Three songs by Michael Jackson, at the center of a long-running controversy over the true identity of their performer, have been removed from streaming platforms, Sony and the late singer’s heirs said on Wednesday.
« Breaking News », « Monster » et « Keep Your Head Up » apparaissent dans la compilation Michaelreleased in 2010, a year and a half after the American superstar died of cardiac arrest.
The voice would not be that of Michael Jackson
Some fans claim that the vocals on these tracks actually belong to American singer Jason Malachi, which Sony denies.
The record company and the rights holders explained that they decided to withdraw these songs because it was “the easiest and best way to leave the debates around this song behind us, for good”.
This decision has nothing to do with the authenticity of these titles, they assured in a joint press release.
The other seven titles of the compilation remain available.
Michael was billed as an album containing unreleased songs, which the pop icon was said to have worked on in 2007. But some of his die-hard fans, and even family members, expressed their doubts, forcing Sony to defend the authenticity of the voice.
According to TMZ, Jason Malachi had acknowledged the facts in 2011 in a Facebook post, his manager then claimed that the message was falsified.