upworthy

grammy awards

Celebrity

Rediscovered clip of Michael Jackson's 1984 Grammy acceptance speech is beyond sweet

Katharine Hepburn even got him to take his sunglasses off.

Wikicommons

Michael Jackson's 1984 Grammys acceptance speech.

Michael Jackson was an icon, it seems since he was born. The way he captivated audiences with his dance moves and larger-than-life stage presence stood in contrast to how shy the late star was when he wasn't performing. In a resurfaced video of his Grammy acceptance speech, you get to see quite how shy he was and also how important family was to him.

In 1984, Jackson broke records with his seventh Grammy win and when he got up to the microphone his face flushed as he smiled nervously. It's a smile that was contagious. Before he began his speech, he asked for his sisters to join him on the stage.

After La Toya joined him, he waited for his other two sisters, Janet and Rebbie, to join him on the stage. The whole moment is sweet as he points out his mother, who he says is too shy to come to the stage.

Jackson then tells the crowd, "I have three sisters. I'd also like to thank all my brothers who I love very dearly, including Jermaine." His sisters giggle behind him and the camera pans to his brother sitting in the crowd. Judging by the siblings' reactions, it must've been some inside joke at the time that I'm too young to be privy to.

Jackson thanked people he forgot during his last acceptance speech, including Quincy Jones' wife Peggy for her help on the "E.T." album. As the speech came to a close he asked his sisters if he should take his glasses off after he revealed that he told Katharine Hepburn he would. The crowd went wild as he pulled them down just for a second.

Check out the video below:

From Your Site Articles
michael jackson
More

Stevie Wonder just got the whole Grammys audience to applaud for Braille accessibility.

'We need to make every single thing accessible to every single person with a disability.'

Stevie Wonder just got the entire Grammy audience to applaud for Braille.

Stevie Wonder was announcing the award for Song of the Year with the much-lauded a cappella group Pentatonix.

As he opened the envelope, he asked the group if they could read it.

They couldn't!

GIF via CBS' Grammy Awards.

The card was written in Braille.

It was a really awesome, off-the-cuff moment, especially for an awards show where stilted banter is the norm.

"You can’t read Braille, nanananananaaaaa!" Stevie said before giving a quick shoutout for accessibility and accommodations for people with all disabilities.


"We need to make every single thing accessible to every single person with a disability." — Stevie Wonder

It would've been easy for the Grammys to hand the card to one of the other performers on stage who aren't blind and have them read the winner. Props to whoever's idea it was to take the extra step to print Stevie's card in Braille so he could deliver the news himself.

It may seem like a small thing that the Grammys printed Stevie's envelope in Braille, but it showed just how simple and easy accessibility can be.

All it takes is a little prep and a bit of forethought, and what you get is pure delight.

You'd know that says "Deal with it" — if you read Braille!

That's something we can ALL deal with.

Most Shared

11 Grammy recipients that prove you don’t need to carry a tune to win big.

Turns out, you don't have to be all that musical to snag a Grammy.

There are a few Grammy Award categories that have given hope to us non-musically inclined folks for decades...

...you know, the categories where you don't need a musical bone in your body to win — like Best Spoken Word Album. Because of these categories, a handful of notable winners have snatched up music's most coveted award throughout the years without having to sing a single note.

In honor of the 58th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 15, 2016, here are 11 people you may be surprised to learn have Grammys under their belts (plus one very surprising nominee).

1. Jimmy Carter (2007)

Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS.

That's right — he wasn't just our 39th president; the 91-year-old is a Grammy winner, too. Carter won the Spoken Word category in 2007 for his book "Our Endangered Values." And hey, look at that — he just won the same award this year for his most recent literary endeavor, "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety." (He had some stiff competition in Amy Poehler but took the gold gramophone trophy home anyway. Sorry, Amy.)

You go, Mr. President.

2. Magic Johnson (1993)

Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images.

Johnson worked his magic at the Grammys in 1993, when he won Best Spoken Word or Nonmusical Album for "What Can You Do to Avoid AIDS." Johnson, who's HIV-positive, has long been an advocate on the issue, raising millions of dollars for research and prevention through his foundation.

What a class act on and off the hardwood.

3. Hillary Clinton (1997)

Photo by Jon Levy/AFP/Getty Images.

Years ago, when Hillary Clinton wasn't filling her days campaigning to be our next president, she won a Grammy. It was in 1997, for her book "It Takes a Village" in the category (yep, you guessed it) Best Spoken Word Album.

Get it, girl.

4. Elmo (1999, 2000, 2002)

Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images.

Elmo! I can think of no one (and that includes puppets) more deserving of a golden megaphone than everybody's favorite furry red friend. Get this: He's won a Grammy three times (in 1999, 2000, and 2002), all for Best Musical Album for Children. Ah, Sesame Street ... good times.

5. Martin Luther King Jr. (1971)

Photo by AFP/Getty Images.

Back in 1971, at the 13th annual Grammy Awards, the late Martin Luther King Jr. won Best Spoken Word Recording for his book "Why I Oppose the Vietnam War," about three years after he was assassinated.

Other awards the civil rights leader received? The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and the Nobel Peace Prize. (No wonder he's one of the most widely admired people of the 20th century.)

6. Bill Clinton (2004, 2008)

Photo by Mehdi Taamallah/AFP/Getty Images.

Hey, Carter isn't the only American president (or Clinton, for that matter) who's snagged a Grammy. Bill Clinton has won two. In 2004, he won Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating "Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf" (something he has in common with numbers 7 and 8 on this list), as well as in 2008, when he won Best Spoken Word Album for his autobiography, "My Life."

7. Sophia Loren (2004)

Photo by AFP/Getty Images.

Famed Italian actor Sophia Loren may be known for her acting chops (she won an Academy Award in 1961 for her role in "Two Women"), but her speaking voice isn't too shabby, either. She shared a Grammy win with President Clinton for "Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf," along with the next dude on this list who is none other than...

8. Mikhail Gorbachev (2004)

Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

Gorbachev is probably better known as the last leader of the Soviet Union (and also being the guy President Reagan told to tear down a wall). But hey, winning a Grammy is a pretty big deal, no matter where you land in the history books or what country you've overseen.

9. Jon Stewart (2005)

Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images.

Jon Stewart is a lot of things: funny guy, champion for 9/11 first responders, animal sanctuary overseer, and Grammy winner, to name a few. He got that last title back in 2005, when "The Daily Show" won Best Comedy Album for "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction." (I miss seeing your face on my TV every night, Jon.)

10. Barack Obama (2006, 2008)

Photo by Michael Sohn/AFP/Getty Images.

OK, maybe presidents winning a Grammy is more common than you'd think. Like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama has taken home two gramophones, both Best Spoken Word Albums, for "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."

11. Zach Braff (2005)

Photo by Clayton Chase/Getty Images for LG Music Lodge.

Famed New Jerseyan Zach Braff is widely known for two things: being a scrub and directing, writing, and starring in 2004's "Garden State," for which he won a Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album. (Say what you want about the indie flick — its soundtrack made an impression on a lot of folks.)

So there you have it — 11 surprising Grammy winners.

Has your jaw dropped yet? No? Maybe this next one will do the trick...

The Chicago Bears — yes, as in the pro football team out of Illinois — were nominated for a Grammy for "Best Rhythm and Blues Performance by a Duo or Group" back in 1985 for recording "The Super Bowl Shuffle."

This is not a drill. (The poor fellas lost out to Prince ... so let's be honest, they never really stood a chance.)

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images.

Most Shared

Meet the first Malawian musical group ever nominated for a Grammy.

It took this music group from Malawi an entire week to find out they'd been nominated for a 2016 Grammy award.

Why? It's hard to know what's going on in the outside world if you have little access to it, and well, all of the group's members are in prison.

All images via sixdegreesrecords/YouTube.

The group, called the Zomba Prison Project, has been nominated for the Best World Music Album.

The nomination is for their album "I Have No Everything Here," and it's the first time anyone from Malawi has been nominated in the Grammy Awards' 58 years, let alone from a maximum-security prison.

And despite the whole being-in-prison thing, it's pretty lucky how the nomination happened.

Music producer Ian Brennan deliberately set out to find voices that aren't well-represented in the music industry.

Brennan, a Grammy winner himself, has always had his pulse on world music. He knows that talent is everywhere, even in the places you'd least expect. The problem is accessing it.

"How can it be just that tens of thousands of 'artists' from cities like Los Angeles and London are given platforms, but entire countries are left voiceless globally?" Brennan asks on his website. "This mathematical absurdity of superiorness only mirrors society's greater inequities."

With the goal of closing that gap, Brennan and his wife set out to provide a platform to underrepresented voices. A prison in one of the world's poorest countries seemed like an interesting place to start.

"How can it be just that tens of thousands of 'artists' from cities like Los Angeles and London are given platforms, but entire countries are left voiceless globally?"

The couple were given access to the Zomba Prison in Malawi in exchange for offering classes on violence prevention to its inmates and guards, according to NBC News. There, Brennan was able to work with the musical talent living inside those prison walls everyday. And talent wasn't hard to find.

Brennan worked with around 60 inmates, who ranged in age from 22 to 70, helping them tell their own stories through music.

Over six hours of what Brennan calls field recordings, an album was born — mostly in the inmates' native Chichewa language.

You can hear one of the album's main songs, the heart-wrenchingly named "Please Don't Kill My Child," here:


With tracks like "I See the Whole World Dying of AIDS," "Don't Hate Me," "I Kill No More," "I Am Alone," and "Forgiveness," it's clear that the album gave the artists an opportunity to release a lot of their feelings.

And that's the point, Brennan says, describing music and art in general as "by far the most effective kind of social-work that exists."

It's giving them another kind of release, too. Proceeds from the album sales are helping certain prisoners to appeal their detention. So far, three of the women involved in the project have been released. That's major.

The album has been critically well-received all over the world, which emphasizes how important it is.

On National Public Radio, Betto Arcos called it "one of the most exciting projects I've heard."

There's a world of talent out there. It's important to make sure we're stepping outside our comfort zones to hear and appreciate music and stories from around the world, so whether it wins a Grammy in February or not, the album and its nomination is still a huge win.

You can hear more from the Zomba Prison Project in this short video:

Trending Stories