I was also there at The World Music Award at Earls Court London 15 November 2006

1. Michael was NEVER going to perform. This was a story put out to the media in the days before the award show by Raymone Bain. It is HER which is to blame for the huge PR fiasco. The day before the award show fans asked Michael about performing and he had no idea what they were talking about. He denied that he was performing and said he was just collecting the awards.

This circulated in the fan community, both online on the forums and among those of us at the hotel. We were not expecting Michael to perform and we were disgusted by the news reports the next day from so called fans disappointed about Michael’s lack of performance.

2. The Booing Story & where it came from
It was actually Rihanna who was booed.The stage was divided in two parts, the awards podium and the performance area. Michael was presented with the Diamond Award and The Guinness Book of Records Award at the podium on the right side of the stage. He had finished his speech but was still on at the podium when Rihanna came onto the performance side of the stage and the opening bars of music from her song Unfaithful started. THAT’S when the booing started. Michael was still waving and interacting with the crowd but Rihanna had started her performance. The boos and jeers rang out through the arena. No one wanted to see Rihanna, everyone just wanted to see Michael.

After Rihannas performance, that was when the choir came onto the stage and Michael came back out. I was front row and saw a microphone being shoved into his hands and him being told go and sang. He was very confused and just went along with things. He had no idea what he was meant to do. He just went along with the momentum in the crowd. He walked across the stage right in front of me and I saw him ask the stage manager at the side of the stage, “do I go back this way” as he pointed to the curtain at the very end of the performance area.

I must admit, it was brutal that night. EVERYONE got booed, During every performance everyone was screaming for Michael, during every award presentation everyone was screaming for Michael. It was Michaels night and everyone knew it. We didnt care about any other performer or any other award recipient. You have to understand that Michael had been in London for 2 days at this stage. There were about 400 fans at the hotel. He had been out and about in London, and playing peek a boo at the hotel with us. Fans had flown to London from America and all over Europe. It was classic Michael mania and the award show people had no clue how to handle it.