Michael Joseph Jackson was a famous American singer, dancer, song writer, choreographer, philanthropist and an entrepreneur. He won 15 Grammy Awards and hundreds of other prizes during his life. Michael Jackson was born on the 29th of August, 1958, in the state of Indiana. He was the eighth of ten children of Joseph and Katherine Jackson. His father was a former boxer and a guitarist at the local R&B band. Michael was known to have many troubles with his father, who regularly whipped him and verbally abused. As a child Michael was afraid to sleep alone in his own room as he had nightmares.When he was only five, he was already a member of a family music band “Jackson Five”. He soon got the place of a lead singer. But working with his father wasn’t easy. He had to go through numerous humiliations. Each time he did something wrong, his father would severely punish him. First time he spoke up about his childhood humiliations in 1993 during The Oprah Winfrey Show. When Michael was ten, “The Jackson Five” band signed a contract with Motown Records. It was the time when they recorded the following hits: “I want you back”, “I’ll be there”, etc. In the mid-1970s the popularity of the band began to fall, while Michael’s solo career began to prosper. In 1977, he made his debut in the musical “The Wiz”. It was then that he started the long-term cooperation with a renowned producer and composer Quincy Jones.In 1979, Michael released his solo album “Off the Wall”, which topped all the UK and US charts. Moreover, the singer got his first Grammy Award for the song “Do not Stop 'Til You Get Enough”. In 1982, he released the second album called “Thriller”, which brought him seven Grammy Awards. Seventy million copies of this album were sold worldwide. In spring of 1983, at the show of “Motown 25” for the first time he introduced his famous “moonwalk”, which became his signature dance walk. In 1987, the singer published his autobiography “Walking on the Moon”. In 1991, Jackson signed the largest contract with Sony Records and released his solo album “Dangerous”. He finally proved his status as the first star in the world of show business.In 1993 the famous pop star was accused of sexual harassment by a thirteen-year-old boy. In December of the same year the singer was strip searched. One of his friends later said that Michael never recovered from this humiliation. He was always known for good attitude towards children, but this case caused irrecoverable damage to his reputation. One year later he married Elvis Presley’s daughter. Some saw it as an attempt to save his reputation, others found the fact that two great musical families united to be rather moving. In 2003, the singer released the album of his greatest hits called “Number Ones”. The great success was gained by “Thriller 25” released in 2008 to denote the 25th anniversary of the legendary album. The King of Pop accidentally died on June the 25th, 2009.