Michael Jackson’s death, possibly the most covered event of the year to date – having occupied the covers of almost every publication on the newsstands and achieved what every politician and leader could only dream of. He brought together people of different nations, different cultures, different languages and different generations as they remembered the life of the last music great.

By Wong Yeang Cherng

Our island remembers the wonders of this individual who crossed all boundaries, be it in music, dance, race and even geographical location. But for this Singaporean family, Jackson was what held them together despite the fact that he was 8, 782 miles away in Los Angeles.

For Joshua Simon, 19, a third-year Film, Sound and Video student from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, it was a tumultuous morning the day news of Jackson’s death broke.

He recalls, “I had this big fight with my dad the night before. I was planning to run away from home the next morning. In the morning of my planned escape, my dad ran into my room… and told me the news of MJ’s passing.”

“I didn’t believe it. I actually thought he wanted to ruin the one thing that connected the family.”

For the Simon family, of which Jackson and his music has saturated the lives of for more than 2 decades, a nothing-too-fancy, but befitting tribute says it all.

“We specially stayed up late at night to watch his funeral and bought new CDs of Michael Jackson to remember our music icon,” recounts Mr Magdalene Simon, Joshua’s father.

Nostalgia evidently lends a sort of sentimentality to Magdalene’s face whenever Jackson’s songs like “I’ll Be There” and “Billie Jean” come on, since the songs hold particularly fond memories of the old secondary school days when he and his friends “would gather in [the] shopping centre just to watch the music videos”.

Amidst Jackson’s countless masterpieces, the track “Thriller” from the 1982 album of the same name is “by far, the best” for Magdalene, although he quickly adds that it “doesn’t in any way lessen the albums that came before or after”.

It comes as no surprise to find out that the Simon family is an entire fan base on their own that spreads across all three generations of them.

For one, Joshua’s late Indian grandmother had a memorable and quirky way of crooning to the beat of the popular track “Beat It”.

“That is the first song I heard her sing in English. I’ll always remember her singing it with the thick accent. It’s hilarious yet heart-warming,” he recounts fondly. For Joshua, the track is his anthem, and his form of escape from bullying when he was younger.

“I’d replay the song on my discman back then and just go crazy yelling inside, imagining myself in the music video.”

Even Joshua’s mother, who is the least fanatical of all, couldn’t help but catch Jackson’s funeral service the day it was broadcast ‘live’ on local television.

“She’s a quiet Chinese woman who appreciates Jackson’s ballads like “Human Nature” and “Man in the Mirror” “, Joshua claims.

With the passing of a legendary superstar, especially one held so dear by the family, or the Ghandi of music as Magdalene describes, Jackson’s legacy is perhaps most appropriately summed up in Joshua’s own words.

“I remembered asking God why and the only thing I heard was… I created him and the world dissed him so I’m calling him home so the world will remember.”