World reacts to Michael Jackson death

With the death of pop star Michael Jackson at the age of 50, BBC correspondents report on the reaction around the world.

STEVE ROSENBERG, BERLIN
I'm standing in the waxwork museum Madame Tussauds in Berlin where the Michael Jackson waxwork has been moved into the foyer. There is a special book of condolences which visitors can sign after coming into the museum.
The waxwork museum is almost directly opposite the Adlon hotel. This is where Michael Jackson stayed in 2002 when he came to Berlin to pick up a music award.
And it's where he very controversially dangled his own baby out of a top floor window, showing off the child to fans down below.
At the time, German police considered launching an investigation into the affair. They never did and despite the incident Michael Jackson remains supremely popular in Germany.
Reacting to the news of Michael Jackson's death the German economy minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, said the pop star had been a truly great artist who met a tragic end.

ZUBAIR AHMED, MUMBAI
Television networks in India abandoned normal programmes to run news of Michael Jackson's death.
Popular news websites and portals have wall-to-wall coverage of the pop star's death. Mourners have been posting condolence messages on their favourite websites.
The singer, who was a huge name in India, had come to Mumbai 13 years ago when he performed at a packed concert.
He was invited by a right-wing Hindu nationalist party and his visit had become controversial, with some questioning how his music was connected to Hindu culture.
Regardless of the controversy, a whole generation of Bollywood music directors have been influenced by his music.
Some have been accused of plagiarising his tunes. His dance sequences have also left a deep impression on Bollywood stars of the 70s and 80s.

NICK BRYANT, SYDNEY
On the east coast of Australia people awoke to the news that Michael Jackson had suffered a cardiac arrest, and heard that he'd died by the time they reached work.
The main television networks have been interrupting their schedules to carry special programmes, radio stations are playing some of his most popular hits, and fans are leaving tributes on web and social networking sites.
Walking through the streets of Sydney this morning, his signature song Thriller could be heard coming from passing cars.
People here are likening his death to the passing of other musical greats, such as Elvis Presley and John Lennon.
There's been a conflicted response. There's enormous respect here for his musical talent and his extraordinary stagecraft, but there's been criticism too at what many people clearly feel was a sometimes unhealthy relationship with young children.

ROLAND BUERK, TOKYO
Japanese television networks broke into normal breakfast programmes to carry coverage of Michael Jackson's death, and a text alert was sent early in the morning to people who subscribe to mobile phone news services.
The singer was a huge star in Japan - a country he visited often over the years. It was here in 2006 that he made his first official public appearance, at an awards ceremony, after being acquitted at his trial.
He came again a year later and a screaming mob of fans greeted him at the airport. There were more crowds outside a downtown electronics store where he went on a shopping spree.
And hundreds of people paid more than $3,000 for a ticket for what was known as a fan appreciation event.
It featured a buffet dinner, Michael Jackson impersonators, and a chance to be in the same room as the singer himself - but not to see him to perform.
Michael Jackson's popularity was perhaps knocked less here by the scandals that surrounded him later in life.
People in Japan seemed more willing to overlook his much-publicised troubles and see him just as a great performer, and that's how he'll be remembered.


JONAH FISHER, JOHANNESBURG
Michael Jackson first visited Africa at the age of 14, as the lead singer of the Jackson Five.
Emerging from the plane in Senegal, he responded to a welcome of drummers and dancers by screaming: ''This is where I come from''.
Returning for an African tour 19 years later, the king of pop was crowned chief of several African villages.
But the trip quickly turned into a public relations nightmare, amid allegations of police beating the crowds and complaints in the local media that the pop star had been seen holding his nose.
Michael Jackson's most tangible contribution to Africa came at the peak of his career in the mid-80s, when he co-wrote the charity song We Are The World with Lionel Ritchie.

Sung by a group of leading artists, the single topped charts around the world, raising awareness and more than $50m for famine relief in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/8120505.stm

Published: 2009/06/26 12:56:05 GMT