HIStory World Tour

Michael Jackson performing "Earth Song" in Lausanne, June 20, 1997

The tour was announced on May 29, 1996, and marked Jackson's first concert tour since his Dangerous World Tour ended in late 1993.[2] Jackson's debut concert for the tour, performed at Letna Park in Prague, was one of the largest single attended concerts in his career, with over 125,000 people.[3] On October 7, 1996, he performed for the first time ever in the Arab world and Africa as a solo artist in Tunis.[4] During the tour's stopover in Sydney, Australia, he married Debbie Rowe in a private and impromptu ceremony. He was interviewed by Molly Meldrum In Brisbane and danced with two women during "You Are Not Alone". From January 3–4, 1997, Jackson performed his only two concerts on this tour in the US, in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Aloha Stadium, to a crowd of 35,000 each; making him the first artist in history to sell out the stadium.,[5]

During the break period, Jackson worked and released his Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix album. The second leg started on May 31, 1997, at the Weserstadion in Bremen, Germany.[6] Set list changes included the addition of "Blood on the Dance Floor" and later on the removal of the "Off the Wall" Medley and "The Way You Make Me Feel". "Blood on the Dance Floor" was taken off the set list after the concert in Oslo on August 19, 1997.

Jackson performed at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark on his 39th birthday with 60,000 fans. He was presented with a surprise birthday cake, marching band, and fireworks on stage after "You Are Not Alone". The concert at Hippodrome Wellington of Ostend, Belgium, was originally scheduled for August 31, 1997, but was postponed to September 3 following Diana, Princess of Wales's death. Michael performed in Helsinki, Finland on Aug 24 and 26, 1997 at the Olympic Stadium.

Throughout the tour, many concerts were professionally filmed by Nocturne Productions, but none were ever officially released by The Estate of Michael Jackson as DVD or other formats. In South Korea, VHS recording of his show in Seoul was released, only within the bounds of the country. Although the footage is poor in quality and Jackson was suffering a fever at the time, so his vocals were weakened, it made major successful in Asian country. Jackson, also planned to released a DVD on his performance in Munich, Germany. The film was never released but many speculate the cancellation of it being that Jackson was unimpressed by his vocals brought on by Laryngitis. [7]

All footage from the tour including 'HIStory: Live in Seoul 1996', 'Michael Jackson: History Tour Live in Munich' and also performances from Bucharest, Tunis, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland, Brunei, Basel, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki and Johannesburg.

Michael Jackson's HIStory tour was one of his most high tech concert shows and revealed new features to its 83 shows from September 1996 to October 1997. The show's opening featured a video segment where Michael piloted a spacecraft through multiple points in history before emerging from underneath the stage at the end. The stage featured two statues of Michael on either side of it and was large enough to use an entire curtain for the opening segment of "Smooth Criminal". The cherry picker used for "Beat It" and "Earth Song" extended out from the center of the stage and partially acted as a ramp when it was not in use.

Prior to the commencement of the tour, Jackson performed a special concert event on July 16, 1996, to celebrate the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah's 50th birthday. The event was attended by the royal family, except for the Sultan himself ironically, and 60,000 people attended the event at the Jerudong Park in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. The setlist for this concert heavily resembled the setlist for the Dangerous World Tour, the most notable differences being the inclusion of two HIStory album songs (You Are Not Alone and Earth Song). It was also the last time Jam, Human Nature, I Just Can't Stop Loving You, and She's Out of My Life were performed live by Jackson.

The setlist for this concert, listed below,[8] was originally going to be a mix of the Bad and Dangerous tours, featuring Another Part of Me, Rock With You, Dirty Diana, Heal the World, and Bad. It was ultimately cut down to a Dangerous tour-style concert after a meeting between Jackson and concert director Kenny Ortega. [9]

1. "Brace Yourself" (video intro)
2. "Jam"
3. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
4. "Human Nature"
5. "Smooth Criminal"
6. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" (with Marva Hicks)
7. "She's Out of My Life"
8. "I Want You Back" / "The Love You Save" / "I'll Be There"
9. "Thriller"
10. "Billie Jean"
11. "The Way You Make Me Feel"
12. "Black Or White Panther" (Video Interlude)
13. "Beat It"
14. "You Are Not Alone"
15. "Dangerous"
16. "Black or White"
17. "Man in the Mirror"
18. "Earth Song"

1. "Great Gates Of Kiev" (Introduction)
2. "Scream" / "They Don't Care About Us" / "In the Closet" (contains excerpts of "HIStory" and "She Drives Me Wild")
3. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
4. "Stranger in Moscow"
5. "Smooth Criminal" (contains excerpts of "Childhood" as an instrumental prelude)
6. "The Wind" (video interlude)
7. "You Are Not Alone"
8. "The Way You Make Me Feel" (select dates only)
9. "I Want You Back" / "The Love You Save" / "I'll Be There"
10. "Rock with You" / "Off the Wall" / "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (select dates only)
11. "Remember The Time" (video interlude)
12. "Billie Jean"
13. "Thriller"
14. "Beat It"
15. "Come Together" / "D.S." (select 1996 dates only) / "Blood on the Dance Floor" (select 1997 dates only)
16. "Black Panther" (Video Interlude)
17. "Dangerous" (contains excerpts of the James Bond theme, "Smooth Criminal", "You Want This", "Let's Dance", and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme)
18. "Black or White"
19. "Earth Song"
20. "We Are The World" (Video Interlude)
21. "Heal the World"
22. "HIStory" (with instrumental prelude of "They Don't Care About Us" and "Great Gates Of Kiev" intro)

• List of highest-attended concerts
• List of highest-grossing concert tours

• "Billboard Boxscore". Billboard. New York City. 109 (37): 22. 1997-09-13. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
• "Billboard Boxscore". Billboard. New York City. 109 (34): 14. 1997-08-23. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
• "Billboard Boxscore". Billboard. New York City. 109 (35): 14. 1997-08-30. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 2014-04-18.