Unheard songs of the King of Pop

Rare compositions

An exclusive first listen of the album ‘XSCAPE’ by the internationally beloved music icon – late Michael Jackson (MJ), was held recently at Opus.

The album of unreleased songs by the legendary ‘King of Pop’ has been a much awaited one by his fans worldwide and a few in Bangalore were the lucky ones who got to experience and hear it even before its official launch.

Hosted by Sony Music, the evening witnessed Luke Kenny, one of India’s self-proclaimed ‘biggest MJ fans’, taking people through the entire album. The album features eight new tracks that the select MJ fans in the City got a chance to listen to. Produced by Epic Records Chairman and its CEO LA Reid, ‘XSCAPE’ features the title track and songs like ‘Chicago’, ‘Loving You’, ‘A Place With No Name’, ‘Slave To The Rhythm’, ‘Love Never Felt So Good’, ‘Do You Know Where Your Children Are’ and ‘Blue Gangsta’. 

At the event, the story behind making this album was also shared – LA Reid, after digging up Jackson’s archives by the Estate, was granted unlimited access to the treasures representing four decades of material on which Jackson had completed his vocals. And that’s how this compilation came to be made. But it wasn’t just an audio treat but a visual one too with a 20-minute-long documentary on MJ that left everyone spellbound. Another unique element to the event was artist-animator Rob enthralling the crowd with his art, which he performed over the song ‘Love Never Felt So Good’.Speaking on the occasion, Rob said, “Sony Music has given me a huge opportunity by letting me showcase my work. The art piece that I created at the venue is my tribute to the legendary Michael Jackson and his album.”

Luke was enthusiastic throughout the event and kept the crowd’s energy and excitement levels up. "There is no one like MJ!” he exclaimed. “The album is something we have all been waiting for and there’s definitely no XSCAPE from it! Bangalore was great fun and the audience was very interactive. It's a huge opportunity to listen to the album even before its global release and Bangalore was a lucky city to experience it,” he said.