This Is It was a planned
residency show of fifty concerts by
Michael Jackson to be held at
The O2 Arena in
London. They were scheduled to begin in July 2009 and continue through to March 2010. However, with all concerts sold out,
Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest and died due to an overdose of propofol and benzodiazepine drugs, less than three weeks before the first concert was scheduled to begin. Jackson officially announced the concerts at a press conference held inside the O2 Arena and stated that This Is It was going to be his final series of concerts.
AEG Live, the concert promoters, released a promotional video that took up an entire commercial break, setting a record for
ITV. The shows were to be Jackson's first major series of concerts since the
HIStory World Tour finished in 1997, and had been cited as one of the most important musical events in history. Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the first 10 dates alone would have earned the singer approximately £50 million.