The King of Pop makes HIStory
in Hawaii, performing to one of the
largest audiences ever
By John BergerSpecial to the Star-Bulletin
Rumors and controversy aside, many have good reasons for showing up at the King of Pop's Aloha Stadium shows tomorrow and Saturday.
Jackson is the only artist ever to sell-out the Aloha Stadium for back-to-back shows. Official ticket sales have not been announced; if a normal sell-out for Aloha Stadium for concert setup in the football configuration is 35,000 that means roughly 7 percent of Hawaii's population will be there to witness the closing of the HIStory World Tour.
Tickets for the first show sold out in four hours. Tickets for the second went almost as fast. It was an experience most ticket buyers won't forget.
Susan Tejada stuck it out at Aloha Stadium from "about a quarter of four (in the morning)" until past noon the day tickets went on sale. Tejada was pushed into a drainage ditch, almost trampled when token distribution began, and soaked to the skin after other Jackson fans trashed her umbrella in the pandemonium.
"I like his music and I really wanted to see him, but I've never been in a situation like that before. It was like being in the middle of a riot. People were going crazy, screaming, cutting in line and climbing over the fence to avoid paying (to get in to the stadium). I couldn't believe what I went through but a lot of people say I'm lucky."
Tejada and her husband, singing postal worker Arsenio Tejada, are lucky indeed. It's been years since a concert attraction of Jackson's caliber has played Hawaii. There aren't many - the short list would include his sister Janet, Madonna, Streisand, the KISS reunion, and maybe the Rolling Stones - acts that big don't play Hawaii. Now comes Michael.
Jackson's following here spans generations. A "Korean grandmother" told Moffatt she'd bought tickets for herself. Nine-year-old entertainer Mariah Seneca wasn't even a twinkle in her father's eye when Jackson first topped the Billboard Hot 100 with "I Want You Back" as a member of the Jackson Five in 1969. Seneca says she likes Jackson's "robot dancing and his songs."
If she could meet him, she says, "I'd want his autograph."
Teen performer Aiko Schick, who also waited for tickets, doesn't consider herself a hardcore Jackson fan but respects him as "a really good singer and dancer."
Dancer-actor Mahi'ai Kekumu describes Jackson as "absolutely phenomenal, just awesome. The way that he has kept himself going all these years on top - and getting better and better - is absolutely amazing. I think he was born with the talent but he's worked so hard and done so much that I think people who criticize him should just relax."
Kekumu views Jackson as an entertainer rather than tabloid fodder: "I know a couple of people whose feelings (about him) have changed (for the worse) and that's how they feel. I've heard (the stories) but as I look at him all I see is talent and this awesome person who has brought so much to the world."
"Michael will work at something until it's perfected and even then he's never completely satisfied. He always wants to perform at 110 percent, and always wants to surpass himself," says Sy, the professional Jackson impersonator who performs six nights a week at Legends in Waikiki.
Sy, a slender thirtysomething entertainer, grew up in the Chicago area, knew of the Jackson Five before they signed with Motown, and has been portraying Jackson for more than 13 years.
"Michael is very alert and aware to what's going on technology-wise and music-wise. He also does a lot of research on anything that interests him - old movies, cartoons, some kid dancing on a street corner. He'll pick it up, perfect it and put his own stamp on it from Barbra Streisand to James Brown."
Sy said tabloid writers often sensationalize unusual aspects of Jackson's personal life, such as his interest in cosmetic surgery.
"I don't look like Michael when I'm not made up to look like him. Michael without makeup doesn't necessarily look like that either. I think you'd find he doesn't look as Anglo-Saxon as people think, but every time he goes out in public it's like he's on stage and in costume so that's how he portrays himself.
"Yes, he could use makeup to make himself look darker if he wanted to, but he does have vitiligo, and I think he likes certain features - the cleft chin, the strong jaw line and a small nose. It's as if he wants to look like nobody else but (also) wants to look like people he admires at the same time. He doesn't want to just be like the average guy."
Other news has been more troubling. In 1993 a teen-ager claimed that he had been sexually compromised during the time he and his mother had been members of Jackson's entourage. A legal settlement netted the alleged victim an undisclosed amount estimated to be in excess of $15 million.
Jackson's management may have thought the deal would end public interest in the allegations, but the issue continues to sputter.
The tabs also had a field day covering Jackson's marriage to Lisa Marie Presley. Current fodder for pulp journalists is his recent marriage to Debbie Rowe - some are even speculating in vulgar detail as to how and by whom Michael's child was conceived.
And hardcore fans are willing to dismiss rumors about Jackson's unconventional personal life.
"Kids are not judgmental the way adults are," Sy said. "They don't see color and they don't relate to him as someone with a lot of money or someone who can advance their career. If they ask him a question it's out of curiosity - not malice or to dig up dirt on him.
"My nephews and nieces were kids when I first started doing Michael Jackson (impressions) semi-professionally in 1983-84 - they liked him. Kids now like him. I think a lot of kids relate to his showmanship and the things he does. Music to him is not just a job, it's an adventure."