The memorial 'was an orgy of praise, an exercise of excess and quantity, much like Jackson's life.' -- PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON - MICHAEL Jackson's memorial, 'part musical feast, part religious experience,' was praised on Wednesday in US news media as a spectacular service befitting the life of a superstar. Attendees at the star-studded farewell 'cried, swayed, laughed and gawked' at the service that was 'religious pageant meets awards show,' wrote the New York Times.
The memorial on Tuesday in Los Angeles, watched by an estimated global audience of several hundred million, was enough of a spectacle to draw the kind of media attention normally reserved for a papal visit, the Times said, noting that 2,500 journalists got credentials to cover the event. Eulogies flowed as mourners including rock stars and athletes gathered for the two-hour celebration of the King of Pop's life, less than two weeks after his death at the age of 50 in Los Angeles.
The show, according to the Washington Post, was in the 'transcendent tradition' of Jackson's past performances. It was 'part musical feast, part religious experience, part examination of a man who seemed not a man, but something else his public was always trying to figure out,' the Post said.
The memorial, the daily noted, 'was an orgy of praise, an exercise of excess and quantity, much like Jackson's life.' The Los Angeles lauded the memorial as being by turns 'sombre, evangelical, thunderous and hushed' that still managed to be as polished as it was emotional.
It also quoted the memorial's producer Ken Ehrlich, a longtime Grammy Awards producer, as saying the event's pacing was designed to mirror the memorial services of African-American churches, mixing together uplifting music performances, fiery speeches and poignant pauses.
'People had time to think about what they had heard before we went on to the next order of business,' Ehrlich told the Times.
In Washington, the Politico.com website examined Texas lawmaker Sheila Jackson-Lee's speech at the service in which she revealed a 1,500-word resolution honoring Jackson as a 'global humanitarian.'
As Democrats in Washington take on the high-stakes battles of health care legislation and action on climate change, lawmakers 'will now have to moonwalk through the minefield of Jackson's oddball behavior, drug abuse and relationships with young children,' the political site said.
'There's no appetite for this,' a lawmaker in the House of Representatives told Politico. 'We have too many other things to deal with right now.'
The resolution could provoke controversial debate on the floor of the US legislature, days after a Republican representative slammed Jackson a 'pervert' and 'a child molester.' In a two-minute video posted on the YouTube website, lawmaker Peter King complained that tributes to Jackson - acquitted in 2005 of child molestation charges - honoured a 'low-life.' -- AFP
