HIStory era:
(Only a part of it. I’ll put the HIStory tour concerts in Part 2)
Once again there was a huge buzz going on before album release! ”Michael Jackson is going to release an album!” AAAAHHHH!!!!! The wait between Bad and Dangerous had felt like FOREVER so the possibility of getting a new album ”ALREADY”…I was EXCITED!!!!! I think it was about a week before the album was officially released (at least if my memory isn’t COMPLETELY failing me..but it could’ve been just a couple of days too
) you were able to listen to the whole album in the record store. They had this table with sort of bar stools in front of it with headphones attached to the table to be able to listen. I couldn’t resist the temptation to listen but it was also torture at the same time because I was in the middle of a record store listening, so I had to try to keep my ”cool” and my reactions to a minimum.
But I can still remember hearing the album for the first time there and being BLOWN AWAY by it and I remember that Earth Song especially immediately got me!
I couldn’t WAIT until I was able to get the CD in my hands and was able to listen to it from start to finish at home IN PEACE and get to study the booklet!
When I FINALLY was able to go buy it…the way home from the record store felt like FOREVER!!! It was TORTURE!!! But in a good way!!!!
I kept playing the CD non-stop after that!! LOVED it!!
Then later that year I heard that Michael was going to be performing on this TV show called ”Wetten, dass..?” in Germany. I was able to win a trip from Sony to go see him.
So I called my friend and off we went!! We travelled with the Sony people, so…when we arrived at the airport, there was a driver with a sign saying ”Sony”, ready to take us all to our hotel.
Turns out that Michael’s people had been using the same black cars with tinted windows, so when we arrived at the hotel (we stayed at the same hotel as Michael
)…fans came running towards the cars…and I was just thinking ”Nothing to see here!! We’re just fans too!!”
When we got out they realized we were ”no one important” so as quickly as they had run towards us…they quickly ran back to where they came from.
So we get out, the driver takes our suitcases out…and this guy comes and takes our suitcases and I panic and I’m like ”Hey…..!!!!! He took our bags!!!!!!!! Hey..!!!!!! HE TOOK OUR BAGS!!!” thinking he’s stealing them!!
And the Sony people laughed and were like…he’s just taking them into the hotel for you. And I was like ”Oh..!!!”
(Me and my friend were both pretty young and had never stayed at a five star hotel before so we had NO clue how it all works.
) So we get inside and the guy who had taken our bags comes to me asking me what room I’m in and once again I’m panicking and like ”I DON’T KNOW!!!”
and the Sony people once again have to help.
So we get into our room..and…yeah…you can imagine our reaction!! Wow!!
There’s a knock on the door and the suitcases arrived..the guy takes this thing out of the closet and puts them on that thing and me and my friend try not to laugh. We just thought all that was SO funny because we didn’t think it was necessary.
But by that time we had figured out that he’ll bring our suitcases up and we probably need to give a tip too…so we give him a tip, he leaves…and we CRACK UP!!!
We check out the room and once we go into the bathroom….we LITERALLY almost PEE IN OUR PANTS from laughing so hard when we see there’s a TELEPHONE next to the TOILET!!!!
Like…WHY?!!!!
Like…do people ACTUALLY use it? And WHAT FOR?!!
To call to get someone bring them more toilet paper? Or to come wipe their butt?
At that point we were just literally rolling on the floor laughing!! We just got a kick out of it all and thought it was just TOOOOO FUNNY!!!!
So we started joking around and started taking photos of each other sitting on the toilet pretending to be talking on the phone and coming up with reasons why we would need to call someone from the TOILET…and just DIED laughing.
And we’d take photos of each other in the empty bath tub with clothes on and with (empty) champagne glasses in our hands.
We just got a kick out of it all! We thought it was just HILARIOUS!!
And we’d RUN across the room and THROW ourselves onto the bed…while the other one took photos…trying to catch the other while they were in the air to look like we’re flying or levitating.
We were just having a BALL!!!!
So we finally checked the view from the window and saw that there were TONS of fans directly below us. We knew Michael was staying in the same hotel but I didn’t understand the concept of actually waiting outside to possibly get to SEE him yet.
Like, I didn’t know or understand that you actually could see him that way. So instead of standing outside…we went to see Cologne and saw the beautiful cathedral and walked around a bit.
Then it was time to get ready to go to the show. Since we were Sony’s guests, a driver was going to take us. The show was outside of Cologne, in a city called Duisburg. So we got to the venue, and the Sony people tell us that we’ll get front row seats. So we head that way…and this guy there tells us that all the seats in front of the stage are reserved for fans because Michael wants the fans there. We try to explain that we ARE fans and we’re with Sony but they don’t let us take any of the seats, let alone front row seats.
Yeah….imagine my disappointment.
I’m supposed to be in the front row….but I can’t get there.
Even the Sony people try to tell them that we’re with Sony…no chance. ”It’s only for fans.”
So my friend and I feel completely lost and try to find seats SOMEWHERE. ANY seats. But pretty much all the good seats anywhere in the front even behind the fans are taken.
So we decide to go up towards the back. We figured we’d be able to see Michael better from there since we’re higher. So we get settled and I take my banner out. I had made a banner at home that says ”KING OF MUSIC”. The media had been making fun of Michael calling him ”self-proclaimed King of Pop” and it made me SO ANGRY…So I thought ”Self-proclaimed?!!!! Self-proclaimed my a**!!! I proclaim him the KING OF MUSiC in that case!!! So you can all EAT IT!!!”
I knew the show will be televized so I thought ”HA!!! I’ll show you, you stupid idiots in the media!!!! Eat THAT!!!”
A bunch of people performed before Michael…including Cirque du Soleil. They were awesome! After their performance, they came into the audience and were standing almost directly behind me on this platform because apparently they all wanted to see MICHAEL too!!!
So finally it was Michael’s turn….The host wasn’t even able to really announce him when everyone already was SCREAMING!!!
So ”Dangerous” starts and the audience goes NUTS!!!!!! They had also set up a huge video screen outside for fans who weren’t able to get a ticket and there were THOUSANDS of fans!!! I was told they had never done anything like it for anyone else before!! I was watching Michael and singing along and held my banner up the whole time and my pink Disney heart with baby Minnie and Mickey on it. Once the song ended, I kept jumping up and down like an excited kid and kept cheering!!!! Michael then left the stage…and the host was trying to calm the audience down but everyone kept screaming for Michael!!!
After several minutes, the audience finally calmed down and the show continued. And then…it was Michael’s turn again..it was his world premiere for Earth Song and once again the audience goes NUTS!!! So I sing along at the top of my lungs and sway to the beat with my banner and pink heart..and then Michael gets on the cherry picker…and he gets closer to me!!!! AAAAHHH!!!
Then the song ends and when Michael says ”I love you all” I scream ”WE LOVE YOUUUUUUU!!!!” at the top of my lungs!!
So the show is over…our driver takes us back to the hotel…and the Sony people tell us that there is an after show party in the hotel and all of Micharl’s people are going to be there and we are invited as well.
So we go to our room to bring our stuff there and then go where the party is. There’s security at the door but the Sony people tell them that we’re with them so they let us in. There are these high, round tables with white table clothes, without chairs, a buffet with all kinds of food (but I was WAY too nervous to eat anything so I literally just took two leafs of salad
). And you pretty much could get any kind of beverage you wanted…so I took a glass of orange juice.
At the back of the room was a big screen and there was a couch in front of it. As we got in, the Sony people started mingling and me and my friend stayed by ourselves. ALL of Michael’s people were there: Michael Bush, Karen Faye, Charles Bobbit, Benny Collins, all of the dancers….and I was just SOOO nervous because I’m so shy!!!!
I kept saueezing my elbow so hard from being so nervous that i had a bruise on it the next day!
They started playing Michael’s performance from the show from earlier on the video screen and all the dancers were on the couch or standing around it and watch themselves perform and it looked like they were having a lot of fun. I kept watching from further away and tried to see and Benny Collins happened to be standing next to me so he was like ”Michael was great, wasn’t he?!” and I was like ”Yeah!” and he told me to go closer to the screen so I can see better and he probably realized I’m really shy because he said again ”Go ahead! It’s okay! You can see better if you’re closer!”I thought that was so nice of him! So me and my friend went closer to where the screen and all MJ’s dancers were and I had to try NOT to watch it like I’d watch it at home like ”OMG Michael!!” and stare at the screen like:
. Anyways, so then we were told that Michael is going to go to an amusement park the next day and he has invited fans to go with him. We knew we were leaving the next day so we were like ”Oh no!!! I hope we can make it!!!”
So the next day we get driven to the amusement park and only his fans are let in, no one from the press is allowed in. They tell us that we are allowed to take pictures with our own cameras if they are normal cameras and not the press type with big lenses. So then Michael comes to greet us all and then leads us through the park to different rides and we’re allowed to go on all the rides for free!
At one point we all start singing ”You Are Not Alone” for him and he listens and smiles. It’s getting later and later and our flight back home gets closer and closer….so me and my friend have to leave!
I KNOW!!!! NOT FAIR!!!
We RUN back to the entrance and get driven back to our hotel and the Sony people are like ”How was it?” And we talk a bit and they also ask us if everything was okay with our room and if we liked the minibar with all the candy. And my friend and I look at each other and go ”Oh…we didn’t know if we were allowed to take anything so we didn’t eat any of the candy.”
So then we left and while we were at the airport…my friend and I kept going over the whole weekend and were both like ”NO ONE IS GOING TO BELIEVE US if we tell them we were at an AMUSEMENT PARK WITH MICHAEL JACKSON!!!”
Like imagine calling friends and family like ”I just saw Michael Jackson perform, were at a party with all of his people, stayed in the same hotel as him and then went to an amusement park with him. And how was your weekend..?”
Like….NO ONE is EVER going to believe us!!!!!!
About a month later I heard in the news that Michael had collapsed during rehearsals in NYC and was taken to the hospital! I was SO SCARED and SO WORRIED about him!!!!
I PRAYED he’s okay and I’ve never felt more relieved than when they finally showed a picture of him leaving the hospital and told us he’s okay!!
And at home like…..*sits RIGHT in front of the TV*…*keeps PAUSING the tape…rewind…pause…..rewind…pause..pause….pause…rewind…pause it frame by frame…. and look like 
while watching…REWIND …and get up and try to learn the choreographies…or jump up and down in front of the TV to the beat and go ”Woohooo!!!” because you’re too excited to watch it sitting down!! 
. Actually I once (kind of by chance) found myself outside his hotel, but that was a shit show due to the fact that the dangling incident happened. To be honest, I'm not sure how I would have reacted would I have ever met him in person, maybe I would have turned into that crazy screaming fangirl....well thats what I actually did, during the concerts 
. Once I actually scream so loud during a calm part of the Dangerous concert that MJ noticed me - he pointed at me and waved...all the fans around me were like OMG MJ just waved at you. I actually never tell this story because it sound so obnoxious and insane, but it's true!
. COMPLETELY silent. Not a peep coming out of my mouth. Just smiling so much my cheecks were hurting!