Michael

Michael, released in 2010, is the first posthumous album by American pop musician Michael Jackson. The album consists of both songs that were recorded in the years since Invincible's release in 2001 and session outtakes from various past Jackson albums, most notably a cover version of Yellow Magic Orchestra's 1979 song "Behind the Mask", recorded during the sessions for 1982's Thriller. Jackson's rendition was previously the basis for covers by Greg Phillinganes, Eric Clapton, the Human League, and original songwriter Ryuichi Sakamoto. Jackson's version of "Behind the Mask" was released as the album's third single, and its original demo was later included on the 2-CD 40th anniversary edition of Thriller.
The album attracted controversy shortly after release due to claims from both Jackson's family and fans that the vocals on "Breaking News", "Keep Your Head Up", and "Monster" were recorded by soundalike Jason Malachi rather than Jackson himself. Various individuals involved with the album gave different statements on the matter over the years, including co-producers Teddy Riley and Eddie Cascio as well as Malachi himself. Riley initially stated that Jackson's vocals were simply processed with pitch correction software before claiming in 2013 that he had been "set up," Cascio stated in a 2010 appearance on Oprah that the vocals were legitimate and that the songs were recorded in his home studio in 2007, and Malachi's Facebook page initially made a post confirming his involvement before claiming on MySpace that his account was hacked, subsequently issuing a statement denying that he sung on the album. Cascio's claims resulted in the songs being popularly referred to as the "Cascio tracks."
In 2022, the songs were removed from both physical reissues of Michael and digital editions. While the album was previously the subject of a class-action lawsuit in 2014, a spokesperson for the Jackson estate stated that their removal was simply because "The Estate and Sony Music believe the continuing conversation about the tracks is distracting the fan community and casual Michael Jackson listeners from focusing their attention where it should be — on Michael's legendary and deep music catalog."