Red leather jackets, the moonwalk and a high-pitched tone are all things that are synonymous with Michael Jackson.
However, it turns out that the King of Pop might not have been as softly spoken as we all thought.
A host of fans were left stunned after watching resurfaced footage of the late and great musician performing in Copenhagen in 1997 during the HIStory World Tour.
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During the show, Jackson stunned the audience by seamlessly slipping from his unmistakably smooth singing voice into a much deeper, huskier tone.
Take a look at this:
Jackson was belting out his 1991 hit 'In The Closet' when he got to the part which features female vocals from a 'Mystery Girl', who later turned out to be Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.
In the song, she utters in a sultry voice: "One thing in life you must understand, the truth of lust woman to man. So open the door, and you will see, there are no secrets. Make your move, set me free."
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Instead of imitating Princess Stéphanie's whisper-like sound, Jackson opted to utter the lines in a very low pitch.
Safe to say, if you had your eyes shut while watching the footage, you might not recognise that it's the 'Beat It' hitmaker singing.
Reddit users discussing the footage said they couldn't believe their ears when they first watched it.
One social media user wrote: "Holy s**t, I can't stop watching this. He was mesmerising. I never knew that he would break into his natural voice like that. That's crazy."
Another added: "So that was his 'real' voice??"
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A third added: "Hmm. It's Interesting. It sounds good tbh."
And a fourth wrote: "Damn, I haven't seen this until now, sounds cool. But a bit odd as well."
So... was that iconic high-pitched tone that Jackson carried throughout his life all a facade?
Well, according to some of the megastar's famous friends, the rumours that his natural voice was actually a lot lower were somewhat true.
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During an appearance on the 85 South Comedy Show in 2021, rapper T-Pain claimed that Jackson's real voice was 'as deep as s**t.'
“It was between where you think Michael Jackson is, and Prince," the 40-year-old said at the time. "It was in between that."
He then did an impression of Jackson, while describing his tone as 'deadpan'.
But if you don't believe T-Pain, just listen to what Jackson's good pal Liza Minnelli once said about how the star really sounded behind closed doors.
She reportedly overheard the musician using a much deeper voice than usual while on the phone to her then-husband and late film producer, David Gest.
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During an appearance on Larry King Live in 2002, Minnelli said of her rumbling him: "Michael, you’re busted. I got you now. All these years you’ve been talking in that voice."
She explained that she and Gest believed that the child star had crafted a public persona, which the high-pitched voice was a part of, to protect himself after years of pain and hurt.
"He's been hurt too much," Minnelli added. "I mean, people have said kind of rotten things about him. The person that we know is a rather regular guy, believe it or not."
Journalist Diane Dimond also jumped on the bandwagon in 2005, saying that Jackson had a 'big, deep voice'.
"Somewhere in there, especially if you bring him bad news or if you make him mad, his voice gets very, very deep," Dimond claimed.
"I was there one day when someone asked him about Gloria Allred, the attorney that has sort of dogged him and turned around in one foul swoop and said ‘She can go to hell’ in this big, deep masculine voice."
Either way... we probably won't ever hear anyone with a voice like Jackson's again.
Topics: Music, Michael Jackson, Celebrity, Weird, Conspiracy Theory
Olivia Burke