GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Dubbed the “King of Pop”, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Through stage and video performances, he popularized complicated dance techniques such as the moonwalk, to which he gave the name, and the robot. His sound and style have influenced artists of various genres, and his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. He is the most awarded artist in the history of popular music.The eighth child of the Jackson family, he made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5. Jackson began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown Records, and rose to solo stardom with his fifth studio album Off the Wall (1979) during the peak of the disco era. By the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music. His music videos, including those for “Beat It”, “Billie Jean”, and “Thriller” from his sixth studio album Thriller (1982), are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool.His prominence propelled him and the television channel MTV into cultural phenomenons of 1980s pop culture. At the 1984 Grammy Awards, Thriller won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Jackson continued to innovate with videos on the global best-seller albums Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995).Starting in the late 1980s, he became a figure of controversy and speculation due to his changing appearance, relationships, behavior and lifestyle. In 1993, he was accused of sexually abusing the child of a family friend. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and he was not indicted.In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges. Four years later, while preparing for a series of comeback concerts, This Is It, he died from an overdose of propofol administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray. Fans around the world expressed their grief, and his public memorial service was broadcast live.In August 2009, the Los Angeles County Coroner ruled that his death was a homicide, and Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November 2011. Seven years later, the documentary Leaving Neverland, which detailed allegations of child sexual abuse, led to another media backlash against him.He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 350 million records worldwide.[nb 1] Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of 66 million copies worldwide. In addition, the remix album Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix (1997) is the best-selling remix album of all time.Bad was the first album to produce five Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles. He had 13 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era, and was also the first artist to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades. He received 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend and Grammy Lifetime Achievement awards, six Brit Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and 39 Guinness World Records, including the “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time”.His inductions include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Dance Hall of Fame (the only recording artist to be inducted), and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame. In 2016, his estate earned $825 million, the highest yearly amount for a celebrity ever recorded by Forbes.Today in our History – January 27, 1984 – Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009 was burned during a commercial shooting from a pyrotechnic explosion.Music megastar Michael Jackson was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles on this day in 1984, after being set on fire during the filming of a TV commercial.The 25-year-old, later dubbed the ‘King of Pop’, was filming a staged concert performance for a new advertising campaign by Pepsi with members of his family, when sparks from a pyrotechnic explosion ignited his hair.Jackson briefly continued performing, then hurried to the back of the set where he was pushed to the ground and extinguished by stage hands and his brothers.The singer was initially taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, where he was “noted to be quite shaken up with palm-sized area of second-degree and small area of third-degree burns” by his doctor, Steven Hoefflin.His wounds were treated, and then he was given a number of different painkillers and prescribed a powerful sedative to calm his nerves and help him sleep.Jackson was arguably at the very peak of his career when the incident happened. His album Thriller had been released to huge acclaim at the end of 1982 and he would go on to win a record eight Grammy awards in February.He and his brothers had signed a promotional deal with Pepsi worth $5 million in November the previous year. After the accident, Pepsi paid Jackson $1.5 million in compensation, which the pop star donated to the Brotman Medical Centre, one of the hospitals in which he was treated.The raw footage shot for the Pepsi commercial was shot on Jan. 27, 1984, at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium.Jackson can be seen on the shoot’s sixth take, descending a flight of stairs when the pyrotechnics on stage go off early and engulf the singer’s head in flames.At first Jackson, wearing a sequined shirt, jacket and signature glove — continues to dance unaware as flames and smoke emanate from his hair. As the fireball grows around his head, he is set upon by members of the crew who tamp out the flames.In the video, one can easily observe a large red bald spot in the center of Jackson’s head after the flames have been extinguished.Jackson suffered second- and third-degree burns to his scalp and the back of his head, prompting him to begin using and then abusing painkillers, he would later admit.Us Weekly, which contains pictures of the incident, hits newsstands Friday. The magazine, which has not said how it obtained the Pepsi commercial footage, suggested that the accident kicked off Jackson’s obsession with plastic surgery.The then 25-year-old Jackson was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.”Michael is quite shocked. He’s fortunate that there were no injuries to his face,” Dr. Steve Hoefflin told reporters at the time of the accident. “At this time, I don’t think skin grafts are necessary.”Hoefflin is now retired and could not be reached by ABC News.com.“Within two weeks of the fire, Michael was back on his feet and in good spirits,” Jay Coleman, the agent who repped Jackson when he cut the deal with Pepsi, told ABC News.com.Coleman was not at the shoot but said the accident made front-page news, and the ads were run on the television news weeks before they officially ran as paid spots beginning in February 1984. Reserach more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!