Michael Jackson Hologram Steals the Show At Billboard 2014 Awards

There were many memorable moments at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards, but a Michael Jackson hologram stole the show overall.

The Michael Jackson hologram performed a previously unreleased “Slave to the Rhythm” Sunday night, beginning with a synchronized SWAT Team dancing until a curtain dropped revealing Jackson sitting on a thrown. The hologram (or perhaps someone impersonating MJ â€" reports say it was difficult to tell if the projection was indeed an image or perhaps a real person) sang and danced to the upbeat dance tune, which appears on the late King of pop’s recently released Xscape, in the same urgent, frenzied, and breathy tenors he gave Dangerous tracks like “In the Closet” and “Jam”.

A Michael Jackson hologram stole the show at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards.
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The performance was brief but in true Michael Jackson fashion the hologram moonwalked, crouched, and twirled its way across the stage dazzling fans.

The Billboard Awards show’s producers had tried to keep the Michael Jackson hologram under wraps, however it was leaked when two companies, including one that acquired the company that make the Tupac Shakur hologram at Coachella 2012, filed a lawsuit against the show. A judge rejected their claim, citing there was not enough evidence to support that the Billboard Music Awards was violating their patents â€" or even used their patents.

Jackson began working on “Slave to the Rhythm” when he was recording his 1991 album Dangerous. The version the hologram performed was “contemporized,” to us Xscape executive producer L.A. Reid’s word, by four producers, including the likes of Timbaland, Babyface and Reid, for the record.

Xscape contains tracks that Reid pulled from the Jackson family vaults, featuring material recorded between Thriller and his final album, Invincible. Reid then tasked a number of producers, including those listed above, to give the tracks a more modern edge. To show the differences in the versions, the album was released in two different configurations â€" one with the contemporized songs and a second disc with just the original versions.