Fans Memories Of Michael

Moyun is a well known Chinese musician for her covers of famous songs played on a guzheng, a Chinese zither.

She has played The Eagles, AC/DC and the Guns N’ Roses with millions of views on her YouTube channel.

The anonymous player has now tackled Michael Jackson ‘Beat It’ and it is incredible.



www.youtube.com/@moyun/featured

It’s 18th September 1996 and Michael Jackson arrives in Warsaw for the HIStory World Tour.

A crowd gathered at the airport to welcome the King of Pop. Among them, a children folk band “Pruszkowicy” who sang the local song “Kukułeczko, gdzie żeś ty bywała”.

One of the children is little Anna Tokaj who is only 8 at the time.

“To this day, I do not know how our director organized it, that we were invited from so many bands all over Poland, it was really a distinction”, recalled Anna Tokaj in a recent interview for Polish local press.

Anna was selected to step out of the line and give Michael a gift: a doll in the local folk costume, the same she was wearing. Michael’s manager then suggested that she come closer and personally hand over the gift. Delighted, Michael thanked her for the gift, and after a while he took her by the hand and walked a few meters on the tarmac.

Anna recalls that the meeting with the King of Pop was accompanied by great emotions. “Everybody started screaming, squealing, they stopped singing. After that, these older bandmates would come up to me, grab my hand, I didn’t know what they were doing, I didn’t understand it,”, adding that there is one thing she still can’t forgive herself for today.

Just before the performance, Anna was told not to take cards or pens with her to the airport, because everyone assumed that Michael would not have time to sign autographs for anyone. However, if she had not listened to this advice, today she would have a souvenir not only in the form of photos. “This man is a symbol for me, because as one of the few Polish women I had the opportunity to be with him like that, many fans would “kill themselves” to be in my place, and I accidentally got there and it is special for me” said Anna.

Anna is now married and proud mother of two children in Pruszków near Warsaw.

"My name is Nancy. I live in the Santa Ynez Valley, near Michael Jackson's beautiful ranch, Neverland. I've been a fan of his since he was with the Jackson Five, and I knew he was a celebrity who lived next door — but that's about it.

One morning, while my husband and I were still asleep, the doorbell rang. Wrapped in a robe, I ran to open the door, hoping to be one of my husband's colleagues.

To my great surprise, it was Michael Jackson!

He smiled as if sure I was waiting for his visit. He said his name out loud several times, and I looked at him to make sure it was him or a person he looked like. I looked around confused: there were no photographers, no crowds, no commotion around. Just a car with a driver.

I looked at him again, asking, "Michael Jackson?"

Seeing my confusion, Michael asked if this was the address he was looking for. I said no, but I found out the names of the people he was looking for and knew lived in our area. He sincerely apologized, explaining that he was going to visit the family where a child had cancer. He once again apologized for having the wrong address.

I told him if I would agree to come in while I went looking for the right address. He agreed. Meanwhile, I rushed to the bedroom to wake my husband up. "Get up now!" "I just told him. I didn't bother to explain that we had a visit from Michael Jackson!

My husband went to the kitchen to see what was going on. His reaction was very similar to mine.

"Michael Jackson?"

He said in astonishment!

As I searched for the address, Michael walked into our living room, ran his fingers over the piano keys, and asked about the photograph of my daughters (who were adults at the time and studying in another city). Then it was on to the kitchen, where my husband made a coffee. They chatted until I finally found the right address. I rewrote it to Michael and gave it to him along with instructions on how to find the right house. He thanked me, apologized again for bothering us, and then set out to give the sick child the biggest surprise of his life.

I was very impressed with her politeness and courtesy. It was a rare chance to meet Michael Jackson on the day he brought joy to a sick child.

Nancy Crabtree's testimony published in the memoir "It's all about L.O.V.E.: Michael Jackson stories you were never meant to read

40 Fingers is an Italian guitar quartet born in 2017 from four artists with entirely different musical background and each well-established on Italy’s music scene through their many individual projects.

40 Fingers are Matteo Brenci, Emanuele Grafitti, Enrico Maria Milanesi and Andrea Vittori.

After successfully releasing their music on the internet, causing a sensation with the rearrangement of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen which now counts almost 9 million views on YouTube, the band was recently highlighted by the official Queen website thanking them for creating such a lovely version of their famous tune.

They tackle Michael Jackson music with a superb medley starting with “Black or White”, followed by “Smooth Criminal”, “Beat It”, “I Want You Back”, “Human Nature”, “Billie Jean”, “Thriller”, and finishing by “We Are The World”.

Three years later, at the same high school, my English teacher (who was my first MJ fan friend) gave me the news that would change my life forever: "Michael is coming to shoot a video here!" My heart raced, my breath ran out, and we've already started making plans on how to get close to him.

A week later it was decided the place where he would record, Morro Dona Marta, in the South Zone of (my) city. Some politicians tried to stop it, claiming that it would tarnish the city's image. "Why doesn't he record in Copacabana?" shouted one of them! What they didn't understand was that MJ wanted to show the poverty of this community, but not to denigrate, but to expose this problem that needed to be solved!*

*In fact, it helped a lot. After his time in the community, the government of Rio de Janeiro created a pacification program in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Dona Marta was the first to have this program implemented. Nowadays the hill is totally pacified and even a tourist spot. In 2010, I even participated in the inauguration of a life-size statue of Michael, which was installed on the slab where he recorded the video, at the top of the hill.

The day has come! In the early hours of February 11 of that year (1996), Michael landed in Rio de Janeiro, after a full day of filming in Pelourinho, in Salvador.

I arrived at the door of the hotel around 5 am and there were already several fans there!

Around 9 a.m., Michael appears for the first time on the balcony (he appeared 5 times in total, an hour at each window, joking with fans). He danced, waved, shouted, played with the couple of children who accompanied him, all in front of us, in front of Copacabana Beach (where I currently live).

Approximately 3 hours later, a crowd of security guards began at the door of the hotel, announcing the departure of the King of Pop.

My mother, who is largely responsible for my love for Michael and who screamed more than I did on this occasion, informed herself and discovered that the hotel had no helipad and no police follow-up scheme (as in every time MJ made a trip through the city) waiting for Michael, at the hotel. That is, he would have to take the helicopter somewhere. And the closest place where this would be possible was the Copacabana Fort, in front of the hotel.

We rushed to the door of the Fort, contradicting the crowd of fans who remained at the door of the hotel. But let's face it, Michael couldn't walk out the front door, he'd be crushed!

It seems that luck was on our side, less than five minutes later, a green van appears at the end of the street (closed by the police), with the rear window open. From a distance, you could see a hand sticking out and people running next to the car. Yes, it was MJ's hand. Waving to all those who strolled through Copacabana on that beautiful summer morning.

As he got closer, Michael put half of his body out of the van and started shaking hands with people. A fact that struck me a lot and that contradicts this whole image of recluse and cool that people like to say he had, was the fact that he shook hands with a garbage man who was sweeping the street. Just imagine, in one hand the garbage man carried his broom and the other shook hands with the biggest phenomenon in the world recording industry.

When Michael finally arrived at the door of the Fort, I was trying to get closer to the car when the security guards made that famous barrier to prevent the fans from getting closer.

Once again I had a little push from God, because I was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Michael on it and, believe me, MJ had thrown a t-shirt just like it, to the fans, from the balcony of the hotel. When he saw me, trying to get closer to him and wearing his shirt (which he surely thought was the one he threw in the early hours), he motioned for the security guards to let me pass and so I did. The car stopped for a few seconds, Michael held out his hand to me and with no action, I held mine out to him. I couldn't say anything, but he thanked me for being there, gave me a bullet and, squeezing my hand, uttered his most famous phrase: "I Love You."

When the car was gone, his smell was all on my hand and since then I wear the same perfume he wore that day."

by Leandro Lapagesse, music producer in an interview for MJVIPClub