BET Awards: Michael Jackson Tribute
Jaime Foxx Moonwalks - Stiffly - to Honour King of Pop
It was a live, televised eulogy to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who died on Thursday. As the BET Awards opened tonight, Oscar-winner Jaime Foxx slid onto stage in a red leather jacket, tight black trousers, and a white sequined glove on his right hand, all to the tune of Michael Jackson's Beat It. He danced a little stiffly, and without the mesmerizing fluidity Jackson showed whenever he took to stage. But Foxx couldn't be blamed considering he only 72 hours to rehearse.
Janet Jackson made a surprise appearance as the 3-1/2 hour telecast wrapped up. Dressed in a flowing white pantsuit, Jackson walked to centre stage with Foxx. After lengthy applause she told the audience her family had nominated to appear at the awards. Her voice shaking she said softly, "To all of you Michael is an icon. To us Michael is family. We miss him. We miss him so much." Then she strode off.
Honouring Michael Jackson
Jackson's music appealed to pop music fans, disco fans, rock fans, reggae fans, R&B and rap fans, among others. Foxx drove the point home that Jackson was an integral part of African American music industry. "It was all about what he sounded like...it didn't make a difference what his nose looked like. The nose with the Afro the nose with the Jeri curl and the nose with the perm. I liked them all.
"We want to celebrate this black man's life. This black man, he belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else. And Mike was all kinds of black. He was Wesley Snipes black and Chico DeBarge black." Behind him was projected a massive photo of Jackson at the height of his beauty, sporting an Afro and not the Jackson he'd become of late.
He roused the audience to stand and cheer. "For Michael!" He looked down into the star-studded front row. "Don't you sit down Diddy. I will moonwalk all over your ass."
Foxx recalled seeing Jackson in 1984's Victory Tour at a Texas stadium and added with a smirk, "A stadium! Half of you can't sell out a bathroom at Carl's Jr." He described how the audience went wild when Jackson descended the steps. "Grown white men fainted," said Foxx and fell to the ground re-enacting the moment.
Foxx Fancy Footwork
Then, to honour Jackson, Foxx did the moonwalk awkwardly down the stage and hopped up onto his toes, in an awkward but tender, imitation of Jackson. It drove home just how talented Jackson was and how effortless and fluid his performing was.
Tyra Banks, Beyoncé, Keyshia Cole, Canada's own Drake, Johnny Gill, Queen Latifah, Lil Wayne, the vintage group The O'Jays, and Maxwell all appeared.
Just 30 minutes into the telecast from the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles and it was clear this was a love song to Jackson. After each commercial the show resumed with a medley of Jackson's medleys showing the evolution of his sound, his dance, and his costumes. One thing was consistent - the purity of his voice.
Jackson's father, Joe, walked the red carpet, pausing to tell the BBC that he couldn't talk about the independent forensic investigation. He confirmed, however, that Michael's three children, were with the Jackson family.
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