The king of pop transformed himself over the years to the point of becoming unrecognizable. At the heart of his insecurities: his nose, which he could no longer stand because of his father’s harsh remarks. He underwent a physical transformation to the point of being completely unrecognizable. To everyone, Michael Jackson will always be the king of pop, the performer of “Billie Jean,” “Thriller,” and “Beat It,” but also the black man who gradually turned white. While his skin color changed due to vitiligo, a dermatological depigmentation disease diagnosed in the mid-1980s by his doctors, it was he who chose to refine the features of his face by undergoing multiple cosmetic surgeries, to the point of becoming addicted to the scalpel.
It all began in 1979 with a first rhinoplasty. Michael Jackson broke his nose while falling during a dance rehearsal. He was 21 and was about to release “Off the Wall,” his first solo album. His injury caused him pain, difficulty breathing, so he decided to undergo corrective surgery, as stated by American journalist J. Randy Taraborrelli in “Michael: The Magic and the Madness, the Whole Story,” his biography on the king of pop published in May 1991.
The film “Michael,” a biopic recounting his life and career, portrays a different story. In the movie, the singer, played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson, consults a surgeon for aesthetic reasons. “I want to be perfect, my face is not symmetrical,” he tells the doctor while looking at his reflection in a mirror.
La Toya, Michael Jackson’s sister, revealed in an interview that her brother was obsessed with the idea of getting a nose job. She mentioned how he asked her to be his guinea pig to experience the pain and see the results of the surgery. In the late 1970s, she agreed to undergo rhinoplasty for him. Satisfied with the outcome, Michael, in turn, took the leap in 1979.
Regardless of whether the motivation was due to an injury, aesthetic reasons, or both, Michael Jackson’s first rhinoplasty in 1979 clearly opened a Pandora’s box. After the operation, the singer became obsessed with his nose, never satisfied with its perfection or slimness.
Despite the media frenzy surrounding his transformations, Michael Jackson denied altering his face in the documentary “Living with Michael Jackson” by Martin Bashir in 2003. He claimed to have only had two nose surgeries for better breathing and higher notes.
However, his friend, the illusionist Uri Geller, revealed that Michael Jackson changed his appearance to avoid resembling his father, his tormentor Joe Jackson, whose insults still haunted him. By the time of his death in June 2009, Michael Jackson’s nose was nearly non-existent, with reports suggesting he wore a nasal prosthesis.
Author Margo Jefferson, in her book “On Michael Jackson” published in 2006, believed the singer was “obsessed with the desire to remain eternal,” pushing the boundaries of physical transformation to become an almost unreal androgynous being, transcending the boundaries of the living and the mortal.
