Jackson Vienna Tribute Moved to London—and 2010

Jermaine Jackson had big plans for his brother Michael’s tribute concert in Vienna this September. He was lucky enough to land an a-list lineup, a royal castle-like stage, and a date that was close enough to his brother’s passing to be appropriate.

However, it seems, in the past weeks his luck has begun to run out. After numerous artists began denying that they were available for the tribute, and Vienna seemed to undermine the a-list quality of the people involved—Akon , Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole, Chris Brown, to name a few—Jermaine felt that the tribute was losing its “last big hoorah” factor. Thus, only one choice was left, to cancel the show.

Jermaine released the following statement in about having to cancel:

“Many artists and performers who I have spoken to personally told me that it would be a great honor to be part of this memorial concert for my late brother — an artist who influenced the music world like virtually no other. However, due to the short time frame it was not possible for many of them to change their schedule so that they could be on stage in Vienna on September 26, therefore we decided, after careful consideration, to change the date of the tribute concert to June 2010 — just a few weeks before the first anniversary of his untimely death. Now we have 8 months to put this monumental show together and not just 8 weeks. Despite the short amount of time we would have been able to stage a great show, in keeping with Michael’s high standards, but numerous starts were just not able to change their schedules to make a live appearance at the Vienna event possible.”

As a result, the concert has been moved to Wembley Stadium in London where, Jermaine feels, the concert will gain more respect for the involved artists and still fit with what Michael would have wanted. The date is currently set for June 2010—just weeks before the one-year anniversary of Michael’s death.

-Marie Baginski
Currently listening to “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson

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