Jackson was a brilliant talent from an early age, bursting onto the music scene at age 11 when he joined The Jackson 5 with brothers Jackie, Marlon, Tito and Jermaine.

From the beginning, Jackson was recognized as the most gifted of a talented family and he quickly became the main drawcard and lead singer of The Jackson 5 at the age of 13. Jackson's remarkable life was shaped by the ambitions of his father Joseph, a steel worker and amateur musician.

But it was later that we know that Joseph Jackson routinely beat Michael and the other Jackson children — there were nine in total — and in later life the pop star recounted how deeply this abuse had affected him.



In 1979, Jackson released Off the Wall. The solo album was the first to generate four US top 10 hits, including the chart-topping singles "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You".

Three years later Jackson released his monumental album Thriller. His 13-minute music video 'Thriller' was released in 1983. In the video Jackson transforms into both a cat and a zombie. The music video f has been labelled one of the greatest clips of all time and was the first to be played on MTV.

Micheal Jackson had won eight awards for Thriller.



Featuring classics such as "Beat It" and "Billie Jean", the record is often cited as the best-selling album of all time, with worldwide sales between 47 million and 109 million copies.

1983, Jackson appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and debuted what would become his signature dance move, the moonwalk.

In 1984, Jackson was invited to the White House where President Ronald Reagan presented the pop singer with an award for his charity work and at the same time he appeared in the cover of Time magazine



Jackson never scaled the heights of Thriller again, although his next album Bad (1987) was a commercial success with up to 30 million copies sold worldwide and Dangerous (1991) also sold in the tens of millions. And in 1988, Jackson had a concert tour "BAD"



After Thriller was released, media attention began to shift from Jackson's music and on to his increasingly bizarre personal life. And Reports of Jackson's eccentric behaviour began to circulate. Photos of Jackson in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber were published, which Jackson was rumoured to sleep in to slow the aging process.

But he continue to perform at halftime of Super Bowl XXVII and in Bangkok during the opening concert of the Asian leg of his 'Dangerous' world tour in 1993.

In the same year, a 13-year-old boy made sex abuse allegations against Jackson, and prosecutors and police launched an investigation. A year later, Jackson struck an out-of-court agreement with the family in which he paid them about $30 million, a deal which halted the criminal case against him.



As Jackson's personal life was complicated by his meteoric rise to fame, he also started undergoing a dramatic physical transformation. Over the years, his skin became much lighter and he appeared to have had extensive plastic surgery on his face. Vanity Fair magazine reported in 2003 that the tip of Jackson's nose was actually a prosthesis.

In 1994, he stunned the public by marrying Lisa Marie Presley, the 26-year-old daughter of Elvis Presley. But sadly, the marriage ended in 1996.



He then married Debbie Rowe, a 37-year-old nurse he met while undergoing plastic surgery in 1997. The couple had two children, Prince Michael and Paris Michael Katherine, before divorcing in 1999.Jackson also had a third child, Prince Michael II (also known as Blanket), who was born to an unknown woman in 2002.


It was Prince Michael II who Jackson dangled as a baby from a Berlin hotel balcony in 2005, prompting fierce public criticism. Adding to his woes, Jackson was also hit by a flurry of lawsuits from former aides and promoters and from a slew of people suing over alleged unpaid bills. Last November, Jackson and Bahraini prince Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khal struck an "amicable" deal to avoid going to court in a multi-million dollar lawsuit.



Jackson's 2003 mugshot after his child molestation arrest for having boys sleep in his bed at the Neverland Ranch. He was released after posting $3 million bail.He received the Humanitarian Award from the African Ambassadors' Spouses Association at the Ethiopian Embassy in DC in 2004.







Jackson spent tens of millions on his beloved Neverland ranch in California, which featured two railway lines, two helicopter pads, its own fire department, a zoo and a plethora of amusement part-style rides. In a desperate bid to earn some cash, an auction of his quirky belongings — including the gates to his Neverland mansion — was slated for earlier this year. But the auction was cancelled after Jackson claimed it had never been authorised.



In death, Jackson has left behind a financial mess of epic proportions, with the singer's debts estimated at $620 million. This March he announced plans for a summer tour in London.
Jackson was due to have started a series of 50 sold-out concerts at London's o2 Centre next month, which were expected to net the singer around US$50 million.