Billie Jean

"Billie Jean" is a 1983 hit single from Michael Jackson's Thriller album. A number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, the song was also the number-one R&B single for nine weeks in the United States. The song was replaced at number one by another Jackson single, "Beat It" that April. It was voted best single of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, and received two Grammy Awards in 1984 in categories: Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best New Rhythm & Blues Song. It was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, along with "Beat It".

Motown 25 performance

The video viewership for the song on both MTV and new African-American focused cable network BET, helped make the song a bigger hit. On March 25 1983, "Billie Jean" and Jackson reached an even larger audience when he debuted the song before a live audience during taping of the tribute special '. Having reunited with the Jackson 5 for a medley of their hits, he remained onstage for a bravura solo performance. Dressed in a glittery black jacket, sparkling silver shirt, tight black pants cuffed high to showcase white spangled socks and black penny loafers, and a single sequined glove (which the entertainer had begun wearing onstage during Jacksons concerts as early as 1980) Jackson signalled the start of his routine with a soon-to-be trademark crouch and snapping a black fedora to his head. Jackson lip-synched his song and the audience rose to their feet.

Related Topics:
BET - March 25 - 1983 - Jackson 5 - 1980

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It was during this electrifying performance that Jackson also debuted a dance move he had discovered from black inner-city youths and tweaked to distinction. Credited to former Solid Gold dancer Cooley Jackson, "The Back Slide" was given a new name by the media following Jackson's interpretation: The "Moonwalk". The step has since gone on to become Jackson's signature dance move, and is synonymous with the song.

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Upon its broadcast on May 16, over forty-seven million viewers witnessed Jackson's performance, and the immediate result was unprecedented sales of his "Thriller" album (51 million worldwide as of 2005). With acccompanying sales of over two million copies, "Billie Jean" remains Jackson's biggest-selling single as a solo artist.

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