The late King of Pop Michael Jackson was resurrected for a special performance at this year's Billboard Music Awards Sunday night. However, reaction from the entertainment industry everyone who have witnessed the remarkable feat live and on television screens were split, CNN reported.
Although MJ fans were quite thrilled of seeing their deceased idol perform after his sudden death prior to his global tour, others were scared about the prospect of dead artists like Jackson to be revived through hologram technology.
The spectral Jackson did a performance of his single "Slave to the Rhythym," which is one of the songs from his posthumous album titled "Xscape," CNN said. Jackson was joined by actual, physical dancers who echoed most of Jackson's raw onstage energy.
The Jackson performance was not so secret, considering the amount of time and money that might have spent on producing such a rare number on a public stage. The Los Angeles Times said that the annual awards show's tightly-guarded secret was blown open thanks to a lawsuit filed by companies Hologram USA Inc and Musion Das Hologram Ltd, who were seeking an injunction against the performance as the permission to use the technology was not obtained. Digital Domain, who had created a hologram image of celebrated hip hop artist Tupac Shakur after his untimely death, had filed for bankruptcy and subsequently sold the rights to the technology to Hologram USA. However, the judge ruled for the Billboard, and as such, the Jackson performance did happen.
But Soraya Nadia McDonald of the Washington Post questioned the future of using hologram technology to "resurrect" artists who have already died. She wrote, "The Jackson hologram raises some questions: Is this where we're headed? Long after Madonna is gone (or perhaps, as with Jackson's hologram, not that long), can we expect to see the Material Girl performing 'Holiday' in a Grammys tribute, suspended in digital formaldehyde, just the way she was in 1983? And if so, what good are music videos?"
