Extract: In this month’s MJ Studies Today column, Kerry Hennigan looks at a song that is a personal favourite – “Who Is It” from Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album. Both the song and the short film are considered in the context of their content and the similarities between the betrayed protagonist and Jackson himself in the years following the release of the track.
Column by Kerry Hennigan, editor of the free monthly newsletter A Candle for Michael, administrator of the fan group “Michael Jackson’s Short Film Ghosts” on Facebook, and an MJ blogger on WordPress. Kerry is a life-long student, holds Certificates in the Archaeology of the Ancient World and the Archaeology of Ancient Britain from Cambridge University in the UK and is currently focused on the Vikings and the civilizations of the Aegean Bronze Age.
REFERENCE AS:
Hennigan, Kerry. “MJ Studies Today CX: ‘Promises and secrets so untold.’ Reflections on Michael Jackson’s ‘Who Is It’ – the song and short film.” (14-02-2025). The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies Vol 11, No. 3 (2025). https://sya.rqu.mybluehost.me/website_94cbf058/mj-studies-today-cx/
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“Promises and secrets so untold.” Reflections on Michael Jackson’s “Who Is It” – the song and short film.
By Kerry Hennigan
Photo montage © Kerry Hennigan
The song and its short film combine to make Michael Jackson’s song “Who Is It” a bit of an enigma. Like many of Jackson’s tracks that have flown under the radar with the broader public and music critics, it is often named as a fan favourite. Released on Michael’s Dangerous album in 1992, “Who Is It” was not intended to be released as a single in the US. That changed after Jackson “spontaneously recreated the multi-layered groove”[1] when he beatboxed the song during his televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, broadcast 10 February 1993.[2][3] In response to public feedback, Epic decided to release a shortened version of the track as the seventh single from Dangerous.
Deeply haunting in tone, full of the angst of betrayal suffered by the protagonist voiced by Jackson, “Who Is It” is a confessional of heartbreak caused by a woman quite different from some of his other famous musical femme fatales, like “Billie Jean,” “Dirty Diana” and the girl who is “Dangerous.” The woman at the centre of “Who Is It” is someone that the singer believed truly reciprocated his love. He laments, “I gave her passion, my very soul / I gave her promises and secrets so untold / And she promised me forever and a day we’d live as one…” But, as he discovers, “It’s a promise so untrue…It seems she left me for such reasons unexplained.”[4] He suffers anguish wondering who his rival for her affections could be. “Is it a friend of mine? / Who Is It? / Is it my brother?”[5]
The short film for the song, directed by David Fincher, gives “Who Is It” another dimension beyond what is expressed in the lyrics. It complies with Jackson’s stipulation (starting with the short films from his Thriller era) that music videos should tell a story. They should have the same attention to detail as a full length movie; hence his insistence on calling them short films. In this respect, “Who Is It” certainly delivers the goods, with a skilled director at the helm and boasting cinematography directed by Jordan Cronenweth.[6] The latter had worked on Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and, similar to that SF classic, the imagery of “Who Is It” is a floating art-deco dreamscape of muted colours viewed through a soft filter. These visuals compliment the song’s ethereal opening vocal choir, which Susan Fast likens to “the reciting tones of medieval chant.”[7] When the beat kicks in, it is solid, measured, heavy with drama, as we see a woman, played by UK model Yasmin Le Bon, giving comfort to men whose loneliness leaves them blind to the cold, calculated planning behind her caresses.
Le Bon’s temptress, the same woman with whom Jackson’s character has fallen hopelessly in love, is the agent of a sophisticated confidence trick that targets vulnerable individuals. According to the New World Encyclopedia, the particular ability of a successful con artist is to be able to gain the trust of their victims. “Con artists are charismatic, intelligent, have good memories, and know how to manipulate people’s hopes and fears.” [8] In the case of “Who Is It” the “too good to be true” lover is revealed to be exactly that, with Jackson’s character being just the latest in a succession of “marks” i.e. victims.
The realisation that he has been betrayed cuts to the core of his being. “I am the damned, I am the dead, I am the agony inside the dying head,” he sings.[9] That the woman has defied her handlers by genuinely falling in love with him, he’ll never know. Unaware that she has come running to his door in the hope of his taking her back and accepting her as her true self, Jackson has already departed for foreign shores, putting distance between himself and the scene of their lovemaking – and her betrayal. He confesses, “I can’t take this stuff no more…I can’t take it ‘cause I’m lonely.”[10]
On film, “Who Is It” is a cautionary tale that warns of the vulnerability that can be suffered by even the most successful of individuals, a reminder that money does not buy happiness, much less true love. Nor does talent or business acumen make one immune from having their heart broken. Joseph Vogel, author of Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson, considers “Who Is it” to be ”an artistic masterpiece, and one of Jackson’s most powerful expressions of despair.”[11] And, while the story of both the song and short film are fictional, the lyrics can be interpreted as a dire portent of disappointments still to come in Jackson’s own life, in particular the betrayal of his trust by business associates and people whom he considered personal friends.
At the time of its release in 1992, nothing in Jackson’s canon quite equalled the pathos of “Who Is It.” Not until “Stranger In Moscow,” (released 1995) which would be conceived by Jackson (with Brad Buxer) in Russia during his Dangerous world tour, would he again express such anguish. In the latter case the mood is all the more potent due to the song being autobiographical. Nevertheless, “Who Is It” deserves not to be overshadowed by Michael’s later achievements. It remains more than just a pop song; it is prime example of Jackson’s mastery of the art of storytelling, being a melodrama worthy of an Italian opera, a Greek tragedy or a Shakespeare play, and it all plays out in just 6 minutes and 35 seconds. Thirty three years after it was released, “Who Is It” remains a masterpiece.
Kerry Hennigan
14 February 2025
Sources:
[1] Fast, Susan. Dangerous. 33-1/3 Series 100th Volume. Bloomsbury 2014, p 13.
[2] Alonso, Guillermo. “‘Are you a virgin?’: The Oprah Winfrey-Michael Jackson interview 30 years later.” El Pais, 21 Feb 2023. https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-02-21/are-you-a-virgin-the-oprah-winfrey-michael-jackson-interview-30-years-later.html
[3] Golding, Shenequa. “Watch As Michel Jackson Leaves Oprah Winfrey Mesmerized With His Beatbox.” Vibe, 15 Mar 2016. https://www.vibe.com/news/movies-tv/michael-jackson-oprah-winfrey-1993-interview-410793/
[4] Jackson, Michael. “Who Is It.” The Complete Michael Jackson. International Music Publications Ltd. 1997, No. 97.
[5] Jackson, Michael. “Who Is It.” The Complete Michael Jackson. International Music Publications Ltd. 1997, No. 97.
[6] Lecocq, Richard & Allard, Francois. Michael Jackson. All the Songs. The Story Behind Every Track. Cassell Illustrated 2018, pp 402-403.
[7] Fast, Susan. Dangerous. 33-1/3 Series 100th Volume. Bloomsbury 2014, p 111.
[8] New World Encyclopedia. “Confidence Game.” https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Confidence_game
[9] Jackson, Michael. “Who Is It.” The Complete Michael Jackson. International Music Publications Ltd. 1997, No. 97.
[10] Jackson, Michael. “Who Is It.” The Complete Michael Jackson. International Music Publications Ltd. 1997, No. 97.
[11] Vogel, Joseph. Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson. Vintage paperback edition 2019, p 257.
Illustration: Photo montage “Who Is It?” compiled by Kerry Hennigan. No infringement of photographic copyright is intended in this not for profit, educational exercise.