Sony Music has decided to remove three posthumous Michael Jackson songs ‘Monster’ (featuring 50 Cent), ‘Keep Your Head Up’ and ‘Breaking News’ after continued allegations that the vocals are fake.
A fan driven court case claimed the vocals on the songs were by a session singer. Legal proceedings were initiated eight years ago with a judge finalizing the case in 2018 saying that neither side can be sure if the vocals are real or fake.
As reported by Complex, “Because [Sony Music, MJJ Productions and the Jackson estate] lacked actual knowledge of the identity of the lead singer on [‘Breaking News,’ ‘Monster,’ and ‘Keep Your Head Up’], they could only draw a conclusion about that issue from their own research and the available evidence,” court documents stated. “Under these circumstances, [Sony Music, MJJ Productions and the Jackson estate’s] representations about the identity of the singer amounted to a statement of opinion rather than fact.”
Despite the removal of the songs, Sony and the Jackson Estate are not admitting the vocals are fake. In a statement they said, “I should point out that the removal of these three songs has nothing to do with their authenticity. The Estate and Sony Music believe the continuing conversation about the tracks is distracting the fan community and casual Michael Jackson listeners from focusing their attention where it should be – on Michael’s legendary and deep music catalog.”
Meantime, A 40th anniversary 2-disc edition of ‘Thriller’ is coming on 15 November 2022. The second disc will feature previously unreleased songs from the ‘Thriller’ era. The tracklisting is yet to be revealed.
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