MJ danced once more at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (May 18)!
Well not exactly…the late King of Pop entertained the crowd in hologram form for a performance of “Slave to the Rhythm” from his latest posthumous album Xscape.
The image eerily took on the personification of the late mega star, as he performed with a five-piece band and 16 dancers live onstage (some in hologram form, as well). The image of MJ used was from the 1991 Dangerous album era, as the vocals of the song were taken from those recording sessions.
The set was choreographed by Rich and Tone Talauega, who choreographed Jackson’s 1997 HIStory tour and 1995 VMA performance. About the dances, they said, “We knew we didn't need to go so far left field with his dance moves — we just kept it within his world. Its just the way you reconfigure his steps so it looks different. You're still speaking the same language, it's just a different dialect."
This performance comes after a lawsuit by tech companies Hologram USA Inc. and Musion Das Hologram Ltd. who claim their patents were infringed upon by Billboard, but a judge ruled against it.
While the image didn’t look exactly like MJ, the hologram’s moves seemed spot on. Check out MJ's ghostly return to the stage below:
