Put on “In the Closet” and listen closely. Under Michael Jackson’s voice, a woman whispers and talks her way through the song. She’s right there in your ear, close enough to touch.
Look at the album notes for her name and you won’t find one. She’s listed only as “Mystery Girl.”
The song came out as a single in April 1992, from Michael’s “Dangerous” album. Even Billboard magazine couldn’t work it out. Its review that spring said there was “much speculation” about who the mystery girl was, and then asked its readers, “Any ideas?”
Plenty of fans had ideas. Some were sure it was Madonna. Others guessed his sister Janet.
The Madonna guess wasn’t as wild as it sounds. The song was first planned as a duet between the two biggest pop stars of the day. Madonna later said she worked on some ideas for the words and brought them to Michael. “He didn’t like them,” she said. So that plan fell apart, and Michael went looking for someone else.
Here’s the song as it sounds on the album. Listen for her voice.
The Mystery Girl’s voice on the record
When it came time to film the music video, the woman on the record wasn’t in it. Michael danced in the desert with the supermodel Naomi Campbell instead, and Naomi recorded those spoken lines again for the film. So the face you see isn’t the voice you just heard.
Michael and Naomi Campbell in the “In the Closet” video
So who was she? The answer turned out to be a real princess.
The Mystery Girl was Princess Stéphanie of Monaco. Her mother was Grace Kelly, the Oscar-winning Hollywood star who left the movies to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956.
Michael reportedly asked her to sing on the song in 1991. The whole thing was kept secret, and she reportedly recorded her part in a single day. Her name stayed off the record, and fans went on guessing for a long time before the truth came out.
Michael had picked someone who could really sing. Stéphanie already had a singing career of her own. Back in 1986, her first single “Ouragan” went to No. 1 in France and became a hit across Europe. Here she is singing it on French TV.
Princess Stéphanie singing her own hit
“In the Closet” became a big hit for Michael. It reached No. 6 in America and No. 1 on the R&B chart, and it made the Top 10 in 10 countries.
The original album notes never did name her. On one of Michael’s biggest songs, the daughter of a Hollywood legend is listed simply as “Mystery Girl.”