Not Michael Jackson's Vocals on New Single "Breaking News"?

By Sharmaine Jones

With “Michael Jackson: The Experience” hitting stores next week and his first posthumous album “Michael” having a release date the week before Christmas, MJ's estate pretty much has the last two months of the year on lock down!

Image : Breaking News

To get the anticipation ball rolling, yesterday, Michael Jackson's official website posted the lead single “Breaking News” for our listening pleasure. The track – an obvious stab at the tabloids that preyed on his idiosyncrasies – starts with one reporter saying “The plot begins to destroy Michael Jackson” followed by numerous reporters saying what appears to be introduction lines to controversial stories about the “King of Pop”.

The beat then begins and the melody sounds like a combination of “Remember the Time” and “You Rock my World”. It really get's your dancing juices going and then here's where the controversy begins. MJ belts out the first line: “Everybody wanting a piece of Michael Jackson”

Fans and critics, as well as TJ Jackson, (Tito's Son) believe that the vocals are not Michael's. TJ took to twitter to voice his very strong opinion on the matter:

“There's many MJ vocal impersonators. Some better than others. But there is only ONE Michael Jackson. Deceptively merging shady vocals with MJ samples (from prior MJ records) will never fool me. Why they would ignore the obvious, look the other way and rush a suspicious track that was NEVER on my Uncle's radar is beyond me. I'm disgusted, disappointed and saddened. And before the media starts to smear our name, just remember we are COMMITTED (as our Uncle Michael always knew) to protect his name and his amazing legacy he worked his whole life for. We have nothing to gain and we know they will try to drag our name through the mud. But we know how much he valued his legacy and his fans. And cheating either is unacceptable. "Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons”

Wow! Even WE raised an eyebrow when we heard the vocals but TJ seems to be 100% convinced. According to “Sony”, the record company responsible for releasing “Michael”, the track was recorded in New Jersey in 2007 and was “recently bought to completion.”

Hhhmmm, sounds sketchy. “Recently bought to completion” could mean a variety of things. Sony goes on to try to ease our minds:

“We have complete confidence in the results of our extensive research, as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael, and the vocals on the new album are his own.”

I guess we'll never really know without a shadow of a doubt whether or not it's entirely MJ's vocals on the track but what we DO know is that Sony better get this controversy under control. With a $250 million deal with his estate to oversee the release of 10 albums – “original” and reissue collections – if his fans have the slightest inclination that the vocals on the albums are manufactured, Sony is set to lose unimaginable amounts of moolah. They say “all publicity is good publicity” – uh, not in this case.

“Michael” is set to hit store December 14, 2010.

Do you think it's Michael Jackson’s vocals on the track or the act of a “Smooth Criminal”? Sound off in the comments or @MTV3!

Tags breaking news, King of Pop, michael jackson, Michael Jackson: The Experience, Music, Remember the Time, Sony, Tito Jackson, TJ Jackson