Michael Jackson’s 1983 performance of “Billie Jean” on Motown 25 lasted only a few minutes, but it became one of the most famous moments in pop history. What viewers did not see was how much control Michael reportedly took behind the scenes. He was not simply arriving, dancing and leaving the television director to figure out the rest.
Motown executive Suzee Ikeda later recalled that Michael told the production crew exactly how he wanted the stage to look. She said he specified the lighting, where the spotlight should be placed and even gave the director a hand signal to watch for. In her words, when it came to his solo performance, “He directed them.”
Watch Michael Jackson’s Legendary Motown 25 Performance
The dancing itself had a much more spontaneous beginning. Michael later wrote that the night before the taping he went into his family’s kitchen, blasted “Billie Jean” and allowed the rhythm to guide him. He began posing, stepping and building the routine alone. He said much of the finished performance developed naturally rather than through a completely fixed choreography.
There is one important correction to the popular version of this story. Michael did not suddenly invent the moonwalk during the actual performance. He said he had been practicing the move for some time and decided in the kitchen that he would finally perform it publicly on Motown 25. Earlier rehearsal was much looser though. Michael recalled simply walking through “Billie Jean” because he had been concentrating on rehearsing his brothers.
See Rare Motown 25 Rehearsal Footage
That difference makes the final performance even more interesting. Michael had prepared individual moves and knew the moonwalk was coming, but the full television moment was not rehearsed into the ground exactly as audiences eventually saw it. When the cameras rolled on March 25, 1983, he combined that preparation with instinct, then the broadcast reached millions on May 16.
Michael Jackson would go on to create Thriller, “Beat It,” “Bad” and some of the most carefully staged performances in pop history. But Motown 25 showed that instinct long before his biggest tours. Michael knew where he wanted the light, when he wanted the camera’s attention and exactly when he wanted the audience watching his feet. Then he slid backward across the stage and created a television moment people are still talking about more than four decades later.