I told you exclusively last week that Michael Jackson would appear in the form of a hologram on the Billboard Music Awards this Sunday.
Here’s an update: the Jacksonian projection will “sing” or perform to “Slave to the Rhythm,” a track from the “new” “Xscape” album released officially yesterday.
“Slave” is a fragment of music Jackson left behind, recorded in the 1980s. Last year, Justin Bieber put out a version with his vocal on it after Jackson’s kids gave him an MP3 file of it. That version was not used on “Xscape.”
The hologram is either 3D or 2D, a la the 2012 “Tupac Shakur” which shook up the Coachella Music Festival that year. That image was created by John Textor, the same man who is said to be putting together the new one. Textor is rather a controversial figure these days. His company, Digital Domain, went bankrupt soon after going public in 2012. Investors were left high and dry. He has a new firm now, and is aiming at making holograms out of any dead celebrity whose heirs or executors want to resurrect them. Elvis Presley may be next.
By the way, the people themselves, not just their careers, have to be dead. Mel Gibson wouldn’t count.
Ghoulish or foolish? I guess we’ll see what the reaction to this is on Sunday.
