Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, Michael Jackson walked onto a stage in Washington in front of one of the biggest crowds of his life. And he’d pulled the whole night together himself.
It was called “United We Stand: What More Can I Give,” a benefit concert at RFK Stadium on October 21, 2001, put on just weeks after the September 11 attacks. Michael wanted to do something that mattered, so he started calling the biggest names he knew.
They showed up. Mariah Carey, Destiny’s Child, NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, Aerosmith, James Brown, Al Green, Carole King, Bette Midler, Usher and his own sister Janet Jackson. Actor John Stamos, who most folks knew from “Full House,” hosted.
The show was meant to run about eight hours. It went nearly twelve. By the time Michael finally came out, it was close to midnight.
He sang “Man in the Mirror,” his 1988 anthem about fixing yourself before you ask the world to change. Then he waved the whole lineup back out, and they closed the night together on a brand new song he’d written, “What More Can I Give.” He’d actually started it years before, back in 1992, under another name, “Heal L.A.”
But something odd happened when the concert reached television.
When ABC aired it on November 1, Michael’s solo “Man in the Mirror” wasn’t there. The man who headlined the thing, who organized all of it, barely appeared at all. On TV he only turned up at the very end, in the big all-star finale.
This wasn’t an accident. His own management had asked for the solo to be left out, and the reason came down to a deal. CBS had locked up the rights to Michael’s own television event, a special marking his 30th anniversary in show business, and they wanted his solo spotlight held for their night instead of ABC’s. That special aired on November 13 and drew around 45 million viewers.
So people at home got the group singalong, but not the quiet, powerful moment at midnight. For that, you had to be standing in the stadium.
Here’s the song he sang that night, the one the broadcast left out.
Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” the solo cut from the TV airing
And this is “What More Can I Give,” the song he brought everyone back out to sing together, with the whole cast of stars trading lines.
The all-star “What More Can I Give,” the song that closed the night
Give that second one a listen and you’ll see what Michael was going for. He wanted more than a performance. He wanted every star on that stage singing the same words at the same time, and for a few minutes they did.