Victory Tour (The Jacksons)

Victory Tour
Tour by the Jacksons
Location	North America
Associated albums	Victory (1984); Thriller (1982);
Start date	July 6, 1984
End date	December 9, 1984
No. of shows	55
Attendance	2.5 million
Box office	US $75 million ($220 million in 2023 dollars)
The Jacksons tour chronology
	; Triumph Tour; (1981); ; Victory Tour; (1984); ; Unity Tour; (2012–2013);
Michael Jackson tour chronology

The Victory Tour was a concert tour of the United States and Canada by the American pop band, the Jacksons, from July to December 1984. It was the only tour with all six Jackson brothers, even though Jackie was injured for some of it. The group performed 55 concerts to an audience of approximately 2.5 million.^[1] Of the 22 locations performed at, 19 were large stadiums. Most came to see Michael, whose album Thriller was dominating the music world at the time. Many regard it as his Thriller tour, with most of the songs on the set list coming from his Thriller and Off the Wall albums.

The tour reportedly grossed approximately $75 million ($220 million in 2023 dollars^[2]) and set a new record for the highest-grossing tour.^[3] It showcased Michael's single decorated glove, black sequined jacket, and moonwalk. The tour was choreographed by Paula Abdul,^[4]^[5] and promoted by Don King. Despite the billing of being a 'world tour', the shows were staged to the United States and Canada alone. It would be the last touring show featuring all of the brothers (although they later reunited for a two-nighter in 2001 called Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration, which stayed in Madison Square Garden), and was marketed as such.

Despite its focus on Michael, the tour was named after the Jacksons' album Victory. The album was released four days before the tour's first show in Kansas City and turned out to be a commercial success. However, besides some ad libbing during the show's encore, none of the album's songs were performed on the tour. Jermaine had a successful new album out as well (Jermaine Jackson, also known as Dynamite, which had been released in April 1984) and some material from that album was performed. Also, all three of the Jacksons' sisters released new albums that year, but Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet were not part of the tour (aside from a cameo appearance for a few moments at the end of the final show with other family members).

According to Marlon, Michael refused to rehearse or perform any of the songs from Victory and was also reluctant on embarking on the tour himself; it took his mother Katherine and fans to persuade him before he finally agreed. Marlon also stated that Michael had only reluctantly joined his brothers, who needed the income while he himself did not.^[6] On the tour, tensions between Michael and his brothers increased so much that at the December 9 concert he announced that it would be the last time they would perform together, ending plans for a European and Australian leg of the tour in the spring and summer of 1985.

The Jacksons and Don King did make money from the tour. Michael donated his share to several charities as he had promised prior to the tour, but the rancor between him and his brothers had a deep and lasting effect on the Jacksons as a family, alienating him from them for most of his later life, and effectively ended the Jacksons as a performing group. The Jacksons made one more album in 1989, but aside from the concert celebrating Michael's thirty years as a solo artist in 2001, they never toured again during Michael's lifetime.

The tour was also a financial disaster for promoter Chuck Sullivan and his father Billy; the losses from the tour eventually forced them to sell the New England Patriots football team they owned after Foxboro Stadium, the team's home field, lapsed into bankruptcy.

^ ^a ^b Bloom, Howard (April 15, 2020). "Einstein, Michael Jackson & Me: A Search for Soul in the Power Pits of Rock and Roll". Rowman & Littlefield – via Google Books.
^ ^a ^b 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
^ McDOUGAL, DENNIS (January 6, 1985). "THE THRILLER OF 'VICTORY' : Snatching profit from the agony of the biggest, splashiest and most troubled rock concert tour in history". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
^ Vena, Jocelyn. "Paula Abdul Remembers 'Many Memorable Moments' With Michael Jackson". MTV News. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
^ Parker, Lyndsey (July 18, 2014). "Paula Abdul's Favorite Choreography Moments of Her Career". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
^ Meyers, Kate (July 12, 1996). "Jackson 5's final tour was 12 years ago". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 5, 2019. But as of a month before the Victory tour's opening on July 6, 1984, the spirit of victory, not to mention the Victory LP itself, was nowhere to be found. Greed and disorganization ruled: Ticket prices, at $30 a pop, seemed out of reach of the group's inner-city fans, and a gaggle of promoters (including the infamous Don King) vied to run the show. Even the brothers themselves were at odds. "It was the parents' idea to bring them together because the other brothers needed money," says Michael Jackson biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli. "Michael didn't want to do it, but his mother appealed to him and he can't turn his mother down."

[auto-1] Bloom, Howard (April 15, 2020). "Einstein, Michael Jackson & Me: A Search for Soul in the Power Pits of Rock and Roll". Rowman & Littlefield – via Google Books.

[inflation-US-2] 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.

[3] McDOUGAL, DENNIS (January 6, 1985). "THE THRILLER OF 'VICTORY' : Snatching profit from the agony of the biggest, splashiest and most troubled rock concert tour in history". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 15, 2023.

[4] Vena, Jocelyn. "Paula Abdul Remembers 'Many Memorable Moments' With Michael Jackson". MTV News. Retrieved February 27, 2021.

[5] Parker, Lyndsey (July 18, 2014). "Paula Abdul's Favorite Choreography Moments of Her Career". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 27, 2021.

[6] Meyers, Kate (July 12, 1996). "Jackson 5's final tour was 12 years ago". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 5, 2019. But as of a month before the Victory tour's opening on July 6, 1984, the spirit of victory, not to mention the Victory LP itself, was nowhere to be found. Greed and disorganization ruled: Ticket prices, at $30 a pop, seemed out of reach of the group's inner-city fans, and a gaggle of promoters (including the infamous Don King) vied to run the show. Even the brothers themselves were at odds. "It was the parents' idea to bring them together because the other brothers needed money," says Michael Jackson biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli. "Michael didn't want to do it, but his mother appealed to him and he can't turn his mother down."

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