When the world heard the news on June 25, 2009, that Michael Jackson had died, it was both a shocking end to a cruelly curtailed and extraordinary life, and a not-quite-unexpected finale to a story full of tragedy and darkness since its beginning. From his early success in the Jackson 5 to becoming the self-styled "King of Pop," Jackson lived his whole life in the limelight. Yet he once described himself as "one of the loneliest people in the world," and his personal life was a constant source of controversy, culminating in his very public fall from grace with his trial for sexual abuse and astonishing debts of $300 million. Millions of fans were looking forward to the 50 planned comeback concerts which were to be the triumphant happy ending to his story, but he died just weeks before they were due to take place.
