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Motown 25 vs The Grammy's 1988

analogue

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As iconic as Motown 25 was i think that the 1988 grammy's had the overall best performance. Which performance do you prefer?
 
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I think with the 1988 grammys preformance there was more emotion in it where as the motown preformance it was iconic
 
Both lip-synced, so I prefer Motown 25 for the dance. It was *magical*!
 
Man In The Mirror in Grammy was one of his best performances ever. And his vocals were powerful, undamaged at all, he sounded almost like studio. Way better and longer live part than Wembley and other Bad shows, plus the ending in acapella. His live voice there was just perfect. That and all that energy, spins send shivers down the spine.

Motown is good, but it doesn't come close to those moments in MITM.



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Grammys 1988. Like Rudolf said the Man in the Mirror performance is amazing!:


TWYMMF performance was also great but it should have been longer.
 
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Grammy 88 - He was already Michael Jackson, he was already King Of Pop

Motown - First moonwalk, people watched something they never seen before... Hat, glove...

Motown performance is more important. But yes Grammy 88 - better and longer performance.
 
I can understand why Motown 25 is so impressive and iconic to the general public (especially to those who didn't see much else from Michael), but in all honesty, he had better performances than that. I consider all performances of Billie Jean in concerts where he sang live AND danced better. Though this one wasn't live but I consider it better than Motown 25 as well:


I also consider his MTV performance in 1995 a lot better than Motown 25. And yeah, Grammy '88 was incredible. I prefer that to Motown 25.
 
I've always thought that the Motown 25 performance of Billie Jean was overrated. Michael's performance improved greatly since then. Billie Jean on the Victory Tour, Bad Tour, Dangerous Tour and HIStory tour was much better than Motown.

I often find that a lot of people who call Motown 25 the best performance ever are people in the media who refuse to give MJ any credit beyond the Thriller era days
 
analogue said:
I often find that a lot of people who call Motown 25 the best performance ever are people in the media who refuse to give MJ any credit beyond the Thriller era days
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I read a comment a couple of weeks ago on YouTube, I think it was meant to be a "joke" but it was so ignorant on so many levels. The guy said something about black people dancing better then white people and he said: "Just look at Michael Jackson. As soon as he became white he couldn't dance any more." Like I said it was probably meant to be a smart-ass "joke" but it's still so ignorant. About Michael not being black any more as well as about his career. Most of his best dance routines were performed in the late 80s and throughout the 90s, so what is this guy talking about? Obvious he did not even know anything about MJ's career other than what he was brainwashed into by mainstream media. Yeah, those are the type of people who think MJ never did any better than at Motown 25. Apparently they never even saw anything else by him, because otherwise they would not make such ignorant comments.
 
Grammys 1988 defiantly, just for the power and emotion in Man In The Mirror. I like Motown 25 (it was iconic) but when you read Moonwalk and hear MJ's interview 1995 with Diane Sawyer, he said he wasn't happy with it and thats always in the back of my mind when I watch it. Also I think the moonwalk and toe stand at Motown 25 was properly his worst, but I think that was because he was nervous. I love the Grammys performance because MJ looked cool for TWYMMF, and that performance was amazing. But Man In The Mirror was just unreal, all the spins the emotion and his voice was so powerful, go listen to that performance then to LA 1989 (I know MJ was just getting over his laryngitis) and you will hear the difference and how clear his vocals were.
 
1 - Motown 25 (most important performance for his career. Because of that show, Thriller is still biggest selling album)

2 - Grammy 88

3 - 1993 American Music Awards (dangerous)

4- 1991 MTV Performance (black or white - will you be there)

5- 1995 MTV Performance (Billie Jean - Dangerous - YANA)

6 - 1993 Superbowl performance

7 - 1995 SoulTrain Performance (dangerous)

8 - and than Earth Song / dangerous performances...
 
AtlasAir said:
That's because it WAS studio. Except the end, of course (like on tour).
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I'm obviously talking about the end where he always starts singing live "I'm gonna make the change" you can hear his mic failing there. I was referring to MITM as whole because it's common knowledge he lipsynced both TWYMMF and MITM (except the ending).

He was in his best vocals there. Compare it to LA. He just sounds weak and tired on most of the tour. His voice was in studio condition in Grammy's.
 
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Performance-wise I prefer Grammy '88 performance. But we must not under estimate Motown 25th performance in terms of it's importance and also we must have Michael's pre-1983 years in mind when judigng. Therefore Motown 25th was iconic and historical but not as convincing as Grammy '88. So it's hard to really compare.

In direct comparison Grammy '88 obviously wins for me.
 
Rudolf said:
I'm obviously talking about the end where he always starts singing live "I'm gonna make the change" you can hear his mic failing there. I was referring to MITM as whole because it's common knowledge he lipsynced both TWYMMF and MITM (except the ending).

He was in his best vocals there. Compare it to LA. He just sounds weak and tired on most of the tour. His voice was in studio condition in Grammy's.
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Ya.

I'm still bummed he did not win ONE SINGLE award that night.
It was bizarre.
He would later win next year for the video of Leave Me Alone, crazy how he left empty handed that night.
 
AtlasAir said:
Ya.

I'm still bummed he did not win ONE SINGLE award that night.
It was bizarre.
He would later win next year for the video of Leave Me Alone, crazy how he left empty handed that night.
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I think that was the grammy's way of trying to put MJ ''back in his place'' after the success of Thriller
 
Rudolf said:
I'm obviously talking about the end where he always starts singing live "I'm gonna make the change" you can hear his mic failing there. I was referring to MITM as whole because it's common knowledge he lipsynced both TWYMMF and MITM (except the ending).

He was in his best vocals there. Compare it to LA. He just sounds weak and tired on most of the tour. His voice was in studio condition in Grammy's.
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I strongly disagree with the bolded part. Anyway, Grammy 88 For sure.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
I strongly disagree with the bolded part
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Ok, then I'll just say late tour. But really, compare his Grammy vocals to LA. Or even Wembley. He IS better at Grammy's. And I think he overall was in better vocal shape in '87 and early '88.
 
It's so tragic that Mike didn't sing all of Man In The Mirror at the grammy's. His voice was clearly in good enough shape for him to do so
 
The Grammys 88 has been and will always be my favorite performance. Second comes Gone Too Soon during the Clinton inauguration special.

Of course Motown 25 is the most iconic, it was basically his coming out party to the world. But performance wise, it isn't up to par with his later performances of the same song.
 
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