Orianthi Panagaris

I am proud to say that I did not jump onto the "Michael Jackson wagon" only after he died, which is kind of sad that I cannot say the same for most people. I have always be amazed and aware of his greatness.

I first saw Orianthi on stage with Michael Jackson. She is the lead guitarist for Michael Jackson's great comeback concert series that unfortunately never happened, This Is It. To be handpicked by Michael Jackson to play for his supposedly last concert in his legendary music career, that must say a lot about this girl's talent and potential.

I mean, Michael Jackson had his own personal choices of guitarist. He chose her instead. I saw her play her guitar solo in the movie, This Is It, and she absolutely killed it. She played the guitar since she was freaking 6 years old.

She released her own album, Believe, late last year. She writes her own songs too. Kind of reminds me of Taylor Swift. Just that Taylor Swift's genre is country music. For this new upcoming star, it is rock all the way baby! I love a particular comment about her on Youtube, "She is SHREDDING it."

It is undeniable that she has skill. I have no idea how she moves her fingers so quickly. I am listening to her album. It seems average though. ):

Her lead single, According To You, is really nice though! It is the song you guys heard playing in the background in the Youtube video. I seriously hope that some awesome music director write some really good songs for her so that her skill would not go to waste. ):

Let me share a quote from Wikipedia by her about Michael Jackson picking her to be his lead guitarist:
"I don’t know exactly why he picked me, but he watched my YouTube videos and loved them. He had his choice of guitar players, but I came in and played the ‘Beat It’ solo for him. Afterward he was so happy he got up and grabbed my arm and started walking up and down the stage area with me. He said, ‘Can you play once for me?’ He hired me that night. I wish he was still around. He made me believe in myself more, and I learned so much. Going into it, I thought it would be all about playing guitar solos. But the majority of it was playing chords and funky rhythms." - Orianthi

Michael Jackson's legend lives on.