The controversial Michael Jackson song stopped streaming
Throughout the past decade, musicians, musicologists, and fans have been arguing whether these three songs were sung by Jackson or not.
The major streaming platforms, including Spotify and iTunes, pulled three songs attributed to Michael Jackson last week. Keep your head up. Breaking News and Monster head up were first released on Michael (2010) – a posthumous album that included some old unreleased songs with the music Jackson was recording right before he died.
Despite of the songs being attributed to Jackson in the album and also being marketed and promoted as Jackson’s, some critics and fans believe that some of the vocals are not Jackson’s.
Nonetheless, decision to remove the songs from streaming platforms was taken jointly by Michael Jackson’s Estate and Sony Music, not by the platforms themselves. It was called “the easiest and best way to put an end to the conversation associated with these tracks once & for all.” “The remaining tracks on the album are still available.
According to the statement from Michael Jackson’s Estate and Sony Music, who own the rights to the album and a chunk of profits from it, this action has nothing to do with the authenticity of the tracks.
As soon as Jackson lwas released in the year 2010, the three tracks were debated. Jackson was in the middle of working on an album just before he passed away – his first after almost a decade since the immensely popular Invincible (2001). If Jackson had been able to complete the album in his lifetime, Michael would have been very different from the album released by Sony. Jackson’s friends and musicians worked with Sony Music to complete the album.
Consequently, Michael Jackson’s album lacked the grit and power of the typical Michael Jackson album due to excessive editing and expungement. A glistening orchestral world paired with fragments from his verses and a few musical motifs were used to create this piece.
It wasn’t just that it had too many frills and flounces. In recent years, musicians, musicologists, and fans have argued whether these three songs were originally sung by Jackson or not. Several family members also have felt that it wasn’t Jackson’s voice, implying that Sony used a cover singer to simulate Jackson’s voice and project it as Michael Jackson’s. Sonically, the vibrato was mentioned as unrefined. The Estate and Sony music stand to lose more than just credibility if that is found to be true.
Different Jackson family members, including Jackson’s mother and one of the sister, asserted the songs weren’t by Jackson. This added fuel to the fire. The way these songs were constructed is very sneaky and sly, according to one of his nephews Taryll Jackson. People who have worked on this project either have strong doubts and questions, while others know the truth but choose to ignore it.
A fan and lawyer named Vera Serova filed a class-action lawsuit in 2014, claiming the liner notes, which credited Jackson is the singer, were a misrepresentation under California’s Unfair Competition Law. Additionally, Serova asserted that Jackson’s friend Eddie Cascio created the songs and sold them through Jackson’s Estate and Sony Music through his company Angelikson Productions.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Cascio denied this claim. Additionally, Serova claimed that Jason Malachi had sung the songs, which he admitted to doing on Facebook in 2011. It was later revealed that his manager’s account had been hacked. Malachi’s near-perfect rendition of Jackson’s Mamacita in 2007 puzzled and wowed fans at the same time.
Aside from Sony Music, Serova’s case also involved MJJ Productions, which handles Jackson’s music licensing and publishing, Cascio and James Porte, co-writers of the three songs, and Angelikson Productions. Since Sony upheld the fact that the tracks were recorded in Cascio’s basement in New Jersey. Audiologists and musicologists were hired by both teams to confirm their own versions.
The California trial court agreed that the album cover, that claimed that it contained “9 previously unreleased vocal tracks performed by Michael Jackson” and the promotional video, was “commercial speech.” However, an appeal from Sony and the estate in 2018 had a California appellate court dismiss Serova’s appeal, saying that it represented “protected free speech” because the matter was now public.
Having appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, Serova and her group claimed that since a lot of money was made through the recordings, the matter was not about free speech. A final decision has yet to be made by the Court, despite the fact that exchanges over the matter took place in May. As a result of the Court’s decision, the case can also be sent back to the trial court, where a jury would ultimately decide whether the facts are authentic.
Although the case is still ongoing, Sony Music and the Estate have removed the songs from streaming platforms. There is a belief that if the songs had been sung by Jackson, the label and estate would never remove them, and going further would only expose them to more litigation. Moreover, the whole matter raises many questions about how music label giants treat music and artists.
The geopolitical importance of direct flight from Saudi to Israel
An Air India flight from India to Israel was allowed to fly through Saudi Arabia’s airspace in 2018, a rare move. The United Arab Emirates and Israel allowed flights over Saudi Arabia in 2020.
Saudi Arabia will open its airspace to all civilian aircraft on Friday (July 15), allowing flights direct from Israel to the Gulf country. Biden, who is visiting both countries, said that he would become the first American President to fly from Israel to Jeddah and that the Gulf kingdom “can help build momentum toward Israel’s further integration into the region.”
Because of the Israel-Palestine conflict, many countries have not been able to fly to Israel through Saudi airspace. As part of the gradual normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and between Israel and Gulf countries as a whole, this is the latest step forward.
The Saudi Arabian government allowed Indian flights from India to Israel through its airspace in 2018, in a rare move. Flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates were allowed to fly above Saudi Arabia in 2020.
By implementing the policy change, aircraft will save fuel, reduce their carbon footprint, and reduce travel time for passengers. According to a press release, the Arab kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation is eager to fulfill its obligations under the Chicago Convention, which stipulates non-discrimination among civil aircraft. According to the Saudi release, the move will help the country cement its position as a “global hub” linking three continents.
There are many passengers flying between Asia and Europe and Africa who use hubs in UAE neighbors, such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia can potentially exploit similar locational advantages to capture a larger share of the global passenger aviation market through Jeddah or Riyadh.
In addition, Israel’s Muslims, a minority community in the country, would have easier access to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. The New York Times reported that Esawi Frej, a Muslim minister in the Israeli cabinet, had said: “I want to see the day when I can fly from Ben-Gurion to Jeddah to fulfill my religious obligation.”
It is interpreted that this move signals and facilitates greater cooperation between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the US. Despite having regional rivalries with Iran, both West Asian countries have been traditional allies of the US, but Saudi-Israeli relations have been strained recently.
It is interpreted that this move signals and facilitates greater cooperation between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the US. Despite having regional rivalries with Iran, both West Asian countries have been traditional allies of the US, but Saudi-Israeli relations have been strained recently.
With the Russia-Ukraine war weighing heavily on economies around the world and given America’s tensions and rivalry with China, Washington wants to bring its allies closer together.
In the wake of soaring oil prices, the White House welcomed a decision by OPEC+ nations, a grouping of oil-supplying nations led by Saudi Arabia, to increase crude supply. Specifically, President Biden would like to forget his earlier harsh words regarding Saudi Arabia following the murder of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The United States has helped to improve relations between Israel and the Arab world over the past few years, especially under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Custody death of Dr. Y S Sachan
On August 8, seven former police and jail officials were summoned, including the state’s former director general of police.
In link with the death in custody of Dr. Yogendra Singh Sachan, a former deputy chief medical officer (CMO) of Uttar Pradesh, over 11 years ago, a special CBI court in Lucknow issued summonses against seven individuals.
The Court defined Dr. Sachan’s death inside a Lucknow jail in 2011 as “prima facie murder” and summoned seven people, including three retired IPS officers, for murder and criminal conspiracy.
There was a claim that Dr. Sachan had committed suicide by the Uttar Pradesh government, led by Mayawati at the time. As a result of alleged financial irregularities in the state Health and Family Welfare Department, Dr. Sachan was arrested by the UP Police in 2011. In this case, thousands of crores disbursed to states to provide accessible, affordable, and quality healthcare to the rural population was allegedly siphoned away.
As police investigated the sensational back-to-back murders of two CMOs, Dr. Vinod Kumar Arya and Dr. B P Singh, by motorcycle-borne killers in Lucknow, alleged financial irregularities emerged.
On October 27, 2010, Dr. Arya, who was then CMO, Family Welfare, Lucknow, was shot dead on a morning walk near his house, which is located in Vikas Nagar. Dr. Arya’s successor, Dr. B P Singh, was killed in the almost same incident near his home in Gomti Nagar less than six months later.
During that same month, Dr. Rajendra Singh, then director (administration) of the Family Welfare Department, filed two cases with Lucknow’s Wazirganj police station alleging financial irregularities. In both cases, Dr. Sachan was named as a defendant. His neck was covered with a belt tied to a rod on the toilet ventilator.
A day after Dr. Sachan was scheduled to appear in court in connection with the NRHM scam case, his body was found. From his belongings, a purported suicide note was found.
It was then claimed that Dr. Sachan had committed suicide by the state government. According to his family, he was killed to prevent him from naming the people who had framed him. Malti Sachan, his wife, filed a murder and criminal conspiracy case against unidentified persons at Gosaiganj police station in Lucknow four days after Dr. Sachan’s death.
As the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Lucknow, Rajesh Upadhyay investigated Dr. Sachan’s death. On July 11, 2011, the CJM presented the report to the Allahabad High Court, which was hearing a petition challenging an investigation by the CBI into the death of Dr. Sachan.
It was determined by the judicial inquiry that the death was a homicide, contrary to the UP government’s suicide theory. Based on findings of the autopsy, expert opinion on the victim’s wounds, circumstantial evidence, and witness statements, the conclusion was reached. Several investigations were underway to determine who was responsible for the death, according to the report.
According to the Allahabad High Court, the investigation was transferred to the CBI on July 14, 2011. The CBI is also investigating the murders of Dr. Vinod Kumar Arya and Dr. BP Singh, as well as the NRHM scam.
In its closure report on September 27, 2012, the CBI stated that Dr. Sachan had died by suicide by hanging, and was not murdered, as his family alleged. According to the CBI, a board of doctors from AIIMS, New Delhi, concluded Sachan’s death was caused by ante mortem hanging and multiple suicidal wounds.
After the Special Task Force (STF) of the UP Police named him as a key conspirator in the murders of CMOS Vinod Kumar Arya and Dr. B P Singh, Dr. Sachan ended his life, according to the CBI.
A protest application was filed by Dr. Sachan’s wife, Malti Sachan, and she requested that the Court reject the closure report and order a further inqury into the case. According to Malti Sachan, the agency relied heavily on the AIIMS doctors, who prepared their report by reviewing photographs and video footage. A panel of five doctors who conducted the test of the body prepared a report of the post-mortem examination, which had been ignored.
According to Malti Sachan, her husband knew very well which vital vein/artery he needed to injure in order to achieve death as soon as possible, indicating that he would not have attempted suicide by inflicting multiple wounds on himself.
Malti’s protest application was allowed, and the CBI was ordered to investigate the case in further detail. The CBI again filed a closure report in the murder case on August 9, 2017. A second protest application was filed by Malti Sachan with the Court as well.
Malti Sachan’s lawyer said on November 19, 2019; a Lucknow court registered the case as a complaint case based on the second protest application. The Court recorded the statements of Malti Sachan and others, including the doctors who had carried out the post-mortem examination and went through documents, including the autopsy report submitted by Malti Sachan.
Her lawyer said that on July 7 this year, the Court held that prima facie it appeared that seven persons, whom Malti Sachan had blamed, violated IPC sections 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). The Court summoned those seven persons to appear before it on August 8, the next hearing date.
A total of seven people were summoned: UP DGP Karamveer Singh, Additional DGP (Prisons) V K Gupta, Inspector General (Lucknow region) Subesh Kumar Singh, jailor of Lucknow district jail, Mr. B S Mukund, deputy jailor Sunil Kumar Singh, chief warder Babu Ram Dubey, and warder Pahendra Singh.
As a result of the death of Dr. Arya, five people were arrested at first by Lucknow Police. One Anand Prakash Tiwari, one Ram Krishna Verma, and one Vinod Sharma were arrested by the UP Police STF.
A charge sheet was filed against Tiwari, Verma, and Sharma by the CBI on the Court’s directive. A K Shukla, who too was arrested in the murders case & for the alleged financial irregularities, was not charged with any of the crimes, the agency said. According to the CBI, the murder of Dr. Arya and Dr. Singh was motivated by fear of being exposed for misappropriating funds at the NRHM.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
