Goodbye to a musical genius

Growing up in the 80s, it was impossible not to be inspired and influenced by Michael Jackson. In this piece I wanted to pay tribute to that peerless energy he displayed when at his best, both as a singer/musician and as a dancer. Something that Björk said about him once has always stuck with me: "He's a true believer in magic."

Together with Quincy Jones and others, he really did create some of the greatest popular music the world has ever heard. I don't think I'll ever get tired of marveling at the arrangements and performances to be heard in the Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad albums, and on other individual tracks too. 'Will you be there' was played a lot while I worked on this piece, a track which, to me anyway, distills how uplifting his music can be, but in part because it's so fragile at the same time. And because you can't totally separate out his eccentricities and bad decisions from his music, I also wanted to sum up the enigmatic presence which made him so enduringly fascinating.

Clearly for an illustration it made sense to focus on his dance prowess, and of course his sense of visual style was often the thing that caught your attention first. Turns out he was also a great designer too, and he was nothing if not a global brand. Either way, it's hard to imagine anyone else having that kind of stardom and influence ever again. To me it's also a bit like the Superman myth - here was this person with so much talent and skill, and while we were all fascinated by him because of this, in the end it made him an outsider.

Rest in peace Michael, and thank you.