A. R. Rahman is one of the most loved musicians of India and he has given some really great compositions and how we can forget to mention that he has also won the international award, Oscars for his music.
However, today we will let you know a shocking truth about A. R. Rahman, once the legendary Indian musician refused to meet the another legendary musician, singer and dancer, Michael Jackson.
Well, there is a story behind this refusal and during an event, A. R. Rahman has talked about it. He said, “At the beginning of 2009, I was in LA with my agent. He introduced me to another person, his friend, who managed Michael Jackson. I tested my waters. I said, ‘Can I meet Michael Jackson?’ And he said, ‘Sure, I’ll send out an email’. There was no response in the first week. I was just quiet, and I said, ‘It’s fine’.”
He further said, “And then the nominations happened, and I got nominated for the Oscars. Then, the email came in, and it said, ‘Michael wants to meet you’. But I said, ‘I don’t want to meet him now’.” Rahman added, “I said, ‘I don’t want to meet him. If I win an Oscar, I’ll meet him, otherwise, I won’t.’ I was sure I was going to win. I won, and the next day, I went to meet him. It was almost 6:30 pm, and the sun was going down. And then, somebody opened the door with gloves on…”
A. R. Rahman stated that he talked with Michael Jackson about his iconic dance moves and the late singer-dancer also praised Rahman for his music of “Slumdog Millionaire” and also asked some questions related to the technicalities of the music of the movie.
A. R. Rahman called his meeting unforgettable as he further said, “He introduced me to his kids, but I was jet-lagged because I’d been working day and night. I was waiting to return to India… It was unforgettable.”
A. R. Rahman recalled that at that time, he was working on the music of Rajinikanth starrer “Enthiran” which was directed by Shankar and during that time, Shankar gave A. R. Rahman an idea of collaborating with Michael Jackson. Rahman recalled, “I said, ‘Wow, will he do a Tamil song?’ And I called him, and we spoke that week. He said, ‘Whatever you say, we will do it together’. We met again, but unfortunately, he passed away in 2009. He was sick at the time.”
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The collaboration between A. R. Rahman and Michael Jackson would have been amazing, what do you say?