The French Remember ‘le Roi de la Pop’

ABC's Christophe Schpoliansky reports from France:  The passing of Michael Jackson, “le Roi de la Pop” as he was known in France, was on the minds of many French people walking the streets of Paris today. “One of the greatest pop artists has left us. It is quite a shock,” Charles de la Bourdonnaye, 20, told ABC News after learning of Jackson’s death. “It’s sad. We just lost a wonder of pop music, someone who was very very important in the musical world,” Daniela Pierre, 23, added. French 24-hour news channels and radio stations went into “special edition” mode when the news of Jackson’s passing broke late last night and continued throughout the day. Jackson’s famous hits such as “Billie Jean,” “Beat it” and “Thriller,” among many others, could be heard all over the French radio and TV airwaves today. Only two newspaper were able to go to print with the news of his death. Le Parisien had a full front page, showing a picture of Jackson, with the headline “Michael Jackson is dead.”  Le Figaro newspaper also had a picture of  Michael Jackson, with the headline “The Death of Michael Jackson.” 
 
  “Michael Jackson, we love you forever” appeared on the home page of the official website of Jackson’s French fan club, with the text in French of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center press release announcing the death of the pop star. A forum on the website called for fans to gather in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris at 7pm local time today. French officials also reacted to the news of Jackson’s passing.  Prime Minister Francois Fillon said he felt “great emotion” following the death of Michael Jackson he considered as “a monument” of music. “I was above all an admirer of his success. Someone who sold 750 million records, it’s unique in the history of music,” the Prime Minister said this morning. “He is a monument and I feel great emotion like everyone else,” he added. “We all have a bit of Michael Jackson in ourselves,” freshly appointed Culture and Communication Minister Frederic Mitterrand said on Europe 1 radio. He paid tribute to a “universal star,” a “musical and show entertainer genius.” “Everyone is fascinated by this kind of destiny America has created. He joins Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Elvis, who finished [their lives] in a way not very different from his [life] consumed by medicines in a great lonesomeness,” Mitterrand added.  The polemic over the number of medicines Jackson was taking rebounded after a friend and former manager of Michael Jackson, Tarak Ben Ammar, qualified Jackson’s doctors as “criminals.” “It is clear that the criminals in this case are the doctors who treated him during his whole career, who destroyed his face, who gave him medicines to ease pains,” he told Europe 1 radio.  For many French people, Michael Jackson will be remembered as a great artist, a great entertainer, who could show some moves. But he will also be remembered for his encounter with the justice system.  “I really liked his incredible energy, his incredible dance moves. It was magnificent. Then, there was the rest which I did not like because there was a terrible deterioration of the human being in every sense,” Veronique Longchamp, a woman in her early 40s, told ABC News. “I will remember his music, his rhythm, and the 80's. I’m still listening to his music, a music easy to listen. It’s easy to put a MJ hit on, it always works. He was a tormented soul, just like every artist is, but he was a great artist above all,” Francois Marnez, 43, told ABC News. “He had a lighting life. He started his life very early and he finished it very early too,” Longchamp concluded.