Michael Jackson refused to perform hit song for royal before realising his mistake
Topics: Princess Diana, Royal Family, Music
Simon Fearn
Featured Image Credit: Phil Dent/Redferns
Topics: Princess Diana, Royal Family, Music
With the new Michael Jackson biopic Michael making an absolute killing at the box office, there’s understandably been renewed attention to the singer’s life.
And one thing many don’t know about Jackson is that he shared a close friendship with a member of the Royal Family - but ended up sticking his foot in it when he finally met her in person.
The story begins at the point the Michael film ends, during the singer’s first solo tour in 1988 to promote his Bad album.
This included a stop at Wembley Stadium, where he met King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, and his then-wife Princess Diana.
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At the time, Jackson had donated £150,000 to the Prince’s Trust, the charity King Charles founded to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
While it was obviously an honour to have royalty at his gig, it put Jackson in a bit of an awkward position.
The Bad album featured the number one single ‘Dirty Diana’. The lyrics see a groupie seduce a singer, promising to be ‘his night lovin' thing’ and ‘the freak you can taunt’.
With the Princess of Wales in the audience, Jackson decided having such a risqué song about the Diana's namesake wasn’t the best look.
He said in a 1997 interview with Barbara Walters: “I took it out of the show in honor of Her Royal Highness."
But, unfortunately for him, it turned out to be Diana’s favourite song of his.
He told Walters that when Diana asked if he was going to pay ‘Dirty Diana’, he said: “‘No, I took it out of the show because of you.’ She said, ‘No! I want you to do it. Do it. Do the song.”
Sadly though, it was too late at that stage for the song to be put back in the setlist.
According to Biography, during the concert, Diana got up and danced while Charles remained seated.
The late Princess Diana was a known fan of pop music, having attending concerts by Duran Duran and Dire Straits, and sometimes caught busting some moves too.
She shared a close friendship with Queen’s Freddie Mercury, and also with Michael Jackson.
Jackson told German media in 1999: “Diana woke me up usually late at night… mostly after three in the morning! And then she held me for hours on the telephone. She talked about children, the press.”
Jackson’s former bodyguard Matt Fiddes told the Daily Star: “[Jackson] felt she was the only person in the world who could understand his life in terms of not being able to go anywhere, and the media stories that got out of hand.
“The intrusion into the private life, having no privacy whatsoever, the children being hounded.”