Michael Jackson Invincible Tour

***The Tour***

**The Invincible World Tour was the fourth and final worldwide solo concert tour by American singer and recording artist Michael Jackson, covering Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and North America. The tour included a total of 80 concerts spanning the globe with stops in 57 cities, 35 countries on 5 continents. The tour promoted Jackson's 2001 album *Invincible*. The Tour ran from  March 13th 2002 to May 15th 2003 and was structured by 3 legs, the first one started on March 13th 2002, the second one on October 6th 2002 and the last one on March 3rd 2003. The tour was attended by over 4 million fans and brought some decent success in album sales, although not comparable to those of Bad and Dangerous. The tour was hailed as the King of Pop's much awaited comeback as it had been almost 5 years since his last world tour (The History World Tour). Despite various innovations regarding the promotions and technologies used in the tour, quite avant-garde compared to previous tours, the Invincible World Tour was criticized and considered very expensive to make by the Sony Music record company itself.**

***The Announcement***

**The tour was announced on November 2nd 2001, and marked Jackson's first concert tour since 1997. Jackson's debut concert for the tour, performed at Los Angeles Memorial Arena in Los Angeles, with over 100,000 people. During the tour's stopover in Brisbane and on the last concert in Athens, Michael brought his two sons Paris and Prince on stage, a special moment for the singer who dedicated the two concerts to them. The tour was originally planned as national tour of 50 dates in the United States, however, surprised by the unexpected ticket sales after a few days and the hype that was building around the King of Pop in the last months of 2001, Michael was forced to expand the tour worldwide by decision of the touring company which was in charge of obtaining funds for the project to add other 30 dates. 11 concerts were not performed due to technical and health problems, which particularly frightened Michael throughout the tour. There were some initial plans to take the tour, in October 2001, but these plans were suspended due to promotional issues and the 9/11 attacks the month earlier. On the last date of the tour on May 15th, 2003 At Panathenaik Stadium in Athens, Michael announced that the show would be his last live performance ever, and as a result, the Invincible World Tour would be the King of Pop's last tour, due to his necessities of a normal and private life as a dad for the arrival of his third child Blanket, born one month before the start of the tour.**

***Background***

**Before the start of the tour, it was rumored that michael jackson would attend the 56th birthday ceremony of brunei sultan hassanal bolkiah, which happened in 1996. The show would feature some songs from the album invincible, which was to be released 3 months later, but the project was never realized as Jackson never officially agreed the royal family's contract.**

***2001 Royal Concert (Rumored) setlist**:***

* **"2001: A Space Odyssey" introduction**
* **1. Scream**
* **2. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'**
* **3. Human Nature**
* **4. Smooth Criminal**
* **5. I Just Can't Stop Loving You (duet with Siedah Garett)**
* **6. *The Jackson 5* Medley:**
	+ ***I Want You Back***
	+ ***The Love You Save***
	+ ***I'll Be There***
* **7. Thriller**
* **8. Billie Jean**
* **9. Beat It**
* ***"Black Panther*" video**
* **10. Black Or White**
* **11. You Are Not Alone**
* **12. Speechless**
* **13. Earth Song**
* **14. Cry (Encore)**

***Early proposed setlist for Invincible Tour (January 2002)***

* **Introduction**
* **Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'**
* **Jam**
* **You Rock My World**
* **Human Nature**
* **Don't Walk Away**
* **Smooth Criminal**
* ***The Jackson 5* Medley:**
	+ ***I Want You Back***
	+ ***The Love You Save***
	+ ***I'll Be There***
* **Rock With You**
* **Speechless**
* **Billie Jean**
* **Beat It**
* **You Are Not Alone**
* **Black Or White**
* **2 Bad/Threatened**
* **Remember The Time**
* **Thriller**
* **Earth Song**
* **Cry**
* **Dangerous**
* **Man In The Mirror (Encore)**

***Invincible Tour setlist (2002 Leg)***

* **"Warriors" theme Introduction**
* **1. 2000 Watts**
* **2. The Drill/They Don’t Care About Us**
* **3. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'**
* **4. Whatever Happens**
* ***"Heartbreaker"* Interlude**
* **5. Smooth Criminal**
* **6. The Way You Make Me Feel**
* **7. You Are My Life**
* **8. *The Jackson 5* Medley:**
	+ ***I Want You Back***
	+ ***The Love You Save***
	+ ***I'll Be There***
* **"*Shake Your Body"* Interlude**
* **9. Billie Jean**
* **10. Thriller**
* **11. Beat It**
* ***"The Legend Continues"* video Interlude**
* **12. You Rock My World**
* **13. Dangerous**
* **14. Black Or White**
* **15. Earth Song**
* ***"We Are The World"* video Interlude**
* **16. Heal The World**
* ***"Faces Speech"* Introduction**
* **17. Cry**
* **18. Invincible/You Rock My World (Band Encore)**

***Invincible Tour setlist (2003 Leg)***

* **"Warriors" theme Introduction**
* **1. Unbreakable**
* **2. The Drill/They Don't Care About Us/Heartbreaker**
* **3. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'**
* **4. Speechless**
* ***"Butterflies”* Interlude**
* **5. Smooth Criminal**
* **6. The Way You Make Me Feel**
* **7. Break Of Dawn**
* **8. *The Jackson 5* Medley:**
	+ ***I Want You Back***
	+ ***The Love You Save***
	+ ***I'll Be There***
* **"D.S.T.Y.G.E./Shake Your Body*"* Interlude**
* **9. Fall Again (Replaced by “We’ve Had Enough” in Rome and Paris)**
* **10. Billie Jean**
* **11. Thriller (Replaced by “Threatened" in London and Moscow)**
* **12. Beat It**
* ***"The Legend Continues"* video Interlude**
* **13. You Rock My World**
* **14. Dangerous**
* **15. Black Or White**
* **16. Earth Song (Performed occasionally)**
* ***"We Are The World"* video Interlude**
* **17. Heal The World**
* **18. Cry**
* **19. What More Can I Give (Replaced by “One More Chance” In Sydney and Los Angeles)**
* **20. Invincible/You Rock My World (Band Encore)**

***Extra & Trivia***

* **"The Way You Make Me Feel" was performed with the slow intro (Brunei 1996 style) and was removed from the setlist for the 2003 dates.**
* **"Off the Wall Medley" was planned to be on the 2002 leg but only performed In Warsaw (December 13) and Moscow (December 20).**
* **"Earth Song" was rehearsed but removed from the final setlist due to time constraints.**
* **"Man In The Mirror" was rehearsed during the first and second leg, but performed only on the last date in Athens (May 16).**
* **"Blood on the Dance Floor" was rehearsed but removed from the setlist due to time constraints.**
* **"Speechless" was rehearsed but removed from the setlist due to time constraints.**
* **"Dangerous" was sung live only in the introduction, later alternating live and playback to give more realism to the performance (it was sung fully live in Los Angeles and Seattle); was removed on the 2003 leg.**
* **"Threatened" and "Morphine" were performed without the second verse for time constraints.**
* **"You Rock My World" was performed in all the concerts of 2002, but just in 10 of the 23 concerts of the 2003 leg.**
* **During "Morphine", only the "Demerol" part was sung live, but only on the 2002 leg. On the 2003 leg, "Morphine" was sung 100% live to avoid excessive vocal effort in the following performance "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".**
* **Only three numbers from the set list were sung fully live, "Wanna be Startin' Somethin'", "The Jackson 5 Medley and "You Are My Life" (Also Off The Wall Medley In Warsaw and Moscow). The rest of the set list was either fully lip-synced or sung live at the end of the song. It's never been publicly revealed why Jackson elected to lip-sync but many fans have speculated vocal difficulties as Jackson's voice is noticeably hoarse throughout the first half of the tour.**
* **Wanting to be better prepared physically for the tour, Jackson trained with Bodybuilder/Actor Lou Ferrigno, like in his History World Tour. Ferrigno helped with Jackson's training and diet. Because of this, Jackson is noticeably heavier during the first half of the tour than in previous tours (he was thought to weigh 160 pounds according to testimony of Faye and Tompkins).**

## **Personnel**

### **Lead**

* **Vocals, Dance, Choreographer: Michael Jackson**

### **Dancers**

#### **2002 leg**

* **LaVelle Smith**
* **Cris Judd**
* **Travis Payne**
* **Damon Navandi**
* **Courtney Miller**
* **Jason Yribar**
* **Anthony Talauega**
* **Richmond Talauega**
* **Shawnette Heard**
* **Lori Werner**

#### **2003 leg**

* **LaVelle Smith**
* **Cris Judd**
* **Anthony Talauega**
* **Richmond Talauega**
* **Stacy Walker**
* **Faune Chambers**

### **Band members**

* **Executive Director: MJJ Productions**
* **Artistic Director: Michael Jackson**
* **Assistant Director: Peggy Holmes**
* **Choreographed by: Michael Jackson & LaVelle Smith**
* **Staged & Designed by: Kenny Ortega**
* **Set Designed by: Michael Cotton & John McGraw**
* **Lighting Designer: Peter Morse**
* **Security 2002: Darrell Featherstone**
* **Security 2003: Bill Bray**
* **Costumes Designed by: Dennis Tompkins & Michael Bush**
* **Hair & Make-up: Karen Faye and Tommy Sims**
* **Stylist: Tommy Sims**
* **Tour Producer and Personal Manager: Tarak Ben Ammar**
* **Personal Management: Gallin Morey Associates**
* **Music Video Directors: Steve Barron, Joe Pytka, John Landis, Bruce Gowers, Martin Scorsese, Bob Giraldi, John Singleton and Nick Saxton**

### **Sponsor**

* **Kingdom Entertainment**

NOTE: Everything written here is just a fanmade story and should not be taken as true.