In an article on Metro International about the huge success of Michael Jackson’s upcoming concerts at the O2 arena in London, MJFC president Deborah Dannelly as well as several of MJFC’s Forum members are being quoted.

Relevant parts from the article are pasted below. Click Here to read the entire article.

“[...] Yet against all odds, it looks like MJ is back. The response to his announcement of 10 summer shows at London’s O2 Arena last week was so huge, his run was extended to 44 [Editor's note: this number is incorrect] performances. Incredibly, 750,000 tickets have been sold for the “This Is It” tour at the rate of 11 tickets per second.

So the question is: How Even Tom Cruise has hard a time getting back in the public’s good graces — and all he did was jump on a couch.

Although Michael Jackson, 50, has indeed been overrun with bad press, he’s also been lucky to have a huge, devoted, organized — and majorly skeptical — fan base.
“Usually, when we talk to the press, it ends up being twisted,” says Deborah Dannelly, president of the Michael Jackson Fan Club, warily. “The press likes to think of Michael Jackson fans as fanatics — people who have nothing better to do with their lives than to follow him around.”

Dannelly, who runs the MJFC Web site from her home in Texas, tries to explain the attraction: “I think he would do anything he could for people,” she says. “He’s got a very kind heart — unfortunately, a little too kind at times. There are the fans who love his music, there are fans who are really in awe of his standing in the music industry, but then there are those who just love the person.” Danelly says that for her, “it’s more of a person than the persona. He’s probably done more on a personal basis for fans and charities and for people around the world than any one celebrity could think of doing.”

One fan who asked to remain anonymous went on to say that she prefers not to talk to the press because, “I’ve heard just about everything there is about us, his fans, always trying to rationalize the way we feel about the man.” But then she goes on to philosophize, “Why can’t it be just because we like him? Why can’t it be because we love the man, the music, his legacy, the way he is? Because it is phenomenal; because they can’t wrap their minds around it. That is why they call us obsessed and crazy.”

[...] As user ManintheMirror on the Michael Jackson Fan Club site lets the world know: “The tickets will speak for themselves, the King will shine. Don’t come crawling back now that he’s hot again.”

Source: Metro International, MJFC-USA

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