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Michael Jackson · S7 E2
Lisa Marie
The marriage, the MTV kiss, and the strategic calculation behind both
September 8, 1994, MTV Video Music Awards. Michael Jackson walks onstage, grabs Lisa Marie Presley, and kisses her on the mouth in front of the entire world.
You Are Not Alone, Michael Jackson (1995). The official music video features Michael and Lisa Marie Presley together, partially unclothed, in intimate settings. It is the only music video where Michael appears with his wife. The song became the first in Billboard history to debut at number one.
You Are Not Alone, Michael Jackson (1995)
Written and produced by R. Kelly, "You Are Not Alone" is one of the most tender recordings of Michael's career. The production is sparse by his standards: a simple drum pattern, piano, and strings that let the vocal carry almost all the weight. Michael's voice sounds more exposed here than on anything since "She's Out of My Life." It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the first song in history to achieve that.
Sources
HIStory album credits, Epic Records, 1995
Billboard Hot 100 chart history, August 1995
The Marriage
Michael and Lisa Marie married on May 26, 1994, in a secret ceremony in La Vega, Dominican Republic. Lisa Marie had finalized her divorce from musician Danny Keough just twenty days earlier. They had reconnected in 1992 and grown closer during the 1993 allegation crisis. The marriage was kept secret for weeks before the news leaked.
Sources
Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, J. Randy Taraborrelli, 2009
Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson, Randall Sullivan, 2012
TAP TO REVEAL: Was the marriage real or a PR strategy?
La Vega, Dominican Republic
The location of Michael and Lisa Marie's secret wedding ceremony on May 26, 1994. The remote setting was chosen specifically to avoid media attention.
The Public Performance
The MTV kiss was the public debut of the marriage, and it divided the world. Some saw a genuine couple, others saw a carefully staged publicity stunt. The skepticism was relentless: every public appearance was analyzed for signs of authenticity or performance. Michael and Lisa Marie separated in December 1995, and the divorce was finalized in January 1996.
Sources
Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, J. Randy Taraborrelli, 2009
The Marriage by the Numbers
D.S., Michael Jackson (1995)
One of HIStory's most aggressive tracks, and one of its most personal. "D.S." stands for "Dom Sheldon," a thinly veiled reference to Tom Sneddon, the Santa Barbara District Attorney who investigated Michael in 1993. The song is a furious attack on the man Michael believed was persecuting him. The marriage, the HIStory album, and this song all emerged from the same place: the wreckage of the 1993 allegation.
D.S., Michael Jackson (1995)
The lyrics barely disguise the target: "Dom Sheldon" is Tom Sneddon, and the song accuses him of pursuing a personal vendetta against Michael. Michael's delivery is contemptuous, almost sneering, over a hard rock production that sounds like nothing else on HIStory. It is one of the only Michael Jackson songs that directly names a real person as an adversary.
What record did 'You Are Not Alone' set when it was released in 1995?
The marriage ends, but the album it was meant to protect does not. HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album and the most expensive album campaign in music history, and it is Michael's declaration of war against everyone who doubted him.
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