Watch Footage Of Michael Jackson’s Last Rehearsal

It’s a chance to see what might have been now that CNN has released a video of Michael Jackson rehearsing for his London This Is It! shows at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on June 23rd, just two days before the pop star’s death.

The footage shows Jackson and his backup dancers performing choreography to the song “They Don’t Care About Us.”

Watch the Michael Jackson concert rehearsal footage below.

AEG Live, the company staging the 50 This Is It! concerts at London’s O2 Arena, provided CNN with the video.

The pop superstar, wearing a dark suit and red patterned shirt, sounds pretty good in the clip. It’s hard to tell if he’s lip-synching or not, but nevertheless, it appears the concerts were going to be quite the spectacle.

It’s part uplifting to see Jackson perform and part sad because this is all we are left with of the King of Pop doing his thing. It’s actually quite poignant at the end of the clip; the song ends and we hear the ‘hold for applause’ instructions over the p.a. system as the lights slowly fade to black over Jackson.

It’s rumored that the clip is part of more than 100 hours of footage that could be turned into live albums, a movie and a pay-per-view special. No word about how the official website might be incorporated into any future media releases, but hopefully the ‘net won’t take a backseat to other distribution platforms.

Randy Phillips, president and CEO of concert promoter AEG Live, has said they have enough audio to make two live albums. Seeing as Jackson has never recorded a live album, that might be the first project out of the box.

Between Jackson’s debt (and its effect on the estate) and AEG’s financial loss surrounding the canceled London shows, the rehearsal footage may well end up being the golden goose. Money is going to be made on this wealth of footage, it’s just a matter of how best to sell to the public.

There is going to be a fine line in the marketing/publicity/product strategy in re-packaging, and, in some ways, re-introducing Michael Jackson. It might be way, way out there, but it’s there.

“He was our partner in life and now he’s our partner in death,” said Phillips in an interview at Staples Center. “If we all do our jobs right, we could probably raise hundreds of millions of dollars just on the stuff we have worldwide and then the estate could eradicate its debt.”

The video clip was released a few days after Phillips denied reports that Jackson was frail during his last rehearsals at the Staples Center.

AEG has offered full refunds for the sold-out London concerts, which had generated almost $85 million in ticket sales.

The Jackson family estate and AEG are going to joined together for a long time to come, so let’s hope things stay convivial. In the end, hopefully everyone will be happy — the public gets a treasure chest of Michael Jackson content and the estate and AEG make their money.

What do you think about the rehearsal footage?

Further Reading:

• Michael Jackson Tribute Concert Cancelled
• Michael Jackson To Receive Lifetime Achievement Grammy
• This is It Earns Over 100 Million Dollars
• This Is It: Movie Review Redux
• Michael Jackson’s Glove Sold for $48,000
• Hear Michael Jackson’s Single, This is It
• Michael Jackson’s MTV VMA Tribute
• Michael Jackson Finally Laid To Rest In L.A.
• What If Michael Jackson Is Still Alive?
• Prince Considering A Michael Jackson Tribute Performance
• Videos of Speeches and Songs at Michael Jackson’s Memorial
• Michael Jackson’s Death Boosts Album Sales
• Michael Jackson’s Life in Pictures
• Michael Jackson: Life in Videos
• Michael Jackson Has Died