At the end of August, Sony BMG will release The Jacksons albums ‘Triumph’ and ‘Destiny’ in remastered versions and expanded with bonus tracks.

Destiny track listing:

1. Blame It On The Boogie
2. Push Me Away
3. Things I Do For You
4. Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)
5. Destiny
6. Bless His Soul
7. All Night Dancin
8. That s What You Get (For Being Polite)

BONUS TRACKS:
9. Blame It On The Boogie (John Luongo Disco Mix)
10. Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) (John Luongo Disco Mix)

Triumph track listing:

1. Can You Feel It
2. Lovely One
3. Your Ways
4. Everybody
5. This Place Hotel (a/k/a Heartbreak Hotel)
6. Time Waits For No One
7. Walk Right Now
8. Give It Up
9. Wondering Who

BONUS TRACKS:
10. This Place Hotel (a/k/a Heartbreak Hotel) (Single Version)
11. Walk Right Now (John Luongo Disco Mix)
12. Walk Right Now (John Luongo Instrumental Mix)

Source: SonyBMG Switzerland

The Australian Edition of ‘King Of Pop’, a fan-voted album in celebration of Michael’s 50th birthday, will be the first Australian fan-driven album of its kind. It will contain the top 30 tracks chosen from Michael’s Australian fans, plus rare tracks from Michael’s career and a never before released track plus a brand new “MegaMix” from the legendary Jason Nevins.

‘King Of Pop’ - Australian Edition will be released in two editions. The first is a limited edition digi-pak that will feature selected voters names and messages left by the fans on the MJ50-Australia site and a special fold-out poster that follows Michael through his illustrious musical career. The second edition will be a standard release of the album without the poster.

Source: SonyBMG Australia

Dutch fans can vote for their favourite Michael Jackson tracks by clicking here, choosing 5 songs from a list of 100. The songs with the most votes will be included on the Dutch edition of the album ‘King Of Pop’ - celebrating Michael’s 50th birthday.

The release date of the album will be August 22, 2008.

Source: SonyBMG Netherlands

Hungarian fans can vote for their favourite Michael Jackson tracks by clicking here, choosing from a list of 50 songs. The 16 songs with the most votes will be included on the Hungarian edition of the album ‘King Of Pop’ - celebrating Michael’s 50th birthday.

Source: SontBMG Hungary

SonyBMG Austria has teamed up with Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung to let fans vote for their favorite Michael Jackson tracks to be included on the 2 CD set ‘King Of Pop’ Austrian Edition in celebration of Michael’s 50th birthday.

On the web site of the Kronen Zeitung, you can listen to the tracks once again and then vote for your favourite songs from a collection of 100 songs.

Additionally you can win 3 limited edition Michael Jackson iPods.
Source: SonyBMGAustria, Kronen Zeitung

Michael Jackson celebrates his 50th birthday on August 29 and SONY BMG, GMTV and The Sun newspaper are giving UK fans the chance to become part of pop history. To recognise Michael’s great success and celebrate his birthday, UK fans can help to choose the track list for the UK’s the King of Pop album that will be released on August 25. The most popular 18 tracks will then become the track listing for the King of Pop. Fans can vote for their favourite songs here.

They are also giving away five Michael Jackson iPods which are pre-loaded with the Top 100 Michael Jackson songs and are not for sale to the general public. All you have to do is answer a simple question: Which of the following is a Michael Jackson song?

* Black & Red
* Black & White
* Black & Green

The competition closes 10 August 2008 at 11:59 PM.

Source: Sony, GMTV

Bild, Germany’s largest newspaper, is teaming up with Sony Germany for a competition to let you choose the MJ songs which will be included on a special 50th birthday album:

The King of pop will become 50 on August 29. And special birthdays bring special presents - in this case for the German Michael Jackson fans. At Bild.de they can choose their very favourite MJ song. The 30 songs with the most votes will be included on a German edition ‘Best Of’ CD to be released August 22! Furthermore you can win a trip to Las Vegas worth about €2000.

Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller” is the most successful album worldwide and with songs like “Heal The World” or “Earth Song” he reached the public. In his songs Jackson talked about poverty and destruction of nature. The singer received numerous awards for his music, e.g. “World Music Award”, “Bambi” and “Brit Award”.

With so many successful songs it’s hard to choose. Which songs shall be included on the birthday album “Michael Jackson – King Of Pop”? You can choose! Bild put together 121 songs that you can choose from.

And there is even more: Those who can solve the Michael-Jackson-quiz (in German language), can win a long weekend for 2 persons in Las Vegas.

Other great prizes are:

2.- 5.: a limited edition “King of Pop” iPod Nano
6.- 20.: one edition of the brand new “Michael Jackson – King of Pop”
1.- 100.: your name will be included in the CD booklet of “Michael Jackson – King of Pop”

Deadline is July 28 (noon). Starting July 29 BILD.de will introduce the Top-30-songs in a countdown.

Click Here to vote.

Source: BILD, JAM (MJFC-Germany)

Epic/Legacy, a division of Sony Music, has announced plans to release extended editions of both the DESTINY and TRIUMPH albums in honour of DESTINY’s 30th Anniversary. The DESTINY new release will include 2 bonus tracks of rare 12 inch disco mixes previously unreleased on CD, while TRIUMPH will include 3 bonus tracks of rare, previously unreleased mixes as well. Both CDs are expected to arrive in stores on August 12, 2008.

Source: Legacy Records

After Sony Australia, SonyBMG New Zealand and Stuff.co.nz are now also inviting Michael Jackson fans to compile an album which will celebrate Michael’s 50th birthday.

Until July 20, 2008, you can vote for your 5 favourite songs here. The songs with the most votes will be included on the album ‘King of Pop: The New Zealand Edition’. It will be released in New Zealand in the week of Michael`s 50th birthday on August 25, 2008.

Five lucky entrants will also receive a Michael Jackson discography, containing all of his CDs and DVDs.

Source: Stuff.co.nz / SonyBMG New Zealand

Singer and songwriter Claude Kelly (27) wrote the song ‘Hold My Hand’ featuring Akon and Michael Jackson which was leaked to the internet a few days ago. Soon after the song was pulled off the internet again.

In an interview to Billboard, Kelly said that hearing Michael Jackson’s voice on the track for the first time was a total surprise to him:

“I wrote the song and gave it to Akon with the intention of it going to maybe Whitney Houston, but Akon said he wanted to cut it himself. I thought, ‘It doesn’t get any bigger than this’. A few months after, Akon plays the song for me and all of a sudden I hear Michael Jackson’s voice. I was literally shaking by the time the song was over.”

The track is in contention to be the first single from Akon’s new album, due late this year. Kelly’s manager Michael “Make” Mentore from Star Power Media/Make Moves Management said that plans are to release the track on both Akon’s and Michael’s album.

As a child, Claude Kelly took piano and flute lessons and sang with local choirs. He attended Brooklyn College of Music in 1999, and in 2002 wrote his first song, which was placed in a Bathing Ape compilation released in Japan. In 2006, his first major placement came with “Daddy’s Little Girl” from Frankie J’s album ‘Priceless’.

Source: Billboard