Three Michael Jackson Songs Removed From Streaming Services – Billboard

Three songs featured on the posthumous 2010 compilation Michael have been removed from streaming services amid ongoing suspicions that they contain bogus vocals attributed to late pop icon Michael Jackson.

“The Estate of Michael Jackson and Sony Music decided to remove the tracks ‘Breaking News,’ ‘Monster’ and ‘Keep Your Head Up,’ from the 2010 album Michael as the simplest and best way to move beyond the conversation associated with these tracks once and for all,” read a statement on Tuesday (July 5) from Sony Music and the Jackson estate about the decision to spike the songs from streamers.

The statement did not weigh in on the persistent rumors that the songs may contain some vocals not laid down by Jackson, who died in 2009. “The focus remains where it belongs – on the exciting new and existing projects celebrating Michael Jackson’s legacy, among them the Tony-winning Broadway musical MJ, the immensely popular Michael Jackson- ONE show in Las Vegas, an upcoming biopic, and the campaign to celebrate the 40th anniversary in November of Thriller, the biggest selling album in history,” the statement continued.

“The album’s remaining tracks remain available. Nothing should be read into this action concerning the authenticity of the tracks – it is just time to move beyond the distraction surrounding them,” it concluded. Sony and the MJ estate won a judgement over the allegedly fake vocals in August 2018 after an appeals court ruled that statements on the cover of the Michael album constituted commercial speech and were protected under the First Amendment.

A fan attempted to lead a class action in 2014 based on the allegation that Michael amounted to a misrepresentation that was punishable under California’s Unfair Competition Law and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act based on the suspicion that the King of Pop was not the lead singer on the tracks, which are believed to have been recorded two years before Jackson’s passing. In its ruling, the appeals court noted that neither the administrators of the Michael Jackson estate nor Sony recorded the songs themselves and so could not take a position on who participated in the vocal sessions.

“Under these circumstances, Appellant’s representations about the identity of the singer amounted to a statement of opinion rather than fact,” wrote California Appellate Justice Elwood Liu at the time. “The lack of personal knowledge here also means that Appellants’ challenged statements do not fit the definition of speech that is ‘less likely to be chilled by proper regulation.’”