We♥MJ

THE ORIGINAL PROJECT
50 REASONS TO LOVE MICHAEL JACKSON

As Michael Jackson was celebrating his 50th birthday on August 29th, 2008, his French fans were getting ready to party at the “MJ Funky Celebration” in Paris the following day…

The collective of artists Funk T Corp, who was responsible for throwing the fan party, also gave the fans who would be there a unique opportunity to send letters to Michael, as they offered to collect written messages during the party and to deliver them in person to Michael Jackson.

As the owner of the fan forum MJDreams.net, I was allowed to gather messages from fans who wouldn’t be at the party to make a collective birthday card for Michael.

I wanted to create something special for our dear Michael, rather than the usual birthday messages that he probably reads every year, I wanted to offer him something that would surprise him, touch his heart and maybe make him smile or laugh… It was a great opportunity as I knew Michael would at least hold this card in his hands, and would hopefully read it.

So I came with the idea of asking fans to tell Michael why they loved him.

Fans had to send me short or long sentences starting with the word “Because…” and giving in each sentence a reason why they loved Michael Jackson and why they were fans.

Of all the sentences received, I picked the 50 best and most original ones and put them on the birthday card. The card was delivered to Michael Jackson in person on Sunday 9th November 2008. Now we can only hope he will read it!

THE WEBSITE
WE ♥ MICHAEL JACKSON
www.welovemichaeljackson.com

I also wanted to give all the fans an opportunity to read what the other fans sent, and maybe add their contribution so that we could gather more and more messages of love for Michael Jackson, so I decided to open this website. I didn’t want it just to be a webpage for a birthday project, but a place where fans can express their love for Michael all year long.

The website address www.welovemichaeljackson.com was included on the birthday card, as an invitation for Michael to read more fan messages… Just so you know the messages you add to this site could be read by the King of Pop himself.

You can now submit new sentences telling us why you love Michael Jackson, and rate and comment the published sentences. The highest rated sentences will be those you chose to be the top reasons why fans love Michael Jackson.

Have fun with this site!

*micha*

UPDATE
MICHAEL JACKSON’S DEATH…

On June 25th, 2009, Michael Jackson passed away and my world stopped turning. Although this website had become less active in the past months, after June 25th, I started receiving new submissions, new messages from fans around the world willing to express their love for Michael. I found myself unable to read them, let alone update the website with these new messages.

When I conceived the original project and created this website, it was all about showing Michael how much we loved him. We gave him the birthday card, we told him about this website on the card… Whether he read the card, or even visited this website, or not… we will never know. But I’m sure just giving him such a present, even though it was “just another birthday card”, meant a lot to him as he knew what was inside and what was our intention, even without opening or reading it: it was all about telling him how much we loved him.

For all these reasons, I first wanted to keep the website in the state it was before Michael’s death, because I feared it would end up looking like an online memorial book with all the new messages.

But then I realised I was getting more and more messages, every day, from fans of all ages and nationalities, and I felt I couldn’t keep on ignoring them. And when I actually read your messages and saw all the love you wanted to express for Michael, I felt that these messages HAD to be published. I have since updated the website with all your messages and will keep on doing so with new submissions sent to me.

This website will remain a place where you can all come and tell the world, and Michael, how much you love him.

51 REASONS TO ♥ MICHAEL JACKSON

When I first created this project and this website, I thought “Hey, why not doing the same thing next year and this time, sending Michael 51 new messages telling him why we love him?” I thought I could use this website to let YOU choose which sentences I would send him by rating them on the website, and I would have selected the 51 best-rated sentences.

This year, Michael’s birthday will be very different… but I still would like to do it… and to send these messages to Michael’s family, especially his children.

So, I’m inviting you to read, rate and comment all the sentences published, and of course, to keep on submitting new ones using this form, and I will choose the 51 highest-rated ones to send them to Michael’s family. Just like last year, the card will also let the family know about the website and invite them to read all your messages here.

I’ll try to find a way to have this new card delivered to the Jackson family as soon as possible, but it will probably not be ready for Michael’s birthday and will probably be sent later. I want to find the best way to make sure the family really gets the card.

For this reason, I’m not giving you any deadline, but as soon as I know when the card will be sent and when I’ll be able to select your messages for the card, I will let you know.

I hope you’ll like this project and many of you will take part!

*micha*