He did that because, around 2001, he had some procedure done on his face that paralyzed his lips muscles for a while. If you watch him on the YRMW video, at the New York Invincible signing event or at the 30th anniversary special, he hides his mouth every time he smiles or laughs, because his upper lip basically can't move. The movement did come back later on, but for a while it was scary as there was a fear among fans some nerves had been severed and it would never come back.
Also, hiding his mouth was a way to hide the lip-synching, as the footage would be seen by a more casual audience who might not take kindly to the fact MJ wasn't singing live.
This is purely conjecture, but the procedure you refer to is most likely a result of Lupus treatment, which became very aggressive in 2000. The most common treatment for Lupus is prednisone, which has a common side effect of "moon face" on the areas treated with it. We know that Michael's lupus was most rampant on his upper lip and cheeks from images where the lesions are visible in the 80s and it directly corresponds with the areas that started puffing in 2000.
Michael has been covering his face like that since at least 1981 during the Triumph Tour. It's still unclear as to why. I choose to believe it's simply a nervous tick Michael tends to do (like how he licks his mouth and lips, which is something he did since the Jackson 5 and up until the 30th Anniversary) rather than something more insidious.
The entire show is lip-synched, excluding the Jacksons reunion part, and even that is heavily edited and studio-enhanced.
This is absolutely untrue.
The Way You Make Me Feel is completely live other than the chorus on September 7th and on September 10th it has live ad-libs and intro. The live vocals for the former are incredible and the only performance that trumps it is Monza 1992, but that only has ad-libs. Unsurprisingly, all these live vocals were edited out of the TV release.
Billie Jean is live from when Michael signals the band to turn it live a bit after the moonwalk.
Black or White has live ad-libs for the breakdown.
Beat It is completely live from the solo onward and during the intro. The September 7th show is less live but the vocals that are there are legitimately terrible and I feel nothing but sorrow hearing Michael in the state he is.
You Rock My World is only playback for the verses, and has live ad-libs throughout all the choruses. He honestly sounds better than the album (mainly because the album is autotuned to hell and back but still).
I hate the attitude of deeming things live and not live when we should weigh in how much of it's live, Beat It during the HIStory Tour is
mostly live and yet everyone acts as if he never sung a note of that song. The vocals for Beat It in 1996 are the best since 1984 in my opinion.
Nothing against her in a general sense. She just sounds HORRIBLE there.
She sounded great in the amateur footage, but her dubbed vocals are pretty bad, yes.
It's well-established from numerous sources -- including MJ himself ("I don't like to tour, I go through hell touring") that MJ didn't want to tour to support the albums. And since it was obviously much easier to lip-synch, and since the fans and the media let him get away with it, that's what he did. I love MJ as much as the next guy, but the truth is that, regarding live performances and touring, he took the easy way out. The fact there was dancing in his act is no reason not to sing : you can both move and sing live (ask James Brown), and he could have certainly sung some of the slowest number that don't involve dancing (Heal the World, for instance).
If he were still alive today, he couldn't get away with those all-lip-synching shows. With social media, videos of him miming would make the rounds, and he'd get a lot of flack for it.
If you compare TII to any of his previous tours, as far back as the Victory tour, you realize that MJ basically never changed his act. Once a particular song was done on stage in a particular way, it was set in stone forever. "Now we'd like to do the old songs, the old-fashioned way!".
This hypothesis doesn't work with the recent revelation that Michael was singing in full underneath the playback, with his microphone muted (only he can hear his own voice). He used playback because he didn't want to disappoint his audience with a sub-par vocal performance, not for any health reasons.
Michael Prince (main studio engineer on the HIStory Tour) relayed as much on the MJCast.
Michael did play it quite safe when it comes to changing up his routines for his performances. Once he found the perfect formula in his mind, he stuck with it forever. Examples include the Jackson 5 medley, the cherrypicker routine during Beat It, the stop and start during WBSS, singing with a fan during She's Out Of My Life. I wish Michael had experimented a bit more with his performances, and also shown some love to his lesser known songs.
These are bad examples. The cherry picker wasn't even a thing until 1987 and later on during the HIStory Tour it was minimised greatly only to be gone again in 2001. The Beat It routine in general has changed more than most other performances. In 1984 there were two guitar solos and a whole bunch of stuff that would eventually be deleted by 1987 and then further streamlined in 2001.
The WBSS break changed quite a bit.
In 1984 he would exit the pose and kind of size up the audience for a second before kicking the air and then singing "If you can't feed your baby" followed by the band starting again.
In 1987 the kick was removed.
In 1988 he would only move his microphone to his mouth to sing it while not changing his pose until the band starts.
In 1992 he would step back and the drums would signal the song about to start, at which point Michael would sing to sync up with them.
In 1993 he would stamp the ground beforehand to hype it up ala Rock With You 1984-1989
In 1996-1997 he would clap his hands instead.
She's Out Of My Life didn't have a fan to sing with it for most of it's performances.
In 1981 he walked down the side of the stage to hug a fan on the other side of a border.
In 1984 Michael started to lie and sit on the stage and the fan was removed from the routine so Mike just walked on the side of the stage to get closer to the audience.
In 1987 the girl was back and she got to go past the gate so the girl could hang out on her own volition.
In 1988 the girl instead gets positioned on the top of higher on the stairs for Michael to come over to her rather than the other way around.
In 1992 the girl comes up the stairs to meet Michael instead and THIS is when he starts letting her "sing along" (although usually they just scream).
In 1993 Michael would kiss the fan in addition to the 1992 routine.
In 1996-1997 the fan is now in You Are Not Alone instead but instead of kissing her, he tries to square dance with her instead.
In 1999, She's Out Of My Life was rehearsed as a duet with Mariah Carrey and Michael would dance with her during the section where he'd interact with the fans ala IJCSLY.
There are naturally more variations on these but these are the main ones.
These last two literally changed every tour, why did you use them as examples this?
