Few Sundays have made a place for themselves in the history of Canary Islands like that September 26, 1993 when, shortly after ten at night and for 90 minutes, a black man was crowned mencey of the Islands by the work and grace of music. Michael Jackson appeared unfazed that day on the stage installed in the port area of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to host the only concert that the artist offered that year in Europe on the Dangerous World Tour, a performance that marks 30 years and which attracted more than 50,000 people. In an Archipelago without, at that time, a tradition of large international events, the presence of the legendary singer and composer was so surprising that it is easy to understand how the hoax spread that a double of the American was the one who would star in that performance, a doubt that, however, , dissipated among the audience quickly when not even five minutes had passed into the performance: only an artist of the stature and stature of Michael Jackson had the capacity to defend what was happening on the chicharrero set.
The world was very different from today’s in 1993, especially with regard to the circulation of information and the dissemination of news. Michael Jackson lands around 5:00 p.m. on September 25 at Tenerife’s Los Rodeos airport where, at the foot of the runway, he is greeted by two children dressed in typical Canarian costumes carrying a bouquet of flowers, but only a month before the existence of Michael Jackson was announced. some complaints of sexual abuse against the singer filed in the United States by the relatives of a couple of minors, events that in the media were addressed more as an attempt for profit by the parents of the victims than as the tip of the iceberg , finally revealed, of a string of sexual assaults allegedly perpetrated by the singer of Off the Wall, Thriller or Beat It, among others.
With that news lightly hovering over the atmosphere, the reality is that a kick in the air had never generated such a delirium in the Islands, but on September 26, after the projection on the side screens of the stage of a spectacular video with images of Michael Jackson in various moments of his multitudinous artistic journey around the world and with the background chords of Carl Off’s Carmina Burana, that gesture marked the start of ninety minutes of one of the best live performances that are remembered in the Canary Islands, a performance that began to the rhythm of Jam’s broken glass, a song included by the singer on his album Dangerous.
Since Friday, September 24, the capital of Tenerife was the information epicenter of the country as well as the meeting point for thousands of Canarians from all corners of the Archipelago, a mass to which were added thousands of other acolytes who came from the Peninsula to the occasion. Santa Cruz de Tenerife and port de la Cruz, where Jackson spent the night on September 25 staying at the Hotel Botánico, became obligatory points of pilgrimage for fans of the performer, especially the luxurious hotel establishment at whose entrance several hundred followers of the creator of Billie Jean gathered, Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough, Remember the time or Heal the world. The singer did not disappoint and on four occasions he came out to say hello from the terrace of his room.
With the very expensive tickets at that time at a price that varied from 5,000 pesetas (30 euros) to see it standing and 10,000 (60 euros) paid to enjoy the concert from the VIP stands, figures that are currently laughable compared to them, for example , with the 120 euros that were requested in 2011 to enjoy Isabel Pantoja’s performance at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in The Gran Canarian palms or the 50 that tickets for Sting’s visit to the Canary Islands cost in 2013, the promoters of the Michael Jackson concert doubted that enough tickets would be sold to make profitable that business adventure never seen before on the Island: bringing the smallest of the Jacksons Five to the Archipelago.
The singer lands around 5:00 p.m. on September 25 at the Los Rodeos airport where two children in typical Canarian costumes receive him.
In fact, because it did not exist, there was not even a venue with the necessary facilities to host an event of that magnitude, both in terms of the technical part and the amount of public that was intended to gather before the king of pop, a figure that was set at 50,000. although other sources claim that 45,000 people entered the venue. It was no coincidence, therefore, to create that space with red and blue containers at the foot of the Plaza de España to install a stage 77 meters wide by 28 meters deep.
The 24 hours before the concert, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was a party but it was the party of the entire Canary Islands with spectators coming from the mainland and the rest of the islands, but especially from Gran Canaria. Travel packages consisting of a boat and ticket were sold: they left early in the morning. The Palms from Gran Canaria and returned after the concert, around midnight.
Even the newspaper La Provincia, with its promotion La Tripleta, supported the concert by distributing more than a hundred tickets to its readers. Those who traveled by jet foil – that white and blue nutshell linked both Canary capitals in 90 minutes – saved the five hours of the boat but had to spend the night in a city that did not have even a free corner. Come on, everything is a cinch.
However, the atmosphere was magical on Calle del Castillo, García Sanabria Park and around the Plaza de España full of fans, some amateur dance groups and, especially, a handful of imitators who for a society like the Canary Islands At that time, with a video player in one out of every three homes and without even knowing that a thing called the Internet would arrive – the same thing happened in the rest of Spain, of course – it was almost a religious experience, to which a special argument was added. that Tenerife night: Michael Jackson was going to sleep with them. He, at the Hotel Botánico in Puerto de la Cruz, with his mother, his team and even the cook he brought on the plane from his previous concert in Istanbul. The rest, of course, in his houses, hotels, family homes…
“For two days now, Iberia has been reporting that there are no tickets to travel from Madrid,” said a journalist on television in a live connection with La 1’s Telediario from Los Rodeos airport on Sunday the 26th. It was two in the afternoon. and the trickle of attendees to the Dangerous World Tour was constant; Already at six in the afternoon a crowd was positioned in front of the doors to begin shortly after a most civilized and orderly access, possibly because they hardly knew what to do: for the vast majority of Canarian twenty-somethings who came to see Michael that was the first big concert of his life. Many even looked in amazement at those who ran across the esplanade to get as far forward as possible as soon as they passed the access control.
In addition to prohibiting “recorders and video recorders” by the organization, it is also not reported that “the sale and consumption of alcohol is completely prohibited inside the venue; and that it cannot be accessed with any bottle, can or any other container that puts the safety of attendees at risk. Nobody paid attention to them but no brawl took place in the middle of that crowd watched by around 500 police officers, 100 health workers and support from various cleaning forces, private security…
It had not begun to get dark when the screens turned on, generating not screams but screams among the audience. Jam, Human Nature, Smooth Criminal, Just ca n’t stop loving you, ella She ella’s out of my life, Thriler, Billie Jean, Dangerous, Black Or Whit. Heal The World… Man In The Mirror for the closing – he sang it all! – but not before having delighted the audience with I Want You Back, The Love You Save and I’ll Be There, three delicious songs from the stage of Michael Jackson with his brothers who generated one of the great moments of an unforgettable evening in which they danced to the Anaga rocks.
