Michael Jackson “Hologram” Rumored To Appear At 2014 Billboard Music Awards

Carl Williott | May 15, 2014 7:31 am

There’s a rumor swirling that a Michael Jackson hologram will appear at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards Sunday (May 18), and according to Showbiz411, it’ll be for a “performance” of Xscape song “Slave To The Rhythm.” The site says the man behind the 2012 Tupac Shakur Coachella projection, John Textor, has been tasked with the MJ imaging for the ceremony (guess he bounced back from bankruptcy!).

The only MJ-related news for the BBMAs is the mysterious announcement of a “world premiere experience” which only offered up that it would present the King of Pop “like you’ve never seen him before.” Oh god, that sounds exactly like a plan for a holo-Jacko! Just please don’t let it involve Justin Bieber.

I don’t know how to feel about this. I mean, it would be pretty cool to see the moonwalk, which was the future, done via this most futuristic technology. On the other hand, it’s hard enough to let a deceased star keep his or her dignity in the middle of a marketing push for a posthumous album, so do we really need to trot out some gimmick that’s sure to evoke uncanny valley-related repulsion? (Although, to be fair, the most off-putting thing about the Tupac hologram was the fact that his friends were performing with it, like some weird Blade Runner version of How We Will Mourn In The Future.)

For now, I’m taking solace in the fact that any sort of hologram spectacle for MJ can’t be worse than that odd Usher tribute at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Do you want to see an MJ hologram on Sunday? Let us know in the comments.

For more on Xscape, watch LA Reid talk about the making of the album: