THIS IS IT

This Is It was a planned series of fifty concerts by Michael Jackson to be held at The O2 Arena in London. They were scheduled to begin in July 2009 and continue through to March 2010. However, with all concerts sold out, Jackson died less than three weeks before the first concert date. Jackson officially announced the concerts at a press conference held inside The O2 Arena and stated that This Is It was going to be his final tour. AEG Live, the concert promoters, released a promotional video that took up an entire commercial break, setting a record for ITV. The shows were to be Jackson's first major series of concerts since the HIStory World Tour finished in 1997, and had been cited as one of the year's most important musical events. Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the first 10 dates alone would have earned the singer approximately £50 million.


Originally only 10 concerts were announced, but the tickets were sold out in less than an hour and the public demand for tickets resulted in 40 more concerts to be added, resulting in 50 concerts in total. Ticket sales broke several records and AEG Live stated that Jackson could have sold more dates. Columbia Pictures acquired the footage of the show rehearsals and made a concert film entitledMichael Jackson's This Is It. The Jackson estate received 90% of the profit made while the remaining 10% went to AEG Live. Columbia Pictures guaranteed at least $60 million for the rights. To coincide with the release of the concert footage, an accompanying album was also released.

Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the first 10 dates would earn the singer approximately £50 million (about $80.1 million USD).The Evening Standard stated that the deal was the "showbiz coup of the decade" for AEG Live, while The Independent remarked that the finalized 50 concerts would provide London with a "much-needed" economic boost.Joe Cohen, chief executive of Seatwave, told BBC 6 Music that the shows would generate £1 billion for the economy.

our dates

The following is a list of the planned tour dates for the This Is It concerts:^[

July 2009 July 13 July 16 July 18 July 22 July 24 July 26 July 28 July 30

August 2009 August 1 August 3 August 10 August 12 August 17 August 19 August 24 August 26 August 28 August 30

September 2009 September 1 September 3 September 6 September 8 September 10 September 21 September 23 September 27 September 29

January 2010 January 7 January 9 January 12 January 14 January 16 January 18 January 23 January 25 January 27 January 29

February 2010 February 1 February 3 February 8 February 10 February 12 February 16 February 18 February 20 February 22 February 24

March 2010 March 1 March 3 March 6