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The story
Daichi Miura appeared on TOKYO FM’s radio show “Shirasuta’s Voice Training Radio” to break down Michael Jackson’s singing ability. The show noted that “Michael rarely gets credit for being a good singer,” yet rated him as “ridiculously good” at it. Over on 5channel’s Entertainment & Sports Express+ board, the thread sparked wide-ranging debate — from agreement with that take, to comparisons with his contemporary Prince, to lingering suspicions of lip-syncing in his later live shows, to comparisons with today’s pitch-corrected vocals.
TOKYO FM’s radio show “Shear Music presents Shirasuta’s Voice Training Radio” (airing every Tuesday, 9:00–9:30 PM) is hosted by charismatic vocal coach “Shirasuta,” who has over 2 million subscribers, alongside singer-songwriter YOSUKE. This episode was the final installment of a three-week guest run featuring Daichi Miura.
(Omitted)
Shirasuta: We actually just did a Michael Jackson special on this very show, “Voice Training Radio,” recently, and that episode got a huge response too! And honestly, I myself love Michael Jackson! I’ve learned so, so much from him.
Source: news.mynavi.jp / Original article here
What people said
Yeah, seriously…
Sure, Michael came up short there, but it's not like he was bad either.
They got compared even more after Prince dropped that duet with Madonna (also the same age) where he basically vocally demolished her (the Japanese post used a much cruder slang term for "wrecked").
What an insane generation of stars that was — and the only one still standing is plain old Madonna.
I like Prince too, but Michael's the better singer.
Sounds like you just want credit for 'noticing' something nobody else supposedly did.
That "Michael" movie playing now ends up focusing on the moonwalk anyway.
Michael = dancing, music videos, money, superstardom — but he barely gets discussed as a singer.
I like Michael, which is exactly why I skipped the "Michael" movie.
The "Pow!" thing is one side of him too, but still.
Music videos? Dancing? Even though blind Stevie (Wonder) praised him that highly?
Even the movie has his own family split on it.
Janet and Michael's daughter Paris have both said they're not watching it.
Even as an adult he kept trying to force that pre-voice-change kid-like tone, which just sounded unnatural.
Daichi Miura probably doesn't even know the Jackson 5.
Even when he does sing, it's only bits and pieces.
He's not that great a singer.
Fair enough about his later live shows.
But even in his lip-sync era, hearing him sing a cappella in rehearsals, you realize he's genuinely good.
Though I don't think Michael was ever really 'about' singing anyway.
And there's the Prince-loving old-timer who shows up without fail every time Michael comes up.
He wrote a track for Jennifer Holliday and even performed on it himself,
and it just wasn't good.
Isn't the mainstream view that he was top-tier as a songwriter too?
That joke didn't land.
His rhythmic feel shifted from laid-back phrasing to pushing ahead of the beat,
and a lot of adults who'd praised Off the Wall couldn't keep up.
The fact that Michael was deliberately building a singing style distinct from typical Black music of the time deserves a lot more discussion.
If anything, Prince scored hits through fresh, innovative angles, but he got stranger and stranger as he tried to dig into the true essence of Black music.
People from that era never really bring up Dangerous, huh.
Well, if you were an actual fan you'd have listened to the whole catalog, so I guess they're just not fans.
Today's kids really have been poisoned by pitch correction.
No doubt about that.
Personally I love "Scream."
Proper old-school funk.
"Scream" is great, right?
I'm partial to "Jam" too.
If we're talking personal taste, it's Prince for me.
Prince's stage presence is just incredible.
Every single movement is art.
Isn't Michael the one on top here — the guy could get a whole arena roaring just by standing there like a statue?
And that stone-still pose was cool in its own right.
There's too much else going on in that performance to judge it fairly.
But holding that pause for that long was genuinely impressive.
I remember someone heckling at the Osaka show, "Is Michael ever gonna move or what?!" lol
Cyndi Lauper comes next for me.
Then Lionel Richie.
After all those other singers belt it out before him, he comes in with this commanding, overwhelming performance lol.
That guy was a straight-up monster.
Even when he sings something light and casual, his voice sounds almost divine, like it's channeling heaven.
That came out in '91, so he'd have been like 4.
In Osaka, NOT heckling would almost be the rude move.
True, lol — might be nostalgia goggles, but Osaka was a blast, crowd included.
Even just one pose, and you can tell it's Michael from the silhouette alone — he's got several signature ones like that, and even just standing there he's already beautiful.
What is that, exactly?
Maybe it's the balance of his limbs?
It's like a sculpture, honestly — the formal beauty is incredible.
Though I feel like the crowd's screaming and the hype weren't just about the pose and Michael's presence, but also the vibe of that era itself.
People would probably faint over a Michael action figure too lol.
I guess people figure the world pays way more attention to the dancing than the singing.
That's honestly disrespectful to him as a singer.
Michael sold records because he could actually sing — he's nothing like today's acts who move units on dancing alone.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Michael Jackson cemented his worldwide reputation as a singer with 1982’s “Thriller,” but his dancing — the moonwalk above all — left such a strong impression that his singing ability itself rarely gets discussed on its own terms. The thread split mainly over two points. One was a comparison with his era’s rival Prince: some argued Prince had the edge vocally, while others pointed to Michael’s studio recordings and a cappella rehearsal takes as evidence he was the better singer. The other was the long-running suspicion of lip-syncing on his later tours — it’s well documented that his live shows from the 1990s onward prioritized choreography and used some pre-recorded vocals, a fact reported on repeatedly even at the time. His solo section on “We Are the World” (1985) is frequently cited as evidence of his vocal ability. Note that the film “Michael,” which this article references, is a 2025 biopic that has drawn mixed reactions even within his own family.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Entertainment & Sports Express+) thread “Daichi Miura Analyzes Michael Jackson’s Singing: “Michael Rarely Gets Called a Great Singer, But He’s Ridiculously Good”.”
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