The Filipino inmates who shot to global fame with a YouTube video of their “Thriller” dance, swayed and stomped again Saturday in a tribute to their late idol, King of Pop Michael Jackson.
After hearing the news about Jackson’s death Thursday in Los Angeles, the 1,500 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center hit the exercise yard, practicing for ten hours Friday night — and into the wee hours of Saturday morning — for the show.
“I felt sad because we lost our idol,” said inmate Wenjiel Resane, who plays the role of Jackson’s girlfriend in the video. Crisanto Nieri, 38, who is serving seven years on drug charges, was feeling a little extra stress because he danced Jackson’s part in “Thriller”.
A crowd of 700 Cebuanos and foreign tourists watched the performance from a second-floor corridor, swaying to the music and applauding as the inmates, dressed in orange prison T-shirts and sweat pants, stomped and clapped in unison in the hilltop prison, behind thick stone walls topped by electrified razor wire.
Other numbers included “Ben”, “I’ll Be There” and “We Are the World”. The inmates then held up a 5-by-10 foot (1.5-by-3 meter) tarpaulin showing Michael Jackson holding a sword with his name written below it. Others waved the flags of the Philippines and other nations.
Before the show, the performers dedicated a prayer to Jackson’s family.
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