As many as 1,500 prisoners at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, the Philippines, swayed and stomped again on Saturday in a tribute to their idol, Michael Jackson, after being told about Jackson’s death on Thursday in Los Angeles.
They hired professional choreographer Gwendolyn Lador to teach them the dance, and practiced for nine hours Friday night and into the wee hours of Saturday morning for the show. They took breaks only to eat or when it rained.
A mass of 700 Cebuanos and foreign tourists watched the performance from a second-floor corridor, swaying to the music and applauding as the inmates, dressed in orange prison T-shirts and sweat pants, stomped and clapped in unison in the hilltop prison, behind thick stone walls topped by electrified razor wire.
Other numbers included “Ben,” “I’ll Be There” and “We Are the World.” The inmates then held up a 5-by-10 foot (1.5-by-3 meter) tarpaulin showing Michael Jackson holding a sword with his name written below it. Others waved the flags of the Philippines and other nations.
“Thriller” has attracted 24.3 million hits since it was posted two years ago, with nearly a million of them in the 24 hours since news of Jackson’s death spread.
In Taiwan, two top Michael Jackson impersonators donned fedora hats and sequined outfits Saturday, moonwalking to “Billie Jean” in their own tribute to the pop star.
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