Inviting one girl on stage-- was MJ the first?

Art

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I was just thinking about the whole "one girl on stage" thing that MJ did with "She's Out of My Life" on the Bad tour and "You Are Not Alone" on HIStory. Justin Bieber carries on the tradition today with "One Less Lonely Girl". Was MJ the first person to do this, or did he get the idea from somebody else? Many of MJ's signature concepts are homages to other performers so I was wondering. Also was the Bad tour the first incidence of it, or was he doing it earlier than that?
 
I'm sure he wasn't the first, and plenty of others have done it before Bieber.

Off the top of my head, I know Bruce Springsteen did it during "Dancing In The Dark" on live shows in 1984 (in which the music video, the lucky girl is Courtney Cox).
 
I highly doubt MJ was the first... though maybe he was one of the first. I had a feeling Elvis did something like this though (not an expert on him at all haha) and after a little bit of googling, I found this:

During the July 20, 1975 show, between songs Elvis was joking around and giving out scarves when he noticed a little girl standing on the far left of the stage. He walked over and knelt down on one knee in front of her. Realising she was blind, Elvis held her hands and spoke to her for a few minutes. The audience could not hear as he kept the microphone away from his mouth. He then kissed his scarf and touched both her eyes with it. When he was finished he took the scarf and held it to the child's face. The little girl stood there with complete confidence in what Elvis was doing. The girl had been blind since birth.

The title of the forum post that I found that quote on was "On stage with little girl" [Link] and the photos themselves aren't clear if he got off stage or invited her up or what. Regardless, while it isn't exactly the same as Bieber sitting a fan on a chair and singing to them or MJ bringing a fan up on stage and hugging them, it's still similar none the less (and a really lovely thing of Elvis to do). All three acts involved singling a girl out and making her the center of attention, hugging her, etc.

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There is a video I saw on YouTube as well of Elvis reaching down and kissing a few girls from the audience, though I'm not sure if you'd classify that close enough to 'inviting one girl on stage'. Regardless, here's the video if you're interested.
 
Thanks! I'm a big Elvis fan as well actually, I knew about his walking through crowds, kissing girls at the front of the stage etc, but I didn't think he had ever specifically brought one girl on stage before. Really interesting story and photos. Of course Bieber is not the first person to do it since MJ did, but I think he definitely has MJ in mind, especially as it happens at the same time in each show, during the same song.
 
Even if MJ didn't do it first his girls were the best.:clap:

 
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