Jeffrey Daniel, American dancer, singer and choreographer, says late legendary artiste Michael Jackson remains the Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T) of Pop Music.
He spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
Daniel, a founding member of the renowned American R&B vocal group ‘Shalamar’, said the works and influence of the acclaimed King of Pop across the global made him irreplaceable.
According to him, Jackson’s timeless music, dance, and fashion, as well as his philanthropic impact made him a global figure in popular music culture.
He said Jackson’s innovation in music, stage and video performances have influenced artistes across many music genres and still do over a decade of his passing.
“To ask me, if Michael is the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T), his record speaks for itself, as he has sold more albums than anybody in the history of music.
“Michael passed away since 2009 but there are children now, five years old and six years old, who are still imitating him.
“They were not even alive when he was here and so Michael’s legacy is just as strong as ever.
“In fact, it is just reported that his estate worth so much, and his music, his videos and all that stuff, is worth something over 500 million dollars.
“After his passing these years, he is still worth that much, and I think people will continue to celebrate and enjoy Michael Jackson’s legacy for years to come,” he said.
He said Jackson was his cousin and fan, and they shared mutual admiration before they started working together professionally.
Daniel, acclaimed to be the pioneer of the iconic dance move ‘backslide’, said he was a great influence on Jackson’s formative years, who later popularised the ‘backslide’ and changed it to its signature ‘Moonwalk’.
“I started dancing on the television show, Soul Train, where I went through a succession of dances from ‘locker’ to ‘waacking’ and then to ‘body popping’.
“When I started doing the backslide, Michael was watching me do it on TV, and we later got a call to teach him how to do the backslide and some body popping moves.
“So, I was working with Michael for how many years, not knowing that we are cousins, until I finally found out,” he said.
NAN reports that Michael Jackson, globally known as the “King of Pop”, died on June 25, 2009 at 50, after about four decades of music career.
In 2016, Forbes estimated annual gross earnings by the Jackson Estate at $825 million, the largest ever recorded for a celebrity, mostly due to the sale of the Sony/ATV catalog.
In 2018, the figure was $400 million and that was the eighth year since his death that Jackson’s annual earnings were reported to be over $100 million, thus bringing Jackson’s postmortem total to $2.4 billion.
In 2020, Forbes recognised Jackson as the top-earning dead celebrity each year from his death to 2020, except in 2012.
Jackson was named Forbes’ highest-paid dead celebrity of the year 2023, with an estimated $115 million in earnings.
The ranking was based on pre-tax earnings from sales, licensing deals, streams, and other sources of income between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023.
