Abstract: This month’s MJ Studies Today column continues the celebration of Michael Jackson’s album Invincible which was released twenty five years ago this month. To mark the anniversary, columnist Kerry Hennigan has selected three of her favourite songs from the album – “Break of Dawn,” ”Whatever Happens,” and “Speechless” – highlighting Jackson’s vocals on the respective tracks, and the contributions from other musicians, writers and producers.
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 holds Certificates in the Archaeology of the Ancient World and the Archaeology of Ancient Britain from Cambridge University’s Professional and Continuing Education unit and is passionate about Viking longships and the development of maritime trade routes from the Bronze Age to the Early Medieval period.
REFERENCE AS:
Hennigan, Kerry. “MJ Studies Today CXXX: Playing favourites with Michael Jackson’s Invincible album on its 25th Anniversary.” The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies Vol 13, No. 2 (14 Oct 2026). https://michaeljacksonstudies.org/mj-studies-today-cxxx/
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Playing favourites with Michael Jackson’s Invincible album on its 25th Anniversary. By Kerry Hennigan
“Colours of Invincible” compiled © Kerry Hennigan
Initially, I struggled to appreciate Michael Jackson’s 2001 album Invincible as a total package. There were songs I really liked and some I was not so keen on (though certainly not any I “hated”). As the years have gone by, greater appreciation has replaced that initial underappreciation, and songs I once would have skipped over have become firm favourites. It is certainly Jackson’s most diverse album musically and deserves to be listened to in its entirety – as a complete package.
As Michael himself said in a radio interview with Anthony DeCurtis on 26 October 2001, “I let the music create itself. I like it to be a potpourri of all kinds of sounds, all kinds of colours, something for everybody, from the farmer in Ireland to the lady who scrubs toilets in Harlem.” [1] When finally released on 30 October 2001, Invincible delivered all of that, and so much more.
Some of Jackson’s most accomplished love songs appear on this album. And it should be remembered that one of the project’s producers, Rodney Jerkins, has since stated that Michael was singing better than ever when they were recording the album. His vocal dexterity is on full display in “Butterflies,” while “2000 Watts,” a song brought to the project by another of the producers, Teddy Riley, is as un-Jackson-like as anything else Michael had recorded as a solo artist.
Across the album’s full complement of tracks (16 in all), there is a depth and richness to his vocals that represents not only his greater maturity as an artist, but also the care he had taken over the years to ensure his vocal cords were in good shape. Michael Jackson definitely knew from where his success sprang.
There are some notable contributions to the album from other artists, including The Notorious B.I.G. who raps on “Unbreakable,” with Fats on “Heartbreaker” and “Invincible,” Brandy provided additional background vocals on “Unbreakable,” and guitarist Slash played a guitar solo on “Privacy.” [2]
The most notable of Michael’s special guests, in this listener’s estimation, is Carlos Santana, whose guitar work on “Whatever Happens” is typically superb. Produced by Jackson and Teddy Riley, the song is less “industrial” and more “organic” sounding than many of the other tracks on the album. It is a richly textured, bluesy rock ballad which just begs for a short film.
“Break of Dawn” is another track favoured by yours truly. From the outset, it has a seductive, sensuous sound – the aural equivalent of warm honey running over gravel. Like many of the songs on Invincible, the track has a collection of authors, to which Jackson added his own contribution. Michael produced the track with Dr. Freeze – a pseudonym for singer, songwriter and producer Elliot Straite, who was introduced to Michael by John McClain, who would later become a co-executor of the Michael Jackson Estate.
In an interview with MJFrance published in 2011, Dr. Freeze explains that he and Michael shared a knack for melody. “So every time I proposed something, it was easy for him to study the song because it was as if he already knew,” Freeze recalls. Of the songs Freeze gave him, “Break of Dawn” was Jackson’s favourite. “That was his baby!” Freeze says, later explaining that when Michael recorded his vocals for the song, “It was like flowers and trees grew in the song! He touched her and it became magical! I was shocked!” [3]
In comparison to the songwriting and producing collaborations on Invincible, there is the solo Jackson composition “Speechless,” which begins with him singing acapella and later includes backing vocals provided by Andre Crouch’s gospel choir. The song was famously inspired by a water-balloon fight with kids when Michael was in Germany. “Fun inspires me. I hate to say that, because it’s such a romantic song. But it was the fight that did it,” Michael explained to Vibe magazine. “I was happy, and I wrote it in its entirety right there.” [4]
Of course, the revelation of the song’s inspiration brought raised eyebrows and behind-the-hand snickers from some critics, their problem being that they could not see the world the way Michael Jackson did.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, Michael would have the last “laugh” when that acapella opening of “Speechless” was featured in the posthumously released rehearsal documentary Michael Jackson’s This Is It (2009), which, like the artist it celebrated, earned a Guinness World Record for grossing US$252,091,016 worldwide between its cinematic release date of 28 October 2009 and 11 January 2018 – the date the world record was awarded. [5]
Writing about these tracks, and the Invincible album itself, has been a reminder of the great depth in Michael Jackson’s catalogue of recordings, of the many talented people with whom he worked, both in and out of the recording studio, and of the simple things that could inspire him.
As Regina Jones (daughter of Quincy) wrote in Vibe back in 2002, “He took an art form, refined and packaged it, and became an international icon. The American Music Awards recently named him the Artist of the Century. When it comes to the King of Pop, the world is insatiable.” [6]
And in 2026, it remains so.
Kerry Hennigan
14 October 2026
Sources:
[1] Michael Jackson Interviewed by Anthony DeCurtis, October 26, 2001. Audio interview available on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96kZmNsLESQ
[2] Jackson, Michael. Invincible. Album booklet, 2001.
[3] Michael Jackson Beat. “Dr. Freeze on Michael Jackson.” Published electronically 4 Feb 2011 on https://michaeljacksonbeat.blogspot.com/2011/02/dr-freeze-on-michael-jackson.html Original interview in French at MJFrance.com
[4] Vibe, March 2002 issue. Interview by Regina Jones. Retrieved 23 Sep 2026 from http://www.geniusmichaeljackson.com/en/articl/vibe.html Interview also cited by Amy Reiter on Salon.com in reference to “Speechless” at https://web.archive.org/web/20021002023210/http://salon.com/people/col/reit/2002/01/29/nptues/index.html
[5] Guinness World Records website. “Highest Box Office Film Gross for a Documentary Film.” Retrieved 23 Sep 2026 from https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/78695-highest-box-office-film-gross-for-a-documentary-film
[6] Jones, Regina. Vibe magazine, March 2002 issue. (Link as above.)
Illustration: “Colours of Invincible” compiled by Kerry Hennigan using photography by Albert Watson, edited with Pixlr Express and PhotoScape X Pro software. No infringement of photographic copyright is intended in this not-for-profit, educational exercise.
More on Invincible:
Amisu, Elizabeth. ”Crack Music’: Michael Jackson’s Invincible,’ The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies, http://michaeljacksonstudies.org/crack-music-michael-jacksons-invincible/ vol. 1, 2 (2014).
Hennigan, Kerry. “MJ Studies Today LXXIV: Revisiting Michael Jackson’s ‘Invincible’ after twenty years through Ayo Adene’s ‘Deep Dive.’” (14-2-2022). The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies 8, No. 3 (2022). https://michaeljacksonstudies.org/mj-studies-today-lxxiv/
Hennigan, Kerry. “What about Invincible? Revisiting Michael Jackson’s final studio album.” Published on WordPress 30 Oct 2018. https://kerryhennigan.wordpress.com/2018/10/30/what-about-invincible-revisiting-michael-jacksons-final-studio-album/
Osman, Mohammad. Invincible. Published 19 Jan 2019. A discussion of the art, design and photography of Invincible. https://www.artofdesignonline.com/invincible/invincible
Podcasts:
Merx, Karin, and Elizabeth Amisu. “Episode 96 – Birthday Special, Invincible, the Album Worth Listening to ” Podcast, Michael Jackson’s Dream Lives On: An Academic Conversation, 14 no. 1 (2026). Published electronically 29/08/26. https://michaeljacksonstudies.org/episode-96-birthday-special-invincible
Merx, Karin, and Elizabeth Amisu. “Episode 25 – The order of the songs of Michael Jackson’s last album Invincible” Michael Jackson’s Dream Lives On: An Academic Conversation 4, no. 1 (2017). Published electronically 21/05/17. http://michaeljacksonstudies.org/episode-25/