Live Performances
Jackson performed "Thriller" on all three of his solo world concert tours. From the Dangerous Tour onwards, half the song was always performed by a masked backup dancer as Jackson prepared for his next song as part of a stage illusion. Despite Jackson performing multiple songs from his Thriller album, "Thriller" was not included on The Jacksons set list during their Victory Tour in 1984, as he wasn't satisfied with the way the song sounded live. Jackson performed "Thriller" during his first world tour as a solo artist, the Bad world tour, lasting sixteen months, from 1987 to 1989, for a total of 123 shows. During the Bad tour, in both legs, the jacket had flashing lights in the middle of the song and at the end. "Thriller" was also performed during Jackson's second world tour, the Dangerous Tour, where stage illusions were used to transition between "Thriller" and "Billie Jean". In the middle of "Thriller", Jackson secretly switched places with a masked backup dancer who finishes the song appearing as Jackson prepares for Billie Jean. When the song ends, Jackson appears fully dressed on the upper floor as "Billie Jean" begins. Jackson performed "Thriller" for all of his 82 shows during his third, and final, world tour, the HIStory World Tour. Once again, a masked dancer posing as Jackson was used as a stage illusion, this time to transition between "Thriller" and "Beat It". As with the Dangerous tour, Jackson switches with the background dancer in the middle of the song. At the end of Thriller, the masked dancer is taken by the zombie dancers into a coffin where it appears he is impaled with spikes and burned. Jackson would appear at the side of the stage in a cherry-picker, starting off "Beat It". Jackson had planned to perform "Thriller" during his 50-show concert series, which would have been his fourth concert tour, entitled This Is It from 2009 to 2010. For Jackson's performance of the song, he had planned for the stage that he was to perform on to be set up with a background that looked like a "graveyard" (which was a brief setting in the music video) with 3-D effects. According to a setlist that was released in March 2009, "Thriller" was to close out the 16-song show, although the film Michael Jackson's This Is It, which documents the concert series, lists 18 songs and "Man In The Mirror" as the closing song for the planned shows.
Read more about this topic: Thriller (song)
Famous quotes containing the words live and/or performances:
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