Michael Jackson has added five more concerts to his historic return to the stage at London's O2 Arena, making this a half-century of shows. Tickets are available across all 50 shows for the general sale at 7am, Friday 13th March 2009.
New records have been set: the biggest audience ever to see an artist in one city; the most amount of people to attend a series of arena shows; the fastest ticket sales in history.
The gigs have even caused controversy amongst the UK political establishment, with a cartoon in The Sun newspaper this morning depicting Prime Minister Gordon Brown stealing Michael Jackson tickets to sell on and boost the British economy. But with fans traveling from over 200 countries to see the shows, a genuine boost to tourist industry is a reality. After all, the world has always flocked to London to see royalty, The King Of Pop is continuing in a great tradition. Three-quarters of a million people in the UK alone have bought their tickets and fans have been camped out at The O2 Arena since last night, stopping at nothing in their quest to see Michael Jackson.
By the end of the 50 concerts, 1 million fans will have witnessed one of the greatest musical events in history. The figures speak for themselves - 360,000 tickets sold in 18 hours during the pre sale so far, that is 20,000 tickets per hour, 33 tickets per minute!
Michael is said to be "thrilled" by the response and wanted as many fans to share the experience with him as possible. This will be the last chance to see the King of Pop in London, this really is it!
Randy Phillips, President & CEO of AEG Live, commented, "Not only are these concerts unparalleled, these records will never be broken! We knew this was show business history, but this is a cultural phenomenon."
One of the world's most popular entertainers, Michael Jackson has sold over 750 million units worldwide and is one of the very few artists to be inducted twice into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognised Michael Jackson as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time and Thriller as The Biggest Selling Album of All Time. Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards and received the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award.
(China.org.cn March 13, 2009)
