Mary J. Blige and Natalie Cole Won’t Perform at Tribute Concert for Michael Jackson

After Chris Brown denied the news about his involvement in a Michael Jackson tribute concert, more names on the line-up also denied reports about their upcoming performances.

Mary J. Blige and Natalie Cole are following Brown’s footsteps, as shared by Blige’s spokesperson on Wednesday. The rep, Karynne Tencer, said Blige had been in talks to perform but had “been booked for months” for a prior commitment at a show for fashion designer Gucci in Italy .

Meanwhile, according to a Los Angeles spokeswoman for Natalie Cole, Maureen O’Connor, the singer will not be there because days earlier she will attend an event in Tennessee for Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and can not make it to Vienna in time. O’Connor admitted organizers of the Jackson tribute show had reached out to Cole, as she said, “There was a conversation, but she was never committed to do it.”

Older brother of the late superstar, Jermaine Jackson and organizers announced the September 26 tribute concert earlier this week, with lots of famous names were said will be performing. But then on Thursday, they played down the lack of confirmed big names, as the show’s producer Georg Kindel told a news conference, “The star is Michael Jackson — it’s not about name dropping and who else will be there.”

Aside from the line-up problem, Jermaine had confirmed that the entire Michael Jackson’s family are going to be there, including mother Katherine and his three children. Organizers were expecting 65,000 fans to attend the Tribute concert at Schoenbrunn, down from an initial estimate of 85,000, but we’re hoping that it will still be a great tribute!

[ via Yahoo! News ]

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