The year was 1994, and all of America had one question about Michael Jackson. Was he really married?
The rumors had been flying for months. Then on September 8, 1994, he answered in the biggest way possible. He walked out to open the MTV Video Music Awards, live from Radio City Music Hall in New York, and he wasn’t alone. Holding his hand was a young woman the whole world recognized.
Michael opens the 1994 VMAs with Lisa Marie
Keep your eyes on his face right before he speaks. He knows exactly what he’s about to do.
The woman beside him was Lisa Marie Presley. If that last name rings a bell, it should. She was the only child of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll. So here was the King of Pop, hand in hand with the daughter of the King of Rock and Roll, and the two of them had quietly married about three months earlier.
Hardly anyone had believed the marriage was real. Plenty of people figured it was a stunt that wouldn’t last a month.
Michael knew all of that. And he decided to have a little fun with it.
He stepped up to the microphone, looked out at the crowd, and said, “I’m very happy to be here.” A normal enough start. Then he added one more line, and the whole room cracked up.
“Just think, nobody thought this would last.”
Then he leaned over and kissed her, right there in front of the cameras and the screaming audience.
It was a bold and loving thing to do. He took the one thing everybody was whispering about, said it out loud himself, and turned it into a joke on his own terms. The audience roared.
For a man who was often so shy and soft-spoken in interviews, moments like this one show a different side of him. Playful and quick, totally in command of a room full of the biggest stars in music.
The clip above captures the walk-out, the line and the kiss, all in under a minute. It’s one of those rare times you get to see Michael let his guard down and simply enjoy himself, away from the pressure of a big performance.
Go ahead and watch it. See if his delivery of that last line gets a laugh out of you too.