Michael Jackson’s entire act was built on movement. The spins, the slides, the moonwalk, the impossible balance — all of it ran through his legs and his feet. So on 8 March 1993, during a dance rehearsal for the Soul Train Music Awards, he went into a spin and badly twisted his ankle. Reports at the time described a severe sprain, and some accounts say torn ligaments. He could not walk properly. He could not dance at all.
He performed the next night anyway. Sitting down.
The awards took place on 9 March 1993 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and Jackson turned up on crutches and in a wheelchair. He was there to perform “Remember the Time” — a song built around one of the most elaborate dance routines he had ever filmed, set in Ancient Egypt.
Michael Jackson – Remember The Time-Live Los Angeles 1993
So they rebuilt it around him. Instead of dancing, Jackson was placed on an ornate golden Egyptian throne at the center of the stage, mirroring the look of the music video, wearing a black suit with a visible brace on his injured foot. His dancers moved around him. He stayed in the chair for the entire song.
There is one detail from that night that fans still point to, and it tells you everything about him. To get up onto the stage, he hopped up the stairs on one foot.
What is genuinely surprising is how good it is. He commanded the whole room without taking a single step — using his arms, his shoulders, his hands and his face to carry a performance that had been designed entirely for his legs.
Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time”
The reaction from the people running the show says it all. Don Cornelius, the legendary Soul Train host and co-producer of the ceremony, spoke about it afterward. “The whole show was a highlight, with the best energy we’ve had so far,” he said. “Michael Jackson’s appearance was one of his more unique appearances. Nobody was disappointed.” Then he passed on the line of the night, from producer Suzanne de Passe: “The boy’s even bad in a chair.”
He did not just perform, either. Across that evening he presented an award and collected several of his own, wheeling and hobbling to the stage each time. He won Best R&B Single by a male artist for “Remember the Time” and Best Album for Dangerous. And when he handed Eddie Murphy the Heritage Award, Murphy could not resist: “Isn’t it nice to see him getting out and giving people awards… I’d like to thank Michael for hobbling out here and giving me this award.”
He could have canceled, and nobody would have blamed him. Instead, he sat on a throne with a brace on his foot and made it look like the plan all along.