DUEL OF THE TITANS
Tommy Mottola, one of the heavyweights of the music industry in the world, was behind many of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits. Until the differences between them broke out a media war between accusations of racism and deception.
Year 2001. Although cornered by allegations of sexual abuse of minors and with his image in question, Michael Jackson continued to enjoy his privileged status as a world music star and the launch of their 11th studio album, Invinciblewas received with enthusiasm by the fans of the singer Thriller.
At that time Jackson couldn’t imagine it, but this was his last studio album and the one that marked his last years in music until died in 2009. With it he put an end to her relationship with the Sony record company and began an all-out war with Tommy Mottola—Thalía’s husband until just a few months ago—the all-powerful head of Sony at the time. A feud that later gave rise to all kinds of speculation and conspiracies about the sad end of the king of pop.
Duel of giants
Mottola and Jackson were for a long time a successful duo: The first was the second’s music producer for years and together they signed some of the singer’s greatest hits. But that relationship began to deteriorate and with the release of Invincible finished exploding.
The album that Jackson had worked on for more than four years became the most expensive in history, but paradoxically the budget for its promotion was drastically cut by the disagreements between the producer and the artistwho refused to do a concert tour for its release in the face of the record company’s challenge.
The differences between them also became evident with the choice of singles on the album. The first was You Rock My World, decision that the record company made unilaterally: Jackson wanted it to be Unbreakable.
The release of the second single, crywas also surrounded by controversy after the musician’s refusal to participate in the video clip due to the little money that was allocated to its recording. And with the third single, there was no video clip.
Of course everything had its explanation: just before the departure of invincible, jackson He had already communicated his decision to break his relationship with the record company before his contract ended and recover the rights to his songs to exploit them himself.
“So I’m leaving Sony, I’m a free agent. I’m leaving them and they’re mad at me because I just did very good business. Their way of getting revenge is to try to destroy my album. But I always said that you know that good art never dies. And Tommy Mottola is the devil”, was the first public attack that the singer directed at his enemy during the promotion of the album in London in June 2002.
It’s the devil
The confrontation between Jackson and Mottola was already an open secret but it became more during the following weeks. The artist’s speech at an event of the National Action Network—one of the most influential civil rights organizations in the world—held in July in New York spread like wildfire around the world.
In his speech before the microphones, the singer of Billie Jean He accused big music companies of mistreating and conspiring against their artists: “They steal, they cheat, they do everything they can… especially with black artists.” But the highlight came when he directed his accusations directly against the producer: “Tommy Mottola, he’s the president of the record division. He is evil, he is a racist and he is very, very, very diabolical.“.
The confrontation lasted months and Jackson went beyond words, carrying banners of Mottola transformed into a demon on numerous occasions and also accusing him of having silenced other artists, including Mariah Carey, who was the producer’s wife between 1993 and 1998, and a great friend of the artist.
“After she divorced Tommy she came to me crying, she was crying so much that I had to control her and she told me that he was a bad man,” he declared about her to add more fuel to the fire.
The company was quick to react and described all these statements as ridiculous: “It seems strange that he has chosen to launch that unpleasant and unfounded attack against a company that has promoted his career for many, many years.”
His wife, the singer Thalía, who celebrated her wedding with Mottola in 2000 and to which Michael Jackson attended as a close friend of the couple, he also decided to intervene to defend the producer. “My husband married a Mexican, so I don’t see the racism thing. In addition, he promoted the entire Latin boom in the United States, promoting everything from Gloria Estefan to Julio Iglesias. Many times, artists who do not accept that the sales of their albums are not as big as before, they make excuses,” he clarified about those accusations.
Finally, it was the king of pop who won the battle and Mottola was forced, among other reasons due to accusations of being a racist, to leave Sony.
