The late Michael Jackson has made a stunning but not-so-surprising "appearance" at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas on Monday as a hologram, while two Australian acts also performed at the event, one of music's big showcases. Fans were stunned at how realistically the King of Pop's legacy lives on at the event.
The cat was let out of the bag last week about Jackson's holographic image, after two companies which own patents to the technology – used to digitally resurrect the image of late rapper Tupac Shakur in 2012 at the Coachella music festival – attempted to take out an injunction in the United States to stop the awards. They failed after lawyers for Jackson's estate and the producers of the awards argued doing so would cause them irreparable harm.
Jackson's hologram was used as the centerpiece to a spectacular but rather creepy performance of the single “Slave to the Rhythm” which included the late singer's trademark “moonwalking” dance moves. The song was released by Sony Music recently as part of the posthumous Jackson album “Xscape,” which was based on music made by Jackson but not released during his lifetime.
The Billboard Music Awards had been teasing a Michael Jackson tribute when news of the lawsuit broke; the case wasn't enough to nix the hologram, apparently.
