Michael Jackson Hologram Will Perform at Billboard Music Awards

In case you needed a reason to get hype (or horrified) about tonight's live Billboard Music Awards, we now have word that the late, great Michael Jackson will be performing. Because of course he will be. However, it will not be a performance of the recently-released Justin Timberlake duet, "Love Never Felt So Good" or the rumored Justin Bieber collaboration. Instead, it will be something else entirely.

A Michael Jackson hologram will be taking the stage to perform "Slave to the Rhythm," the latest track from his new posthumous album, Xscape. Jackson's appearance is being promoted as a "history-making performance" and that the technology used to bring the artist to the live stage is "spectacular and groundbreaking."

Much like Tupac Shakur's appearance at Coachella in 2012, Michael Jackson's performance for the Billboard Music Awards was intended to be a surprise. However, the news broke as a result of a lawsuit filed by two tech companies attempting to block the performance from happening, but not due to the questionable taste of putting the late King of Pop onstage. Nah, this is a copyright thing.

Details via Rolling Stone:

Hologram USA Inc. (which acquired the rights to the patents from Digital Domain, creator of the Tupac Shakur hologram at Coachella 2012) and Musion Das Hologram Ltd. filed the suit on Thursday, claiming that their product was being used without permission by a competitor to create the image of Michael Jackson. The lawsuit was rejected by the judge, who said that there wasn't enough evidence to show that the Billboard Awards' plan would violate patents, nor was there sufficient evidence that their patent had been used to create the hologram.

Xscape, which was released on May 13th, contains eight previously unreleased Michael Jackson songs that have been "contemporized" by producers including Timbaland, Rodney Jenkins and Stargate. Epic Records chairman and CEO L.A. Reid, who executive produced the album, searched through four decades of music in the Jackson estate's vaults to find songs that had Jackson's completed vocals. "Michael left behind some musical performances that we take great pride in presenting through the vision of music producers that he either worked directly with or expressed strong desire to work with," Reid said in a statement regarding the album. "We are extremely proud and honored to present this music to the world."

So what do you think of the decision to bring Michael Jackson back to life onstage? Great decision or disaster in the making? Loving tribute or poor-taste ratings stunt? Sound off in the comments! And check out the performance itself when the 2014 Billboard Music Awards air live tonight at 8:00 PM on ABC.

Credit: Epic Records