Most singers walk out from the side of the stage and wave hello. Michael Jackson had a very different idea.
On his Dangerous tour in 1992 and 1993, he didn’t walk out at all. A machine hidden under the stage shot him straight up through the floor and several feet into the air. He landed on his feet just as fireworks went off around him. That’s how Michael’s own official account describes it.
It was a huge tour. Michael played 69 concerts on it and sang for more than 3.5 million fans, and that flying entrance was how he opened the show.
One of the most famous nights of that tour came on October 1, 1992, in Bucharest, Romania. The stadium was sold out. Cameras were rolling too, because the whole show was being filmed for TV.
Here’s that entrance, put together from the concert footage.
Michael comes up through the stage in Bucharest
One second the stage was empty. The next, there he was in a sparkling jacket and dark glasses, standing in the smoke.
That night went out on HBO in America and on TV all over the world. It became the highest-rated special HBO had ever aired at that point. Years later the concert came out on DVD, so fans could watch the entrance again and again.
If you’d like to see the whole night, Michael’s official channel has the full Bucharest concert. The show opens with that same flying entrance.
The full Bucharest concert from Michael’s official channel
So what was that machine called?
Stage crews call it “the toaster.” Yes, like the one on your kitchen counter. According to the stage company PRG, Michael’s Dangerous tour was the first time this kind of lift was used. Today you’ll find toasters in theaters, on TV and at concerts.
When Broadway put Michael’s story on stage in “MJ: The Musical,” PRG built a brand-new toaster just for it, so the actor playing Michael could make the same entrance he made back in 1992.