September 14, 2009
What was billed as a special tribute to Michael Jackson starring his sister, Janet, turned into an even more epic performance: Madonna took the stage at tonight's MTV Video Music Awards to honor an artist she called "one of the greats."
In a long, heartfelt speech about her personal relationship to Jackson, Madonna recalled the moment she learned that he had died. "All I could think about in that moment was I had abandoned him. That we had abandoned him," she said. "That we had let this magnificent creature who had once set the world on fire slip thorugh the cracks. Most of us had turned our backs on him. … There will never be anyone like him again. He was a king."
"There's a whole lot of crotch-grabbing and Moonwalking going on in my house," she added, saying her two sons are huge MJ fans. "Long live the King!"
Source: rollingstone.com