Is Jaafar Jackson Really Singing as Michael Jackson in the King of Pop's Biopic?

Michael Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson trained for "hours upon hours" to portray him in 'Michael'

NEED TO KNOW

• Jaafar Jackson trained extensively to replicate Michael Jackson’s voice and dance moves for the biopic Michael
• Jaafar, who is Michael’s nephew, had his vocals blended with Michael’s in some scenes but performed solo in others
• Jaafar has been singing, songwriting and producing music since he was 12 years old

Even though Jaafar Jackson has singing in his blood, he trained for hours to perfect Michael Jackson's voice.

The King of Pop's nephew Jaafar portrayed his uncle in the biopic Michael, which hit theaters April 24. Ahead of taking on the task of replicating Michael's legendary voice and performing skills, Jaafar practiced for hours on end to sing as Michael.

Jaafar, who is the son of Jermaine Jackson, had previous singing experience before the film and had covered several songs before making his own music.

In addition to utilizing his singing background and going through extensive training to sing as Michael, Jaafar's voice was also blended in with Michael's voice in some scenarios. However, in other movie moments without major audio backgrounds — like solo sessions in the studio — it's solely Jaafar's vocals.

“When I was doing all the performances, I was actually singing out live in the microphone on top of Michael’s track. So it’s a blend of my vocal and Michael’s," Jaafar explained in an April interview on Today with Jenna & Sheinelle.

Meanwhile, Juliano Valdi, who portrayed a 10-year-old version of Michael, also learned how to sing as the young Jackson 5 star and went through a similar process as Jaafar.

Here's everything to know about how Jaafar Jackson sang and trained to play Michael Jackson in the biopic Michael.

Is Jaafar Jackson really singing in Michael?

Yes, Jaafar is actually singing while portraying Michael, with the late singer's vocals also being blended into some of the tracks. However, music supervisor John Warhurst clarified that Jaafar and Valdi are singing solo in scenes where they're in the studio recording "Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough" and "I Want You Back," respectively.

“We had the discussion a lot, could we have Jaafar and Juliano go to a studio and record those songs, and the answer was yes,” Warhurst told The Hollywood Reporter. “They were capable of delivering those vocals. But then it becomes more an overall philosophy of when people go see the movie, do they want real Michael to be a part of this movie, or do they want it to just be 100 percent Giuliano and Jaafar? Every movie is different, but here we think people want Michael to be a part of it.”

Warhurst compared creating the vocals to filming a "live musical" where the actor gets on stage and "performs the pieces themselves."

"The actors need to learn the songs so that they can actually sing them with the same sort of energy and power as the original artist and then perform it," he explained. "Once we’ve got that right visual canvas and the recordings, when you get to post-production, we’ve got 15 to 20 takes of Jaafar or Juliano and the one take of Michael with his recording. That’s where the blend comes into it."

Did Jaafar have any singing background before Michael?

Jaafar took after his uncle and started singing and dancing when he was a child. He began singing, songwriting and producing music more seriously when he was 12 years old.

"Growing up surrounded by influential musical figures, Jaafar developed an eclectic taste in music, drawing inspiration from legends like Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, and his own family's rich musical heritage," his website's bio reads.

He released his first single, "Got Me Singing," in 2019.

How did Jaafar train to sing and dance in Michael?

Although Jaafar's voice was already "very close in range and sound to Michael’s," per Warhurst, Jaafar said he still underwent "hours upon hours" of training and preparation.

"It was not easy," Jaafar said in a Lionsgate interview. "I love challenges, and I wanted to prove to myself my family and the filmmakers that I can do this."

Jaafar explained that he rehearsed for "hours and hours upon hours until one single move was right" ahead of filming.

"[I'd be] dancing until my feet would bleed or go numb," he said. "There's so many times I would wake up sore."

Director Antoine Fuqua reiterated Jaafar's sentiments and said, "Jaafar never stopped dancing. He was rehearsing all the way up to the moment we started filming."

How else did Jaafar prepare to play Michael?

Although Jaafar has music and songwriting experience, he did "not know anything about acting."

In order to properly portray the non-singing and performing roles, he studied several actors whom he was "inspired by" — including Daniel Day-Lewis, Joaquin Phoenix and Christian Bale. He researched their various work ethics to "study that and then apply that and see what worked for me," Jaafar said in an interview with The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Clarkson also pointed out that Jaafar has a different, deeper voice than Michael and asked how he learned to speak like his uncle.

"I really read a lot of books in his voice and each book I got better basically," he said, while joking that his Michael voice would occasionally come out in everyday conversations.

Although it "took a lot of time" to nail the voice, he eventually got to the point where it came out "naturally."

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