Since I was a little girl I was obsessed with Michael Jackson. I was a little kid growing up in the USSR, so all those western music videos and movies were contraband. So if I wanted to watch Terminator, a Disney cartoon, or Madonna’s music video I had to get a pirate cassette from the illegal rental shop nearby. This was a felony at the time. So imagine this little girl going to some suspicious neighbourhood to pick up pirate video tapes with a compilation of Michael Jackson’s music videos. Such an adventure!
I remember myself walking toward an abandoned building with bars on the windows. I knocked on the door the way my mom told me to and some strange man opened the door. Then we went to the basement. I was all alone. It was dark and creepy. It sounds like a horror movie, but that’s just how renting movies worked in the USSR. The strange man was a friendly Russian guy who handed me a few tapes with cartoons and the best selection of Michael Jackson's latest music videos. I rushed home as quickly as I could and watched those tapes over and over again.
I sat in front of the tv the whole day! I was mesmerised. All the videos were so colourful, music was mind-blowing and these iconic Michael Jackson’s movies were blowing my little baby brain. I’ve never seen anything more incredible! I was especially impressed with Michael Jackson’s Remember The Time.
I dreamed of being part of these music videos so many times after that!
The music videos were like a door from the Soviet Union to this incredibly colourful fairytale! For a little soviet kid it felt like a different universe! It was so magnetic and mysterious!
I remember I promised myself that when I grew up I would also be a singer and would write songs like that too!
/ Alex Sandra
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