They sang his songs among the stars and imagined him dancing across the moon, and for a few hours, during this most public of memorials, all eyes were on Michael Jackson for one last time.
Twenty thousand people gathered inside the Staples Center on Tuesday for a somber, spiritual ceremony, watched by untold millions more around the world as they celebrated a man whose immense talents almost drowned beneath the spectacle of his life and fame.
A star-studded lineup of performers closely linked to Jackson’s life and music reached back for the essence of the man. They remembered Jackson as an unparalleled singer, dancer and humanitarian whose music united people of all backgrounds.
"Don’t focus on the scars, focus on the journey,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose fiery eulogy was an emotional high point of the service. "Every time he got knocked down, he got back up,” Sharpton said, and the applauding crowd again jumped to its feet.
Daughter’s message
Sharpton rode the moment, building to a crescendo. "There wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with!” he said to Jackson’s three children in the front row, drawing the longest ovation of the service.
Jackson’s daughter, Paris-Michael, later provided the surprise of the service: the first public statement of her 11 years.
"Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father I could imagine,” she said, dissolving into tears and turning into the embrace of her aunt Janet. "I just want to say I love him so much.”
Unlike Jackson’s life, the ceremony was not spectacular, extravagant or bizarre. Outside the arena, however, the celebrity-industrial complex that Jackson helped create flourished.
More than 3,000 police officers massed downtown to keep the ticketless at bay, and helicopters followed the golden casket as it was driven over blocked-off freeways.
by the associated press
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