‘Michael’ Biopic Effect Is Real: How a Deep Cut From Jackson’s Posthumous Catalog Finally Cracked the Hot 100
The music of Michael Jackson has never really gone away, but what the King of Pop’s estate is experiencing right now is something different entirely. Since the release of the long-awaited biopic ‘Michael’, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson, the legendary catalog has undergone a full-scale streaming resurrection. Fans old and new have been pressing play on tracks they had forgotten, or in some cases, never heard at all.
The film, distributed domestically by Lionsgate with Universal handling the global rollout, premiered in theaters on April 24, and quickly became one of the year’s biggest cultural events. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film grossed nearly $100 million in its smashing domestic debut, defying mediocre reviews and heated controversy to emerge as something of a cultural phenomenon. The biopic has since earned an estimated $846.3 million worldwide, placing it within striking distance of becoming the highest-grossing music biopic ever released, trailing only ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
The ripple effect on streaming has been extraordinary, and one track in particular has turned into the story within the story. Michael Jackson’s ‘Chicago’ has officially landed at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated June 6, marking the first time the 2014 track has ever appeared on the chart. The song garnered 10.7 million official chart-eligible streams in the United States during the May 22-28 tracking week, a 30% jump from the week before.
What makes the moment even more remarkable is the song’s backstory. ‘Chicago’ was originally written by Cory Rooney under the title ‘She Was Lovin’ Me.’ Jackson recorded the track at the Hit Factory in New York City during the ‘Invincible’ album sessions in 1999, but the track was ultimately not selected and remained unreleased and unheard by the public for fifteen years. In 2014, the track was reworked by producer Timbaland and included on Jackson’s second posthumous album ‘Xscape’. The producer initially singled out ‘Chicago’ as a potential lead single in interviews, but the album’s promotional focus shifted elsewhere, leaving audiences to discover it on their own.
The weekly streaming climb for ‘Chicago’ tells a vivid story about the biopic’s ongoing pull on listeners. The track drew 3.8 million streams on the May 9-dated chart, then climbed to 5.4 million, 6.9 million, and 8.3 million in the following weeks before reaching its current peak, accumulating 388 million total streams to date. Notably, the song does not even appear in the film itself, which speaks to just how deeply audiences have been diving into the catalog on their own terms.]
Jackson’s iconic music has surged broadly amid ‘Michael’s’ run, and on the May 23-dated Hot 100, a personal-best six songs of his charted simultaneously, with all having bounded to the top 10. Those songs included classics such as ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Beat It’, and ‘Human Nature’, tracks that originally dominated the charts during his peak years in the 1970s and 1980s. The entry for ‘Chicago’ makes the King of Pop the first artist to debut new entries on the Hot 100 in each decade since the 1970s.
For younger listeners discovering Jackson through clips, edits, and streaming recommendations, ‘Chicago’ may not register as an obscure posthumous release at all. That generational crossover is perhaps the most telling sign of how powerfully ‘Michael’ has served as a gateway into a discography that continues to expand in the cultural imagination. With the biopic still in theaters and the catalog continuing its chart climb, there is no telling which deep cut gets rediscovered next. So, are you a longtime Jackson fan who already knew ‘Chicago’ by heart, or did the biopic lead you there for the first time?
