American dancer, singer and choreographer, Jeffrey Daniel, has said that the late legendary artiste and pop icon, Michael Jackson, remains valued and the ‘Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T)’ of Pop Music.

Jeffrey spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, March 24, 2024, in Abuja, Nigeria.

Jeffrey, who is a founding member of the renowned American R&B vocal group ‘Shalamar’, said the creative works and impact of the prominent ‘King of Pop’ have made him irreplaceable across the globe.

According to him, Jackson’s timeless music, dance, fashion, and philanthropic projects, have made him a global entity in renowned music culture.

He said Jackson’s inventions and creativities in music, stage and video performances, have influenced artistes across many music genres and are still doing over a decade that he passed away.

In his words: “To ask me, if Michael is the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T), his record speaks for itself, as he has sold more albums than anybody in the history of music.”

“Michael passed away in 2009 but there are children now, five years old and six years old, who are still imitating him.”

“They were not even alive when he was here and so Michael’s legacy is just as strong as ever.”

“In fact, it is just reported that his estate is worth so much, and his music, his videos and all that stuff is worth something over 500 million dollars.”

“After his passing over these years, he is still worth that much, and I think people will continue to celebrate and enjoy Michael Jackson’s legacy for years to come.”

He further said Jackson was his cousin and fan, and they had mutual admiration for each other before they started working together, professionally.

Jeffrey, who is broadly known to be the pioneer of the iconic dance move, ‘backslide’, said he was a great influence on Jackson’s formative years, who later popularized the ‘backslide’ and changed it to his signature ‘Moonwalk’.

His words: “I started dancing on the television show, Soul Train, where I went through a succession of dances from ‘locker’ to ‘waacking’ and then to ‘body popping.”

“Then, when I started doing the backslide, Michael was watching me do it on TV, and we later got a call to teach him how to do the backslide and some body-popping moves.”

“So I was working with Michael for how many years, not knowing that we were cousins until I finally found out,” he added.

Michael Jackson, globally known as the “King of Pop”, died on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50, after about four decades of music career.

In 2016, Forbes calculated the annual gross earnings by the ‘Jackson Estate’ to be $825 million, the largest ever recorded for a celebrity, mostly due to the sale of the Sony/ATV catalog.

In 2018, the figure was $400 million and that was the eighth year since his death that Jackson’s annual earnings were reported to be over $100 million, thus bringing Jackson’s postmortem total to $2.4 billion.

In 2020, Forbes recognized Jackson as the top-earning dead celebrity each year from his death to 2020, except in 2012.

Jackson was named Forbes’ highest-paid dead celebrity of the year 2023, with an estimated $115 million in earnings.

The ranking was based on pretax earnings from sales, licensing deals, streams, and other sources of income between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023.

Jackson lives on. His works are still making waves in the global music industry. May his soul continue to rest in peace.