Apparently, a lot of people want to see Michael Jackson in concert. What initially started out as a 10 show residency at London’s O2 Arena quickly turned into a 20 show residency. Now, because the demand is so high (reportedly record-breaking heights), his residency at the O2 Arena has been expanded to 50 dates … which means his “Summer” This Is It Tour will now carry into the first couple months of 2010:

Michael Jackson will now play 50 dates at London’s O2 arena, continuing his farewell residency well into 2010. The 50-year-old has added new shows throughout the first two months of the year, ending on 24 February. Some 360,000 pre-sale tickets have been sold so far and if all 50 dates sell out, Jackson will have sold a million seats for the run of shows. Organisers say the This Is It tour has become the fastest selling in history, with 33 seats sold each minute. Jackson is said to be “thrilled” by the response. Randy Phillips of promoters AEG Live said: “Not only are these concerts unparalleled, these records will never be broken. “We knew this was show business history, but this is a cultural phenomenon.” Pre-sale tickets for Jackson’s first 10 dates sold out on Tuesday but some fans complained of “technical problems” trying to register online. Ticketmaster director Chris Edmonds said demand was “unprecedented”. He added: “Unfortunately due to a technical issue, we were unable to facilitate all immediate ticket requests. Apologies to those fans who were unable to log on, but fans should keep on trying to purchase tickets.” Additional codes are being issued, the organisers said, with registration being dealt with on a first come, first served basis. Tickets are only being sold to fans who have registered, with the rest of the seats going on sale to the general public from 0700 GMT on Friday. Tickets for the Jackson shows are already being sold on the online auction website eBay. Prices on the site range from £170 to £10,000, but tickets bought directly from the singer’s website or Ticketmaster cost up to £75.

Apparently, if Jackson is able to sell out all 50 dates at the O2 Arena he will have sold 1 million tickets! Insane!! David, the eager Michael Jackson fan that he is, managed to secure a couple of great seats for the two of us to see The Gloved One in September at the O2 Arena. Our concert date will be very close to his birthday so it looks like we’ll be going back to London to celebrate. I am seriously shocked that the demand for Michael Jackson is this high. I still am having a hard time believing that he will be able to pull off this amazing feat of 50 concert dates but … as long as he lasts long enough so that David can see him in concert, I’ll be cool. Crazy!! Just a few weeks ago, we were talking about Jacko as if he was down for the count … and now this? If he can truly pull off this coup d’etat then he will really be worthy of his self-proclaimed title as the King of Pop. Are any of y’all gonna get tickets to see the man in action?

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