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Michael Jackson’s final This Is It tour encompassed much more than 50 concerts in London.

Choreographer Kenny Ortega said Jackson had plans to take the O2 Arena tour of the UK around the world over a period of three years.

Ortega’s documentary of the same name has brought high acclaim in just 24 hours since opening, earning more than US$2.2 million on its first day in the US.

Ortega said Jackson talked a lot about a world tour that would have included Australia.

“We would just be hanging out on a rest break and sitting in the dressing room and he would say ‘Kenny, have you ever been to India?’ I would say, ‘No, I really want to go to India so badly. I haven’t been.’ He’d say, ‘You must. You must. When I take the show to India whatever you are doing you have to stop and come back and join the tour.’ He’d say, ‘What about Japan?’ I’d say, ‘Yes of course. I love Japan. I want to go to Japan.’ He’d say, ‘What about Africa?’ I’d say, ‘Yes, Africa’.”

Ortega said: “I realised he wanted the world. He wanted to take this all over the world.”

Michael Jackson reportedly wanted to quit music, just months before his tragic death.

The King of Pop died in LA suddenly on June 25 after he reportedly suffered a heart attack.

His close friend Bryan Michael Stoller, who knew Jacko for 20 years, said the star was planning to move away from music and into film-making.

He said: “It was almost as if he’d lost his love for music. He was so frail and exhausted.

“He wanted to move into film-making and told me it was much more important to him than music.”

But Jackson had signed up to perform 50 shows at London’s O2 Arena, which were due to start later this year, and Stoller claimed the stress of the tour was making him ill.

He said: “He looked like he wasn’t taking very good care of himself at all. He tried to be upbeat about the tour, but you could see that he was down and depressed. I have never seen him so bad.”

Source: Splash News

Michael Jackson’s highly anticipated ‘This is It’ spectacular which was set to go down at London’s O2 Arena will now continue as a tribute show. A-list performers are expected to appear and replicate what was planned for the late King of Pop’s shows. It has been rumored that Madonna will be taking the stage as the singer was set to make a surprise appearance during Michael’s run at the O2 Arena. According to a tour organizer, one performance is set to take place in September but a decision on where the show will take place has not been made yet. It is being said that the likeliest place will be LA though. I wonder who else will take part in it.