Michael Jackson, The Life of a King.

The Beginning (1958-1978)

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29 1958 in Gary, Indiana, USA. He's the eighth child in a modest family of nine children of working-class parents: Joseph and Katherine Jackson. They lived in a house with only 2 bedrooms where space became increasingly scarce with each birth. His family has been trying to be successful or a long time and many of them turned to music but often failed.

So Michael's brothers ent ahead and started their own band and surprisingly are becoming famous in their town and are winning numerous TV competitions. So, Michael aged 5, joined the group of his brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon. They are now named the Jackson 5. Michael was very precocious and very talented and quickly became the group's leader. The boys childhood was particularly harsh, because their father Joseph trained them everyday intensively. Joseph's wish was that very soon, his sons will have a great fame and will earn enormous amounts of money.

Their father decided in 1962to negotiate with the founder of and boss of the Motown record company, Berry Gordy to hire the Jackson 5 in his enormous music industry. They assisted a cast in 1962 in Detroit and quickly became popular on radio and television. They became soon a symbol of Motown with their hits ABC, I'll Be There or I Want You Back. Singer Diana Ross s the godmother of the young group. She was also the one who helped the Jackson 5 to raise their popularity. Then in 1972, Michael decided to launch his solo career and produced 4 albums in 4 years for Motown: Got to Be There, Ben, Music and Me and Forever Michael.

But the Jackson 5 who became simply The Jacksons, changed their music label from Motown to CBS and continued to release numerous albums and assist in successful tours. Their definitive separation happened in 1984, right before Michael's solo glory with their last group album: Victory.