'Michael Jackson's This Is It' family remembers Michael at the midnight release (Best Buy Union Sq)

Kenny Ortega (left) and Travis Payne (right) signing autographs and taking
photos with Michael Jackson fans
Photo Credit: Annie Chu

On the evening of January 25, 2010, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Best Buy Union Square hosted the midnight release event of Michael Jackson's This Is It DVD, Blu-ray and UMD. Fans, young and old, flocked there to experience this monumentous event as a family. Michael Jackson's This Is It dancers (Daniel Celebre, Devin Jamieson and Chris Grant), choreographer Travis Payne and director Kenny Ortega came to celebrate the release. They brought along a couple of surprise guests, production designer and art director Michael Cotton (a native New Yorker) and Rushka Bergman, personal stylist to Michael Jackson.

As midnight was closing in Travis Payne and Michael Jackson's This Is It dancers arrived on stage amazing everyone with their energetic and intricate dance moves. As soon as they started performing "The Drill," everyone jumped in and started doing the moves they had been practicing for days. The mob flash dance was so well rehearsed that they could have been part of the film. Afterwards, Travis Payne exclaimed, "We love you."

Travis Payne and Michael Jackson's This Is It dancers
Photo Credit: Annie Chu

Director Kenny Ortega then came out and thanked everyone for the support and love for Michael Jackson. He spoke of his friend as "one of the most amazing humanitarians this planet has ever known." He continued later saying, "What we lost in the physical Michael on this planet which impacts the whole planet. Kenny recounted a conversation he had with Michael about vindication when This Is It tour starts in London and Kenny said Michael's response was, "You're so silly." This goes to show Michael Jackson just wanted the world to be loved and never harmed.

Travis shared his recent experience in Cebu, Philippines at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), home to 70% high risk prisoners. Back in 1997 Michael Jackson had used more than 1,500 Filipinos for Thriller and Michael had kept re-watching the video during his breaks from This Is It rehearsals. As a tribute to Michael Jackson, Travis contacted Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to make arrangements to visit the prisoners. On January 17-18, 2010, Travis and dancers Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid spent time there to teach them dance routines from This Is It. With the help of the inmates, they were able to re-create They Don't Care About Us with a real army instead of the virtual army of dancers digitally replicated in This Is It. They shot the video on Martin Luther King's birthday as a tribute to both great men. Travis also recounted a humorous comment from Michael Jackson, "Don't ever cheat the fans. You can't start one song if you're not gonna finish it. They gonna want the whole thing." When asked about Michael Jackson's favorite song, Travis said, "He said that he never had a favorite song. They were all like his children."

Both Kenny and Travis continued to share with fans tidbits about Michael. Michael was the type of person who was involved in every tiny detail. He set high goals wanting the biggest best ever made and if things could be done better than anyone else. Kenny told fans that Michael wanted to tour all the continents of the world and then return back home to the United States. Michael also had plans for creating a 3D Thriller. Tears poured from fans upon hearing all this. The sadness at the lost of a genius was felt through the entire store.

A Michael Jackson tribute artist expresses gratitude

Several Michael Jackson tribute artists came on stage and performed thanking Kenny, Travis and everyone else for coming and creating Michael Jackson's This Is It. Joye Moses Harper from Harlem came on stage and said, "I just wanted to thank you and it's nice to know that people who actually cared about this brother cause this brother cared about us; that there were some people around that actually loved him the way we did. She continued, "We feeling as if everyday we're crying everyday, we're calling each other, emailing each other we miss him." She then performed a dance routine and sang a part of "Jam." Another came on stage and sang "Man in the Mirror." Cherrece Glover performed "Heal the World" and everyone started singing and moving to the beat. There was a part of everyone that still needed healing.

At midnight, everyone got to stand in line and be the very first people to purchase Michael Jackson's This Is It. Afterwards, Kenny and Travis were kind enough to autograph and take photos with everyone as they came up to get their movie signed. They were very happy to be there and enjoyed every moment with the fans.

Thanks to Kenny, Travis, Michael Jackson's This Is It dancers, DJ Egypt from WBLS 107.5, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Best Buy, Danny and his team, Tonya Garcia (MS&L New York) and her team and everyone else involved for making this a truly fitting tribute and Michael Jackson's This Is It release celebration.

Check out the videos and slideshow below to view the evening's events.

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