Michael Jackson was honored by his children Paris and Prince Jackson at the 2022 Tony Awards.
Taking to the stage on June 12, the brother, 25, and sister, 24, presented a performance by MJ: The Musical.
Prince and Paris Jackson presented MJ: The Musical
Prince began: “A lot of people seem to think our dad Michael Jackson changed popular music forever. And who are we to disagree?”
“But what people may not know is he loved musicals, on film and on the stage. That’s why we are so incredibly honored to introduce the night’s first nominee for best musical, ‘MJ,’ which, using many of his iconic hits, looks at the complexities and brilliance of our father’s process.”
MJ: The Musical illustrates the King of Pop’s life during his Dangerous tour.
In an interview with The Evening Standard, Paris opened up about her father’s influence.
She said: “I think he’ll always influence everything I do in some way, whether it’s subconscious or intentional.”
“I was around that creativity all the time, so I’m sure I learned a lot of what I have from that.”
Speaking about her and Michael’s taste in music, she added: “We listened to Kanye West around the house as well. I was always singing growing up. It was cool seeing the look on my dad’s face when he realized I could match pitch and harmonize.”
Michael Jackson was the father of Prince, Paris, and Blanket Jackson
In 2009, Michael passed away at the age of 50. His cause of death was ruled a cardiac arrest.
He was the father of three children, Prince, Paris, and Blanket, 20.
In a 2017 interview with Good Morning America, Michael’s eldest Prince said: “As we were growing up my dad always said, ‘I really don’t care what you do in life, as long as you’re happy doing it and you’re the best at what you do.”
“If you want to be a janitor at a high school, you should be the best janitor that you can be. So, I think that he would always be the supporting figure to me and my siblings and support us in all the endeavors that we try.”
He added: “My father was the King of Pop, and [my company] King’s Son Productions has this mantra where a title is earned, but a name is given. So, I was born as Prince, and that was the name my dad had given to me, but my dad had earned the epithet King of Pop, and that’s through hard work and years of training and everything that he worked so hard to get.”
“So it’s a form of motivation because my name is Prince, but for all [intents and] purposes, I am the King’s son — working to get my own epithet.”