'Thriller' Dancing Filipino Prisoners Perform New Michael Jackson Routine

The Filipino prisoners whose performance of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ became an internet phenomenon are back - with a Wacko-endorsed routine from his posthumous concert film, ‘This Is It’.

The dancing inmates of the maximum security prison at Cebu, the Philippines, achieved worldwide fame with their jail yard version of the ‘Thriller’ video, which has generated over 37.5 million hits since it was uploaded to YouTube in 2007. And the King of Pop himself was one of their many fans.

‘Michael saw the Cebu dancing inmates on YouTube and enjoyed them immensely’, his choreographer Travis Payne told ABS-CBN. ‘During rehearsals, we would watch and he would get tremendous joy.’

Payne flew to the Philippines with two of Jackson’s backing dancers to teach a four-minute routine to 1,200 prisoners - in a single day.

The performance, which includes ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ and new choreography for ‘Bad’, was uploaded to YouTube last Friday ahead of the ‘This Is It’ DVD launch, and has already been viewed nearly 1.5 million times.

The new routine:

(by James Glazebrook)

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