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Should the "You Are Not Alone" rehearsals from 2009 be released?

AlwaysThere

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So, the "Stranger in Moscow" rehearsal clip got me thinking...

There are several numbers that were cut from the This Is It documentary for various reasons, among them "You Are Not Alone." Via his YouTube channel, Jonathan Moffett confirmed that the band did have the song prepared, but I'm unsure whether or not it was ever rehearsed with Michael. But for the sake of the conversation, let's say it was -- even if briefly.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the ongoing R. Kelly controversy. Given that he wrote "You Are Not Alone," releasing that footage would require the Estate/Sony to pay him royalties. I'm not sure how this would translate legally since that he's currently incarcerated, but nevertheless, credit would need to be given.

On top of that, there's the lingering question of how the public will respond to a new Michael Jackson project post-2019. Support is still surging, but whatever large-scale project comes next will certainly draw attention. Releasing "You Are Not Alone" would only guarantee plenty of "accused child abuser sings song written by accused child abuser" article headlines.

So, therein lies the question -- if the Estate decided to release the remaining songs, should they include "You Are Not Alone"? Or should they avoid it at all costs?
 
I say it’s better to not release You Are Not Alone. Michael doesn’t need any more bad press.

I rather they release rehearsals of Stranger In Moscow, Will You Be There, Dangerous... if they exist.
 
AlwaysThere;4288331 said:
So, the "Stranger in Moscow" rehearsal clip got me thinking...

There are several numbers that were cut from the This Is It documentary for various reasons, among them "You Are Not Alone." Via his YouTube channel, Jonathan Moffett confirmed that the band did have the song prepared, but I'm unsure whether or not it was ever rehearsed with Michael. But for the sake of the conversation, let's say it was -- even if briefly.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the ongoing R. Kelly controversy. Given that he wrote "You Are Not Alone," releasing that footage would require the Estate/Sony to pay him royalties. I'm not sure how this would translate legally since that he's currently incarcerated, but nevertheless, credit would need to be given.

On top of that, there's the lingering question of how the public will respond to a new Michael Jackson project post-2019. Support is still surging, but whatever large-scale project comes next will certainly draw attention. Releasing "You Are Not Alone" would only guarantee plenty of "accused child abuser sings song written by accused child abuser" article headlines.

So, therein lies the question -- if the Estate decided to release the remaining songs, should they include "You Are Not Alone"? Or should they avoid it at all costs?
Click to expand...

‘You Are Not Alone’ has another problem that is going to give rise to additional bad press.

Remember, ‘You Are Not Alone’ plagiarized the ‘If We Can Start All Over’ song (1993) written by the Belgian songwriters Eddy and Danny Van Passel.

The melody of ‘You Are Not Alone’ is taken from the ‘If We Can Start All Over’ song.

R. Kelly at the time failed to support his claims (that he did not plagiarize that song) by providing some very weak arguments.

On September 4th 2007, the Brussels Court of Appeal ruled that decision of plagiarism.

Also, R. Kelly wrote ‘You Are Not Alone’ in a very short period of time which also shows that he plagiarized the ‘If We Can Start All Over’ song.

As a result, ‘You Are Not Alone’ was banned from broadcast and it cannot be played for commercial purposes in Belgium.

In case of a possible 2009 rehearsals release of ‘You Are Not Alone’, this plagiarism case is going to resurface and also to trigger big, bad press headlines for both R. Kelly and Michael Jackson.

Here is the ‘If We Can Start All Over’ song (1993):

[video=youtube;8mWlxgHJ9_Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mWlxgHJ9_Q[/video]
 
Nite Line;4288334 said:
I say it’s better to not release You Are Not Alone. Michael doesn’t need any more bad press.

I rather they release rehearsals of Stranger In Moscow, Will You Be There, Dangerous... if they exist.
Click to expand...

I think Will You Be There rehearsals exists. At 3:04 there's a brief clip of Michael and the backing dancers doing part of the dance routine
[video=youtube;LoFgmxvf4yo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoFgmxvf4yo&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
AlwaysThere said:
So, the "Stranger in Moscow" rehearsal clip got me thinking...
Click to expand...

It's a fan montage, I don't think it actually shows Michael singing SIM. It's just one short line that remotely looks in sync with the audio. Not too hard to put something like this together for any song when enough video material is available.




Regarding You Are Not Alone, I think you are overthinking this a little. :)

Why would anyone bother if some old rehearsals are released of that song? It would only make sense to add it to a rerelease of "This Is It". Or just as a "leak" on YouTube. And who besides fans will notice this anyway?

And R.Kelly is getting paid royalties anyway as long as the song is available to buy/stream. He doesn't have a say in how the song is released / used.

As long as the estate isn't trying to make You Are Not Alone the new Corona hymn, I don't think there would be any problem. :D
 
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Of course it should. I'm sure they will release the movie on Blu-ray/dvd again with unseen footage at some point. I don't think there would be bad press if the song was included. Its not like it would be released as a single or something.
 
I would say YES.

No need to cut YANA out. - I really doubt that it will give bad press.

I think no press would write about MJ re-releasing TII movie with an extra song...
 
If they do release the unseen rehearsals from This Is It I would want to see YANA too. The general public probably doesn’t know of R Kelly’s involvement in the song and if they find out I don’t think they’d really care. Michael made it his own anyway.

We shouldn’t celebrate the fact that MJ worked so closely with R Kelly but I think the situation would be different if Kelly had a feature on the song instead of just a songwriter’s credit.

Also I think MJ’s reputation has been on the up recently and a new release could help bolster that reputation.
 
AlwaysThere said:
So, the "Stranger in Moscow" rehearsal clip got me thinking...

There are several numbers that were cut from the This Is It documentary for various reasons, among them "You Are Not Alone." Via his YouTube channel, Jonathan Moffett confirmed that the band did have the song prepared, but I'm unsure whether or not it was ever rehearsed with Michael. But for the sake of the conversation, let's say it was -- even if briefly.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the ongoing R. Kelly controversy. Given that he wrote "You Are Not Alone," releasing that footage would require the Estate/Sony to pay him royalties. I'm not sure how this would translate legally since that he's currently incarcerated, but nevertheless, credit would need to be given.

On top of that, there's the lingering question of how the public will respond to a new Michael Jackson project post-2019. Support is still surging, but whatever large-scale project comes next will certainly draw attention. Releasing "You Are Not Alone" would only guarantee plenty of "accused child abuser sings song written by accused child abuser" article headlines.

So, therein lies the question -- if the Estate decided to release the remaining songs, should they include "You Are Not Alone"? Or should they avoid it at all costs?[/QUOTE
Click to expand...
 
AlwaysThere said:
So, the "Stranger in Moscow" rehearsal clip got me thinking...

There are several numbers that were cut from the This Is It documentary for various reasons, among them "You Are Not Alone." Via his YouTube channel, Jonathan Moffett confirmed that the band did have the song prepared, but I'm unsure whether or not it was ever rehearsed with Michael. But for the sake of the conversation, let's say it was -- even if briefly.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the ongoing R. Kelly controversy. Given that he wrote "You Are Not Alone," releasing that footage would require the Estate/Sony to pay him royalties. I'm not sure how this would translate legally since that he's currently incarcerated, but nevertheless, credit would need to be given.

On top of that, there's the lingering question of how the public will respond to a new Michael Jackson project post-2019. Support is still surging, but whatever large-scale project comes next will certainly draw attention. Releasing "You Are Not Alone" would only guarantee plenty of "accused child abuser sings song written by accused child abuser" article headlines.

So, therein lies the question -- if the Estate decided to release the remaining songs, should they include "You Are Not Alone"? Or should they avoid it at all costs?
Click to expand...

Kenny Ortega once said they choosed footage for "This is It" out of 10 hours if not more of video, so they should have some full song performances, that have not been on the film.
 
I would have expected them to have included the Unseen rehearsals as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations. Perhaps they are saving them for the 15th or even 20th? Only time will tell, of course.

With there being (I believe 6 maybe 7 songs) currently unreleased: Stranger In Moscow, Dirty Diana, Heal The World, Dangerous, Will You Be There,You Are Not Alone? and We Are The World (band & backing singers).. Maybe others.. Maybe not.. Would anyone support a re-release in movie theaters or perhaps a Netflix exclusive or as a digital download? There are so many options to do this and guaranteed in the future their will be even more.
 
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I have no opinion about it, it's one of his least good songs imo

What I do want to know is, why is the song not on Spotify?
 
Yes, everything from TII should be released that's not already been released
 
Not bothered about more culled rehearsal footage.

Don't think anyone would care in the public either.

Agree this has been overthought.

The only thing I can see mileage in here is, how will the public react to the next large-scale posthumous MJ event/product/release? And this is why I suspect the Estate are in no rush.
 
Also, R. Kelly wrote ‘You Are Not Alone’ in a very short period of time which also shows that he plagiarized the ‘If We Can Start All Over’ song.

As a result, ‘You Are Not Alone’ was banned from broadcast and it cannot be played for commercial purposes in Belgium.

In case of a possible 2009 rehearsals release of ‘You Are Not Alone’, this plagiarism case is going to resurface and also to trigger big, bad press headlines for both R. Kelly and Michael Jackson.
Click to expand...

This is so god damn stupid. They banned it? As if it's Michael's fault that R. Kelly ****ed up? Why not just have them pay some royalties to the original writer? It's not that hard. Banning it, pfffft. Censorship is so stupid.
 
elusive moonwalker;4288490 said:
Scraping the barrell? Talk about looking for negativity inorder to create a conversation.
Click to expand...

Have to agree here feel like it’s an odd discussion point
 
analogue said:
I think Will You Be There rehearsals exists. At 3:04 there's a brief clip of Michael and the backing dancers doing part of the dance routine
Click to expand...

I reallllyyyy hope that he rehearsed WYBT with live vocals, but I doubt it. WYBT has always been a lip sync song unfortunately... And what the hell.. The back up dancers are rehearsing the choreography of 2 Bad as well.. Was this part of Dangerous or where they going to perform that song as well?
 
Doggone said:
I reallllyyyy hope that he rehearsed WYBT with live vocals, but I doubt it. WYBT has always been a lip sync song unfortunately... And what the hell.. The back up dancers are rehearsing the choreography of 2 Bad as well.. Was this part of Dangerous or where they going to perform that song as well?
Click to expand...

He did rehearse Will You Be There with live vocals. You can hear him sing it for a couple of seconds on the Memories Of Michael bonus feature.

0:28 (in the background) ; 0:42 (the poem)
 
dethorro said:
He did rehearse Will You Be There with live vocals. You can hear him sing it for a couple of seconds on the Memories Of Michael bonus feature.

0:28 (in the background) ; 0:42 (the poem)
Click to expand...

Great spot!! Never noticed this before
 
dethorro said:
He did rehearse Will You Be There with live vocals. You can hear him sing it for a couple of seconds on the Memories Of Michael bonus feature.

0:28 (in the background) ; 0:42 (the poem)
Click to expand...


Didn't they fiddle a lot with the audio in TII? (Putting in older rehearsal audio etc)
As long as it's not a longer sequence actually showing him singing it during TII rehearsals I'd be careful believing where it's actually from. Could well be snippets from the Dangerous tour rehaersals or so.
 
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Electro said:
Didn't they fiddle a lot with the audio in TII? (Putting in older rehearsal audio etc)
As long as it's not a longer sequence actually showing him singing it during TII rehearsals I'd be careful believing where it's actually from. Could well be snippets from the Dangerous tour rehaersals or so.
Click to expand...

They never used old rehearsal audio in This Is It, as far as I know. They used demo vocals here and there and Beat It seems to be from the Victory Tour.
To me, it sounds like the This Is It band playing.
 
dethorro said:
He did rehearse Will You Be There with live vocals. You can hear him sing it for a couple of seconds on the Memories Of Michael bonus feature.

0:28 (in the background) ; 0:42 (the poem)
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. Never have heard this before.
 
I honestly don't care for this song. so they can do whatever they want with this. i'll say be careful due to the r. kelly thing. other than that i really don't care about it.
 
Here's something I've always wondered. When Michael had the female fan on stage with him for YANA was he lip syncing or was he singing to them with his mic switched off?
 
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