Janet Jackson: “To You, Michael Is An Icon; To Us, He Is Family”

noah | June 29, 2009 9:45 am
In the weekend following Michael Jackson’s death at 50, many radio stations across the country switched to all-MJ playlists. The New York station I had tuned into sprinkled moments from his career into the wall-to-wall playings of “Remember The Time” and “Jam,” and among them was his younger sister Janet’s speech to her brother when he accepted the Grammys’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993: “I just want to tell you how proud I am of you, and how much you’ve inspired me, and how proud I am to be your sister,” she told him. “I love you.” It made seeing her eulogize her brother on last night’s BET Awards–a pop star in her own right obviously grieving, trying to be composed and “professional”–even more gutting than it probably already would have been. (A clip of the Grammy moment is after the jump; it begins at the 2:30 mark.)
Janet Jackson BET Awards 6/28/09 [YouTube]