Sony has scheduled to release Michael Jackson’s new song “This Is It” to radio stations Sunday night and will be unveiled and available for download at exactly midnight (October 12th) at MichaelJackson.com. The song was found on a tape which had only contained Michael’s vocal and piano, which was then built into a full arrangement with strings and back up vocals by his brothers. The song is to play in the closing credits of the This Is It film that will be released later this month.
There are more unrleased Michael Jackson songs that will be available to fans in the future. Rob Stringer, chairman of Sony’s Columbia/Epic record label said “We probably have at least 100 songs in varying degrees of being finished and we think there probably is a lot more.” He also stated, “We haven’t gone into the archive to search it properly yet — it’s just too complicated to do that.”
Michael Jackson This Is It Film will be released simultaneously in movie theaters in more than 15 cities around the world, including Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro and Seoul.
The movie is compiled from 100 hours of rehearsal footage taken prior to Michael Jackson’s sudden death June 25, for the 50 shows that were to take place in London.
Hollywood movie premieres taking place around the world are rarely ever at the same time as will be in this case with Michael Jackson’s documentary film. The premiere in Los Angeles will be in the evening of October 27 which local time would be after midnight in London October 28.
Jeff Blake, worldwide marketing and distribution chairman for Sony Pictures stated, “Michael Jackson has an army of fans everywhere around the world. We are giving the audiences an incredible opportunity to join together in celebration of Michael Jackson’s incredible career.”