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On June 25, 2009, the world shuddered with the death of the king of pop. A decade later, he survives his enormous musical talent contaminated by accusations of abuse that recovered the controversial documentary ‘Leaving Neverland’.

Michael Jackson was a genius without discussion and at the same time a man more than questionable. It was black but it was also white. A unique talent and (perhaps) a terrible monster. An icon and a puppet. A phenomenon and a sick person.

Ten years after his sudden death, we remember from the hand of some of his fans all the faces of the king of pop.

“When Michael came to Madrid with the Bad tour in 1987, I was at the Calderon at two o’clock in the afternoon to get a good place and I could see the concert in the third row, then I got a tension slump and I had to see the rest It’s one of the concerts of my life .

Michael has been with me since when I was seven or eight years old, I bought ABC from the Jackson 5. We were almost contemporaries, he was only five years older than me. I already loved with his brothers and all his first solo stage is my favorite, especially Thriller and Bad.

Michael was special. There are many good artists, good singers, good dancers, but he was a star, he was different. He had a charisma and a personality that made him different. And the documentary has not changed that perspective. In an artist, I do not look for human virtue but for his art to move me inside. I also believe that we have the same data to think that the accusations of abuse are true as not. ”

CARLO PADIAL, WRITER AND FILM DIRECTOR

“I grew up hating Michael Jackson because I was a furious fan of Prince between the ages of 14 and 19. Then, I bought Off the wall, I heard face A and my head broke, I entered into a racket, all prejudices fell out. I understood that this was the work of a genius.

During the next 10 years, my admiration was growing until the moment of his death, which caught me in the fullness of my admiration. He agreed that he had discovered alcohol, until that time he had been abstemious, so it was a very special time… I remember crying while watching Man in the mirror.

The news of these years has not changed anything the value that I give to his music. So many people are disgusting… Why are we talking about Michael Jackson and not the Rolling Stones? We would end up not listening to music, so the most sensible thing is to ignore these things. ”

BEGONA VILLACIS, VICE MAYOR OF MADRID

“My first memory of Michael Jackson is what scared me of Thriller’s video when he came out, he was five years old and I was terribly afraid, although I imagine it was fascination.” Then when Bad arrived in 1987, I was so passionate about it. I did a special choreography at the end of the school dance.

I remember how passionately Michael lived in the United States. I lived there between 1993 and 1996, the years of high school, and it was the time when that beloved and admired character, who was considered not only a sensational singer but the best dancer of his time and to whom none of his successors overshadowed, He began to raise controversy about the change of skin color and, above all, his relationship with children.

Michael marked time and influenced all the music of the 80s and 90s in a decisive way. And I think you can not mix the work with the author. His work is good in itself forever; what he could do in his private life has no apology. ”

“My relationship with Michael is conditioned by an intimate friend who is the biggest fan imaginable, an obsessed person, to the point that he is a denier, he does not believe the news that has come out these years … I do not know … I do believe them In fact, I think we all saw it coming for many years, but it does not seem relevant either.

Not with Michael Jackson, not with Cèline or with Knut Hansum, no matter how Nazi they were, or with Ryan Adams, whose music I’m still a fan of, no matter how dark the denunciations against him are. What do we know about people? What do we know about seemingly unpolluted people? ”

“I find it hard to trust the justice of the ordinary courts, imagine how little I believe in the social networks, where the unemployed impose their dubious law, the heaviest one.” If Michael Jackson was a pedophile, they should have accused and tried him in life and in the courts to use.

We have in Spain and in the world hundreds, thousands of cases of pedophilia-related to the Church and it does not seem to matter to anyone the bullfighting that the Vatican people bring with those of the robes, all disguised.

Michael was a piece of a geek, he could see himself for miles. But, in addition to dancing, a skill that I value less, was an incredible interpreter and knew how to surround himself very well, and, apparently, to copy like the angels. Have you seen the Quincy Jones documentary? That has more unspeakable secrets than the children of Neverland! ”

“Michael is a figure that has marked our childhood and youth, many lives and great moments sound like Michael, music today has a lot of Michael, and without a doubt, he is one of the best artists in the world.

For this reason, for many years we have turned a blind eye to personal issues that today would be quite questionable. The society of that moment did not move the fringe when Michael said he liked to ‘sleep with children’ or that ‘their families sleep nearby but they always prefer to sleep in my bed’. Of all these things, among many eccentricities, I have been conscious after spending more than five months illustrating him, after drawing his childhood, his more than five different skin colors and the transformation of his face, and go looking for images of his life and of their daily life.

There have been a million unanswered questions … Why did not anyone help that battered child? Why the society of that time did not see something strange in their actions? Why were you allowed so many eccentricities? Was the music industry interested in Michael’s image remaining intact? Did he shout help with his actions and his thousand changes in appearance?

And the last: Although everything that is said of him was finally admitted and judged by justice, can we morally separate the artist from his person? I do not have the answer”.

“I’ve been an expert on Michael since he died, I did not know him until then, I was 14 years old, but that day I saw images on his TV doing the moonwalk and I became obsessed,” I remember the emotion with which I went with my mother to buy Thriller, open it, listen to it again and again … It’s still one of my favorite albums.

I was shocked by the first concert I saw on the internet, a live performance recorded in Bucharest in 1992, when I came out from under the stage to propulsion and stood alone in the middle of the stage before more than 40,000 people. I became an obsessed fan. I dressed like him, he even wore white gloves, people laughed at me, but I thought Michael would have encouraged me to do it. I bought parts of clothes that I had used in videos, old tickets, a photocopy of the will, many things.

I was shocked by everything about him, but he has especially inspired me at the level of energy, spirituality, soul, the most important thing about him. I have not seen the documentary Leaving Neverland nor will I see it, it does not deserve my attention or my desire. I support justice and justice said he was innocent. ”

” I remember the admiration I had for Michael as a child, the excitement we all had when a new video was announced, I remember seeing with my parents the premiere of Smooth Criminal, it is a childhood affection that I never left. I did not like Michael Jackson and I did not like the kind of music that was most important in my life, Extremoduro and things like that, but I always saw him with sympathy.

And, as there were always extravagant rumors about his life, as it was said to be extraterrestrial or that he wanted to stop being black, I quarantined all the denunciations against him. I was always skeptical when they treated him as an abuser. That is why, when I understood that the accusations are true, I did feel that his personal life disturbed the relationship with his music. ”

“I was a fan of Michael Jackson, of him, of Prince, of all the pointers … I liked dancing very much and he was the absolute referent, I remember the Jackson 5 and the impact of the Off the wall and then Thriller I remember going through the streets of Benidorm and seeing everyone in the bars, glued to the TV watching the video a thousand times, it was the 80s, the arrival of break dance and I remember it as a very exciting time.

Michael conveyed a great desire for improvement, a lot of work, and at the same time, they never ceased to be disturbing those images of him with a mask, the umbrella, the changes of color … That human level took me away from him. I never understood what was behind it. I have not been able to see the documentary and I do not like it to come out after his death, but if it is true what is told about him, it would be very sad that there was someone like that behind a genius. I would fall the character before such a monstrosity and it would be very difficult to separate it from his work …

However, nothing we can do. We are only spectators. Go away to know what is the truth behind Michael Jackson.”