Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour from Cirque du Soleil - 2012 UK shows on sale Fri 3rd Feb

The Immortal World Tour

Since Michael Jackson passed away in 2009, despite his obvious and massive contribution to the world of pop music, most of the headlines generated have resulted from the trial of his doctor.

Column inches - no, miles - have been spent pondering whether Jackson's pitiful demise was his own doing, was at the hands of others or, either way, no more than the inevitable end-game for a man who was a mere husk of the singer and performer who sold 750 million records in the preceding four decades. The court case came and went with an elusive whiff of justice.

What remains is Michael Jackson's incredible musical legacy. Global sales of three-quarters of a billion records alone does his contribution little justice. Through his career with the Jacksons, the success of Off the Wall and Thriller, onto Bad, Dangerous and the rest, the music of Michael Jackson was always relevant - whether as a trend-setter, a mould-breaking crossover megastar or, most commonly, as a simple, unifying force.

Through Thriller, he redefined the pop music video and his performance of Billie Jean at the Motown 25th Anniversary show brought the moonwalk to the world's attention and sparked a billion imitators. Whatever else happened, when Michael Jackson did anything, the world wanted to know.

Into the first new decade following Jackson's passing, legendary entertainment troupe Cirque du Soleil are staging The Immortal World Tour, using Michael Jackson's music and moves to produce a stadium-filling spectacle - "a riveting fusion of visuals, dance, music and fantasy that immerses audiences in Michael's creative world".

The Immortal World Tour flies into London on 12th October 2012 for two shows at The O2 in Greenwich.

We will have tickets available when they go on sale at 9am on Friday 3rd February, priced from £50.

It goes without saying that demand for these dates will be very high, so get your act together and get 'em booked.

Stewart Darkin