Most families pick one Halloween theme and call it a night. Alicia Keys and her family picked music royalty, and Michael Jackson fans have been zooming in on their photos ever since.
The singer dressed as Janet Jackson, Michael’s little sister and a pop star in her own right. She went with a cropped denim jacket over a black top and fitted pants.
Her younger son, Genesis, came as Michael himself. He wore a sparkling black jacket with a fedora and sunglasses, and he struck one of those signature poses fans know by heart.
That pair alone could have won the night. That Grape Juice, a celebrity news site, even listed “Alicia Keys as Janet Jackson” among the best celebrity costumes of Halloween 2026.
But the costume that has fans talking belongs to her husband.
According to the fan site MJVibe, the producer Swizz Beatz came dressed as Quincy Jones. In the family’s photos, the Quincy look sits at a keyboard in a bucket hat and a light-colored outfit. It’s easy to scroll right past it if you don’t know who you’re looking at, and plenty of people probably did at first.
So who was Quincy Jones to Michael? He produced the albums “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad.” Put simply, he was the man in the studio who helped make Michael the biggest star on earth.
Their partnership paid off in a big way at the GRAMMYs. Watch the moment “Thriller” was named Album of the Year and the honor went to Michael and Quincy together.
Michael and Quincy win Album of the Year for “Thriller”
The family shared the photos with a caption that MJVibe reports as “The Dean Family Halloween, celebrating music icons.” Dean is Swizz Beatz’s real last name, so the whole thing was signed off as a family project.
Then there’s the timing.
Today, Nov 3, marks two years since Quincy Jones passed away at 91 at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles. A costume picked for a fun night out in late October now lands right on his anniversary. It reads like a tribute to all three of them at once.
Alicia stayed busy this Halloween, too. FASHION SIZZLE reports she also pulled off a David Bowie tribute look. Still, for Michael’s fans, the Jackson family set is the one worth saving.
If you want to understand why Swizz would choose Quincy, the best place to start is Quincy himself. In this Entertainment Tonight flashback, he looks back on making “Thriller” with Michael, and you can hear how much those studio days meant to him.
Quincy Jones remembers making “Thriller” with Michael
Take another look at the Halloween photos with all of that in mind. Most people spot the little Michael in the fedora first, and that’s fair, since he nailed the pose.
The man at the keyboard deserves a second look, though. On the day fans remember Quincy, one family found a sweet way to put him right back beside Michael again.