Michael Jackson will be honored by Detroit this summer with a ceremonial street renaming and festival tribute by his brothers
Nearly half a century after Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 ignited their career with a successful Motown audition, the City of Detroit will officially commemorate the group’s local history.
A stretch of Randolph Street in the city’s theater district will be renamed Michael Jackson Avenue, announced Stephen Brady, assistant to Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones. A ceremony will be held on the site June 15 as part of the Detroit Music Weekend festival.
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The Indiana group was signed to Motown in 1968, recording at the company’s West Grand Boulevard studios before migrating to Los Angeles as Berry Gordy Jr. steadily moved operations there. The Jackson 5 was with Motown through 1975 — racking up hits such as « I Want You Back, » « ABC » and « I’ll Be There » — and was renamed the Jacksons when the group signed with Epic Records.
The street renaming was announced Thursday morning at a media event for Detroit Music Weekend, a festival to be headlined June 16 by the surviving Jacksons — Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon.
Jackie Jackson and Marlon Jackson were on hand for Thursday’s press event at Music Hall.
The free festival, spearheaded by Music Hall, will run June 14-17.
Detroit Music Weekend debuted last summer with a headlining performance by Aretha Franklin, in what may have been her final hometown show. In a tearful, emotional event that week, the Queen of Soul was honored with her own street — a stretch of Madison unveiled as Aretha Franklin Way.
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Detroit Music Weekend will include performances by Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner, actor-musician Jeff Daniels, funk bandleader Will Sessions and country-rocker Craig Brown. Detroit techno DJs will play at the fest’s newly added Paradise Valley stage.
Michael Jackson Avenue is the latest in a recent flurry of Detroit-area musical street tributes, including Aretha Franklin Way, Stevie Wonder Avenue and Glenn Frey Drive. A campaign to christen a Bob Seger Boulevard in Ann Arbor was launched last week.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
