Thirty years ago tomorrow, Michael Jackson stood in front of about 40,000 people in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was October 27, 1996, at a big open-air ground called Stadium Merdeka. The King of Pop, the biggest star in the world at the time, played there again two nights later. Those were the only shows he ever did in Malaysia.
Here’s a short piece of that very show.
Michael on stage in Kuala Lumpur, October 27, 1996
But the story people in Kuala Lumpur still tell isn’t about the stage. It’s about the four quiet nights he spent upstairs.
Michael stayed in an 18th-floor suite at the Concorde Hotel, which belonged to his host in the city, a businessman named Tan Sri Syed Yusof Syed Nasir. His daughter, Sharifah Farrah Soraya Syed Yusof, was 12 when Michael came to stay. She still remembers what her father did after the visit. “After he left KL, my father named it the Michael Jackson suite, or Room 1818,” she said.
The welcome had been loud. Drummers playing the kompang, a traditional Malay hand drum, met him at the hotel. A reporter for The Star newspaper, Priscilla Dielenberg, watched him that day. “He was smiling,” she said. When the drums went quiet he started clapping, sure the song was finished. “When the music stopped, he clapped, thinking it was over, but the performers were actually not done,” she remembered.
His days in the city were just as gentle. A Toys “R” Us store closed for the afternoon so he could shop in peace, and he picked out 30 gifts for 30 children from local children’s homes. He handed the presents out himself and later threw the kids a party at the Hard Rock Cafe.
So what did the man behind all those sharp stage outfits actually wear once the doors were shut and nobody was performing?
One person who looked after him at the hotel never forgot it. “I remember seeing him wearing Mickey and Donald pyjamas, showing his love for Disney’s most iconic cartoon heroes.” Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, the old Disney cartoon characters, printed across his pajamas. He snacked on plain apples too, both the red ones and the green ones.
In private he was like a big kid. On stage he was the King of Pop. One of the people who were near him that week put it simply: “In private, he was child-like, but on stage, he was king.”
If you’ve ever wondered how a visit like this even came together, this short clip walks through how Michael ended up in Malaysia that year.
How Michael Jackson came to Malaysia in 1996
Thirty years on, the room still carries his name. Room 1818 is still called the Michael Jackson suite. The people who were around him that week mostly remember how gentle and ordinary he was once the show was over.