In February 1996, Michael Jackson and director Spike Lee arrived in Brazil to shoot a music video — and the Rio de Janeiro government did everything it could to stop them.
The song was “They Don’t Care About Us,” from the album HIStory. It is the angriest record Michael ever made — a protest song about injustice, poverty, and people who are ignored by those in power. And he wanted to film it somewhere that proved his point.
He chose Santa Marta, one of Rio’s favelas — hillside neighborhoods of densely packed homes where some of the city’s poorest people lived.
Michael Jackson – They Don’t Care About Us
The authorities were furious. Rio was trying to win the 2004 Olympics, and officials did not want the world’s most famous entertainer broadcasting images of poverty across the globe. They accused him of exploiting the poor. One state official even demanded editing rights over the finished video.
A judge went further and banned the filming outright.
An injunction overturned the ban — and the shoot went ahead.
What happened next is the part the officials could not control. Santa Marta residents were thrilled. They did not see a man exploiting them. They saw somebody who wanted the world to look at a place it usually ignored. Crowds packed the streets and rooftops around him. Around 1,500 police helped seal off the area.
RARE Michael Jackson Making of They Don’t Care About Us (MTV)
In the middle of it all, a moment made the final cut. A woman broke through security and threw her arms around him. Then a second woman grabbed him from behind — and Michael went down onto the street. Police pulled them away, Spike Lee helped him up, and he got straight back up and kept dancing.
In Salvador, he danced with Olodum, the famous Afro-Brazilian drumming group, in the old town of Pelourinho.
There is now a statue of Michael Jackson on the spot in Santa Marta where he performed — paid for in 2010 by the same state government that once tried to stop him.