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Moscow, Russia (Dangerous World Tour)

Dmitry Babich, pop music historian, “CNN” (June 26, 2009) interview (archived)

Jackson first visited Moscow in September 1993, just two years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Until then, it had been illegal even to purchase his songs.

The historic concert sparked scenes of near-hysteria among young Russians who embraced him as a symbol of all things American.

Their devotion was all the more extraordinary as few of them had seen images of what he looked like: Russian television didn't show his videos or play his music in the 1980s.

According to pop music historian Dmitry Babich, "Video culture was not very developed in Russia, there were very few VCRs. Michael Jackson became a legend without people seeing him a lot.

"So when Russian television became liberalized, young kids of 17, 18, 19 years of age wanted to watch only him.

"The concert of 1993 was really a major event, not only in terms of pop culture but history in general. It was the first big concert of a world star in Russia," Babich told the Russian News & Information Agency.

The open-air concert was held at the Luzhniki Open Arena in Moscow. Jackson was three hours late, yet the large crowd waited patiently for his arrival in the torrential downpour.

Vladimir Ivanenko, General Producer for Russia's Retro FM station told CNN he remembered watching Jackson's concert on television in 1993.

"It was delayed for 3 or 4 hours," he said. "It was a very rainy day in Moscow that evening and it was an open air concert. It was so wet that his assistants had to sweep the stage all the time during the songs," he said.

"For people in Russia it was something extraordinary," Ivanenko continued. "Everyone was excited that Michael Jackson was in Russia. The quality of the show and sound was shocking for people. He put on quite a show for them. It was incomparable to anything they had ever seen."

Chris Cadman, author, “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

During the performance of ‘Smooth Criminal’ in Moscow, Michael’s shoes became unfastened from the stage during the leaning part of the song. This caused Michael to almost fall flat on his face.