Madonna and Michael Jackson were "a couple" for exactly one week.
The artists surprised by arriving together at the 63rd edition of the
Oscars in 1991. She wore a glamorous white suit with diamonds and a fur
stole, resembling the image of Marilyn Monroe. He with his usual latex
pants, a white blazer, and black gloves.
Madonna had come to the ceremony to shine and so she did. She
performed for everyone the song "Sooner or Later", written by Stephen
Sondheim for the movie "Dick Tracy", and the song took home the
trophy.
The dialogue on the first date went like this: "Michael said,
'Who are you going with?' I looked at him and said, 'I don't know. Do you
want to go?' And he was like, 'Yeah, that would be great,'" Madonna
explained. "And then, yes, he took me home. Do you want to know what
happened next? I'm not going to tell you," she added in an interview.
After
the Oscar party, the "couple" was seen again at The Ivy restaurant in
Beverly Hills.
According to People magazine, both "dates" had
been arranged by Madonna as a way to publicize her upcoming documentary
"Truth or Dare", but what it did was fuel rumors of a duet they were going
to perform on Madonna's next album. Jackson, "Dangerous", although this
ultimately never happened.
When the "King of Pop" passed away in June 2009, the
singer was devastated. "I can't stop crying. I have always admired Michael
Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on
forever! My heart goes out to his three children and other members of his
family. God bless." he wrote in a statement.
During the MTV Video Music Awards that same year, the singer
dedicated a heartfelt tribute to him with a speech: "Like most artists, I
was shy and plagued with insecurities. I can't say we were great friends,
but in 1991 I decided that I wanted to try to get to know him better. I
asked him out to dinner and I said, 'My gift, I'll drive, just you and me,'"
he recalled of the date.
"Most of us had turned our backs on him. In a desperate attempt
to hold on to his memory, I went online to see his old videos of him dancing
and singing on TV and on stage and thought, 'My God, he was so unique, so
original, so rare, and he will never be someone like him again. He was a
king' (…) Long live the king," she added excitedly.
Years later, in 2017, Madonna revealed that her date with
Michael Jackson culminated in a passionate French kiss. Of course, it was
she who made the first move. "He was a very shy boy," added the sovereign.
For a week, the king and queen of pop ruled the Earth.
