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Fans from Sydney to Rio mourn Jackson

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-26 14:58

SYDNEY: In Malaysia, they hoped he would be remembered like Princess Diana. In Mexico, one of his impersonators said part of his life had been torn away.

Fans gather outside the Jackson family home as a car enters the driveway in the Encino area of Los Angeles June 25, 2009. [Agencies]

Michael Jackson's death Thursday in Los Angeles prompted broadcasters from Sydney to Seoul - where the news came early Friday - to interrupt morning programs, while fans worldwide remembered a "tortured genius" whose squeals and moonwalks captivated a generation and sparked global trends in music, dance and fashion.

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Within minutes of Jackson's arrival by ambulance at UCLA Medical Center, people began arriving by the hundreds outside. As word spread that he was dead, people burst into tears. Others stood in disbelief.

At Times Square in New York, the crowd groaned as the news of his death flashed across a giant TV screen.

In Sydney, where Jackson married second wife Debbie Rowe in 1996, a celebrity publicist who was a guest at Jackson's Sydney wedding and worked on his Australian tour that year described him as a "tortured genius."

"He was very gentle, very quiet, very shy," Di Rolle told Sky News television. "He was a very complicated, strange man, women loved him and men loved him too. It's such a sad day, a very sad day."

Australia's morning shows devoted full coverage to the Jackson's death, alternating reporting from Los Angeles with viewers' e-mails of memories and condolences.

"I had tears in my eyes when I found out," Charles Winter, 19, from Adelaide, told The Associated Press. His Facebook page had been devoted to a petition to convince Jackson to add Australia to his concert tour planned for this year. "He was such an inspiration. It doesn't matter if you're 40, 60 or 20, his music appeals to everyone."

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