In 1993, Michael Jackson was visiting Brazil as part of his Dangerous World Tour scheduled for October 15 & 17.
On October 14, Michael wanted to visit the Estrela Toy Factory based in Guarulhos.
Márcio de Paula, living near the factory decided to have a glimpse of the King of Pop!
Accompanied by his sister, Márcio, who was 15 at the time, felt “a very bad feeling” when observing the huge amount of fans, press and police in front of the factory. So, to get away from the crowd, he decided to lean against a police car. There were not enough security guards at the scene and when Michael and his entourage realized that inside the factory was as full as outside, they decided to cancel the visit.
“The cars turned around, at that moment I was standing there on the hood of the police car, and when the factory gates opened, that crowd became abuzz and the cars began to lose control, and were swerving away from people, because people threw themselves in front of the cars. And in that, his vehicles were hitting the car I was leaning in. So, actually, I was squeezed by his entourage’s car.”
Márcio was not the only one hit, other people were injured, including his younger sister, who suffered burns to her body. However, his case was the most serious. “I suffered a lot of injuries, had an open fracture of the femur and had to be rushed through. From the waist down I hurt myself all over,” he said.
Michael’s visit came as a big surprise to the 15-year-old, who didn’t know anything until the moment he saw the King of Pop right in front of him. According to Márcio, on the day of the meeting, hospital officials entered the room and called his parents for a private meeting, something that left him distressed.
“My parents came back after about 40 minutes. They came back white that wasn’t even a sheet of paper, and I said, ‘What happened?’ because I automatically thought it was something related to my health. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die.'”
Márcio’s parents managed to trick the boy and kept the news of Michael Jackson’s visit a secret. Meanwhile, a task force was organizing at the hospital to receive the star. In addition to cleaning, the security of the site has also been enhanced. “All the patients had to be locked up in their rooms, every room had a security guard at the door, no one could even put their head out,” he said.
Before entering the room, Michael Jackson met with some doctors to inquire about the state of health of Márcio. Then he went to the place where the boy rested to surprise him.
“He came in with a filming crew. It was a fuss, a noise. He came, held my face… He would turn my face to the camera because I kept looking at him. I couldn’t believe it,” he recalled. “Then he went to greet my parents. He was very polite, very kind.”
After taking pictures, the King of Pop asked everyone in the filming crew to leave, leaving in the room only Márcio’s family, three boys who accompanied the singer and a translator.
“As he started talking, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m not believing this.’ It felt like I was listening to an album of his. I didn’t believe it was real. That unique, peerless voice, that timbre of him speaking there quietly… So he took off his glasses, got comfortable, played, took a little walk there, did a little dance to try to relax the situation because both me and my family, we were petrified.”
For Márcio, Michael’s visit was a “watershed” in his life. “People were so excited that they forgot to even comb my hair, I showed up with a dreadful hair, with a dreadful face in the photo, it’s a hurt that I have to this day from everyone involved,” he joked.
After five days in hospital, Márcio de Paula left the hospital to recover at home, where he spent three months in bed. The care he received from the family was instrumental in not leaving him with any sequelae, however, the post-accident became a real nightmare due to the instant success and harassment of the media.
“It was terrifying, it was something horrible. People were very mean, very cruel. While I was in my house, everything was fine, I had not yet had contact with the real world, I had not gone through any situation of exposure. But when I thought my life was going to go back to normal, I understood that it had become hell.”
“I had no dimension of Michael Jackson’s career and proportion, because I had never stopped to watch him. Some songs I knew, I had the album ‘Bad’, but I didn’t have the real dimension of its importance to pop. So at the time, when I had the accident, I liked it, but I wasn’t a fan. I was driven by curiosity,” he explained. “I didn’t have the idolatry that I saw a lot of people have. I was still connected with Xuxa, my musical universe was directed in another direction.”
“The newspapers said: ‘fan throws himself in front of the car to be close to the idol’, and that’s not what happened,” said Márcio. “I was also seen as a person who wanted to extort Michael Jackson, my parents were seen that way as well.”
The situation got even worse when they began to relate the accusation of child sexual abuse against the singer with the meeting of Michael and Márcio in the hospital. “Months later, when I thought things could get better, it only got worse, because 1993 and 1994 was the height of Michael Jackson’s first prosecution of sexual abuse. So me at 15, him going to visit me, him staying with me in the bedroom, that was all the fuel that fueled the idea of people minds. From being run over by Michael Jackson I became the boy abused by Michael Jackson. I can’t tell you which part was more appalling, that I was an extortionist or that I was abused.”
In addition to the fake news that dominated the newspapers, Márcio also had to deal with the malicious comments he heard on a daily basis.
“I was talking and the English teacher stopped and wanted to make fun of the class, a class of 40 teenagers. She turned to me and said, ‘Michael, why don’t you stop talking? Rest assured, quiet, Michael Jackson has already married, you don’t have a chance anymore.’ I heard that from a teacher, I had no reaction,”
Today, 30 years after the event, Márcio considers himself a survivor, however, still suffers hate from some fans of the singer. “Today I speak of it with relief, because I survived this negative harassment from the media, I survived this action of instant fame that didn’t hit people in the head. To this day I have a certain hate from some Michael Jackson fans, because in the middle of 2023 they still think I was an opportunist.”
In contrary of what many people think and what was disclosed by the production company that promoted the King of Pop show at the time, Márcio never received compensation for what happened.
Today, Márcio is now ironically a journalist: “I’m a journalist today thanks to the accident. For a long time of my life I lived with the press inside my house, I met a lot of interesting professional, respectful, who made me create an admiration for the area. Getting to know Michael’s entire career and discography was wonderful for me. I started to really like his music, to really look at him as an artist, as an idol, and then I got a sense of who Michael Jackson really was.”
Today, Márcio de Paula says he was able to recall the story with “great affection”.
