"We are so proud to be fans of Michael, we are fans of the man of changed the entire music industry! We see inspiration from him everywhere, that is what makes us proud." - Laeticia and Nathalie
Hi Laeticia and Nathalie! Thank-you so much for joining us today and agreeing to share your love for the legendary Michael Jackson! To start off our interview, would you mind introducing yourselves to our readers?
Hi everyone! We are twins who share the same love for Michael and art! We both draw him almost every week and are big fans since childhood.
Michael Jackson is undoubtedly one of the biggest artists to ever brace the music industry…can I ask how you both became fans?
We discovered him in 2009, when his funeral was on TV. That was a big event at the time. Our parents were watching it and we asked our mother who he was, she explained to us and then made us listen to 'Thriller'. That's when we started being fans and began listening to and watching everything we could find about him!
And how would you summarise your love for Michael Jackson? How has he inspired you both?
We show our love and admiration for him through art. He is a big source of inspiration because he was so creative, he was always revolutionary! His whole life is inspiring and searching for images and ideas to create new things with his image is a passion!
When we spoke on Instagram, you mentioned that Michael helped save you? Would you feel comfortable to discuss this a little more?
Yes, he in a way saved both of us. Like we said earlier, we discovered him when we were children; whilst becoming older we experienced mocking because of us being fans of him so we started to not listen to him anymore. Until a point in September 2020 where we rediscovered Michael. We were at a point in our lives where nothing was inspiring us anymore; nothing was making us vibrate. We were kinda in a state of anhedonia. Listening to his music and watching him again was almost like a rebirth. He gave us again a reason to wake up and be happy. We also discovered the fandom of Moonwalkers and made some amazing and precious friends.
A lot of people may have opinions/misconceptions about Michael and often overlook him as a person. Together, let’s change that…what would you like the world to know about Michael as a person?
His message was generally that every human being should try to be a better version of themselves to help the world become a better place. For him, if we all tried to be nicer, more responsible and just more humane, we could change the world and save it! Childhood was very important for him and he truly believed that if we take better care of children in the world, we could stop wars because children are the base of our society.
He also was really aware of the ecological problem we are currently facing and stood up for that to help people realise that we are destroying the planet.
Actually he stood for a lot of things: for equality, against racism, against violence and for the planet... he raised funds for charity organisations and much more. He created songs to share his message. He was one of the artists that gave the most to charity. We should all take example of that!
Michael was a renowned humanitarian and spent much of his life trying to make a difference…can you tell our readers more about his message and what you think we can do to make a change?
His message was generally that every human being should try to be a better version of themselves to help the world being a better place. For him, if we all tried to be nicer, more responsible and just more human we could change the world and save it!
Childhood was very important for him and he truly believed that if were taking better care of children in the world we could stop the wars because children are the base of our society. He also was really aware of the ecological problem we are currently facing and stood up for that to help people realise we are destroying the planet.
Actually, he stood for a lot of things: for equality, against racism, violence and for the planet...he raised funds for charity organisations and much more. He also created songs to share his message. He was one of the artists that gave the most to charity and we should all take example of that!
Michael is probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest artist of all time. His music is loved around the world and the records he not only broke but created as an artist still stand strong today. With that in mind, I am curious to know how you would describe him as an artist?
Michael was a pioneer, he had innovative ideas. But he was also a great learner; he took his inspiration from the biggest names before him such as Fred Astaire or James Brown and used what he learned to create something new and never seen before.
He was a perfectionist; he was always wanting to be the best and do the best for his fans and the world...hat's why he's one of the best artists ever. He was never satisfied and always did what we all thought was impossible. And still today he is inspiring a lot of artists...he is like a myth.
Since childhood, Michael released a number of songs and albums throughout his life spanning across his career as part of The Jackson 5, The Jacksons and then as a solo artist. Out of all his releases do you each have a favourite song? Tell us more about your choice…
Wow, that's hard! If we really had to say only one it would be 'Earth Song'. It is so emotional and so true, even today. It is a cry for help and every time we hear it we want to cry. Michael's voice is truly incredible, heartbreaking and so emotional in this song.
If you could go back in time and experience any moment in Michael’s career…what moment would you choose? Why does that particular moment in his history stand out you?
It is hard to say. Any moment of success would be amazing; seeing him happy and thrilled. But we would probably choose after he learned about the allegations in 2003. It will probably seem a bit "romantic" or "naive" but we would just to be there to support him; tell him that we know he was good and that he had good intentions and we have never done that. We would want to comfort him and help him through this terrible part of his life where he desperately needed a friend to tell him that everything would be okay, that he was loved and protected.
The fans behind Michael are known as the ‘Moonwalkers’…how would you describe the Moonwalker community?
From what we see this fandom is really good! We are a bit living in a cave, we stay out of any dramas but clearly this community is not the worst. Most of the fans try to share Michael's message and legacy with respect and love-that's amazing to see! People are adorable!
Being fans of the King of Pop is a really special feeling. A lot of us have never seen him in concert and never will. It hurts to not be able to experience that, but we all feel the same; we support each other and share this love together.
We are so proud to be fans of Michael, we are fans of the man of changed the entire music industry! We see inspiration from him everywhere, that is what makes us proud. Even if there are controversies around him we can't erase the fact that he has inspired the entire new generation of artists!
To summarise things a little more, what would you say being a ‘Moonwalker’ mean to you?
Being a moonwalker for us just means that we support michael, we fight for his legacy and for the respect of his memory.
You both play a special part in Michael’s fanbase by running a really wonderful Instagram page which celebrates his life and legacy through the form of art. Would you mind telling our readers more about your account and the art you create in Michael’s honour?
Creating for us is the most wonderful part of our lives, we can't live without creating! With Michael being really inspiring to us, helps us to share our love for him through art and allows us to show others how amazing he was. It's just kind of therapeutic; some like to watch concerts or listen to music all day to enjoy the fact of being a fan. Instead, we paint him, create new images and aspects of him. We create new compositions with him, we take images from music videos and concerts and created never seen before pictures.
I’d love to know more about where you find inspiration for each piece of art…do you watch Michael’s music videos and instantly imagine an image or does inspiration come in other ways? I’m really curious to know more about your process!
Usually we find a theme like smooth criminal or remember the time or a song that has never had a video. Then we search for images, it can take hours, we try to find images that we really like, that catches our eyes and then we pick few pictures, beetween 3 to 8 and we compose our new paintings, taking the face from this image, the pose from another, the background from another one, etc. And then we paint ! But sometimes it doesn't take that much research, sometimes just by seeing a video or a picture an idea comes in mind a whole picture create by itself in our heads ! Sometimes just an outfit he wore or an era can inspire us.
One thing a lot of people are unaware of is Michael’s love for art. I believe he spent a lot of time creating his own drawings and paintings. Have you both seen any images of his work? Tell us more about your thoughts on Michael’s art…are there any pieces you particularly love?
Michael loved art and painting! He first learned to draw when he was living with Diana Ross, during his beginnings with Motown. He was keen on learning and was actually really good at drawing! We have seen some sketches and he had a really deep sense of detail. Michael was an observer and it showed through his art.
He also had a lot of knowings in history of art. One of his favorite artists was Michelangelo. He was passionate about his message and his style.
Michael was actually a big fan of painters of the Renaissance era and was really traditional with art. He loved Impressionism too.
Realistic drawings were his favourite and we can see that through the art he owned (he owned a gigantic collection of art and paintings) and even owned pictures of himself depicted as an archangel, a king or an angel.
It has been such a pleasure speaking with you both today…like you, I personally, have been a big fan of Michael since childhood and feel honoured that you both agreed to help celebrate his legacy here on Fan Features. As we approach the end of the interview I wondered what your message to Michael would be?
Thank you for inspiring us! Having been such an amazing human being, we know your life has been hard...too hard sometimes but you have to know that you helped so much people. You saved people! Your message is heard and remembered. You are a legend! Thank-You for everything, we love you! ❤
And finally…if you could recommend one of Michael’s songs to a stranger what would it be?
Smooth criminal. It is a masterpiece, it is so iconic and will always be one of his best in our hearts ❤
A huge Thank-You to Laeticia and Nathalie for joining us this week on Fan Features and sharing their journey as 'Moonwalkers'. It's always intriguing to find a unique connection between the artist and their fans and in this case, Laeticia and Nathalie have channeled their admiration for Michael Jackson through the form of art; a passion of which Michael also shared.
As we journey through Michael's legacy, it's great to once again celebrate his music, artistry and philanthropy and celebrate one of music's biggest names.
If you'd like to learn more about the work Laeticia and Nathalie create in Michael Jackson's honour, be sure to head over to Instagram and give them a follow at: @another_part_of_kxa
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