Michael Jackson: A Multisensory Performer

Not only was Michael Jackson amazing to watch and to hear, as it turns out. According to pretty much everyone involved in his This Is It tour, he also smelled amazing.

“He’d have these custom fragrances done for him and designers would send him fragrances and he would tend to mix them rather innocently,” says choreographer Travis Payne. “And it just always smelled great. You’d know if he was approaching, or it would linger after he was gone.”

Dancer Timor Steffens concurs. “His smell was so present, when I hugged him and let go of him and he walked away, I still had his smell on my hand. I was smelling my hand like, ‘That’s Michael! That’s Michael!’ ”

“One time, we (the dancers) were sitting on the stage waiting for him (Jackson) to show up,” relates another This Is It performer fondly. “Timor goes, ‘Yo! I smell Michael! I smell Michael!’ He was lying down on the stage and he sat up, and Michael was walking in right as he said it.”

That Jackson liked to smell unique, apparently, did not mean that he liked to smell predictable. “The next day,” grins Timor, recalling the incident, “he had a different cologne on.”