screenshots of text messages with Robson. did not attend the memorial.
Elizabeth Taylor and
Diana Ross, two of Jackson's closest friends, as well as
Quincy Jones, Eliza Jackson Duphrey and Ivonne Ester Duphrey (Jackson's cousins) also did not attend.
Whitney Houston was not able to attend the service either.
Casket Jackson was presented in a polished solid bronze Promethean casket with gold-plated hardware, furnished by the
Batesville Casket Company, which cost roughly $25,000. It is similar to the one in which
James Brown was buried. The closed casket at the Staples Center was decorated with red roses and
Bells of Ireland flower arrangement. The casket was escorted by Jackson's brothers, each wearing a single sequined white glove on the hand in which they held the casket. Jackson was originally to be buried on what would have been his 51st birthday; however, the services were postponed, and he was instead interred at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park in
Glendale on September 3, 2009.
Live broadcast The broadcast was prioritized by many media companies all over the world, and all other programming apart from the memorial was suspended. The service was broadcast live around the world, from the
U.S. to
Slovakia (Eastern Europe) to parts of Asia and Oceania, making use of the
Intelsat global satellite network. Public screenings were held in 88 cinemas across the U.S. as well as in
Barcelona,
Berlin,
Brussels,
Bucharest,
Gothenburg,
Lisbon,
London,
Madrid,
Malmö,
Oslo,
Paris,
Milan,
Seville,
Stockholm, and
Tallinn. There was also a live broadcast at 3am in
Melbourne, Australia, at
Federation Square. Before the event, the organizers expected an estimated one billion viewers. According to
Nielsen, 31.1 million Americans watched the service live on television, an amount comparable to the 35.1 million that watched the
state funeral of Ronald Reagan in 2004, while over 59.5 million U.S. viewers tuned in via
streaming. It was estimated that more than 2.5 billion people watched the event worldwide, which makes it the most watched non-sports television broadcast in history. motorcycle detail patrolling the perimeter of the Staples Center during the memorial service As a point of comparison to notable non-funeral-related events, the
first inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009 garnered about 38 million viewers, and the
opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics garnered about 34.2 million viewers in the U.S. alone. In the
United Kingdom,
BBC reported that 5.2 million people watched the memorial service on the network BBC2, and 2 million more watched it on the British networks Five and
Sky News. According to market research company Media Control in
Germany, more than 20 million people – almost a quarter of the country’s population of 83 million – saw the live transmission as well as other reports related to the funeral on more than 10 TV channels. According to audience measurement company Mediametrie in
France, around 10 million people watched coverage of the memorial service and more than a 50% audience share. The memorial attracted 18.7 million viewers in
Brazil and 7 million viewers in
Japan as well. The memorial service is the most-watched in online streaming history. According to Internet monitoring firm Akamai Technologies the Global Web traffic ranged from 19 percent to 33 percent above normal during the service. Yahoo News had 5 million live video streams, according to the publication Media Life. The publication also reported that FoxNews.com and MSNBC.com combined for 6.4 million video streams.
Cost Due to the
economic downturn concerns at the time, the city of Los Angeles said the memorial had cost the city $1.4 million for 1,400 police officers, trash pick-up, sanitation, and traffic control. The city set up a webpage asking fans for donations to help with the expenses, though it kept crashing. City Attorney
Carmen Trutanich said it would be wrong to expect taxpayers to finance a private event. "The city attorney does not want something like this happening again, the city paying for a private event," spokesman John Franklin told CNN. "That's especially in a cash-strapped city, where people have been
furloughed or even lost jobs." ==References==