Los Angeles - Michael Jackson was nominated for a five prizes Tuesday at the American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year. Almost four months after his death, Jackson was also nominated for favourite male artist and favourite album in both the pop/rock and soul/R&B categories.
Despite being the best-selling artist of the year, he still trailed young country star Taylor Swift who earned six nominations, including artist of the year. Other nominees for the top award include Lady Gaga, rapper Eminem and rockers King of Leon.
Nominees are determined by record sales, but the award winners are chosen by online voting. The awards will be presented on November 22.
The nominations were released on the same day that it emerged that the first single released by Jackson's estate since his death, the love song This Is It, had been recorded by Jackson in 1983, together with crooner Paul Anka. The singer's estate agreed to give Anka 50 per cent of the copyright and admitted that the track that another recording of the song had been released in 1991 by an obscure Latin singer named Sa-Fire.
"They realize it's a mistake, they realize it's my song, they realize it's my production of his vocal in my studio, and I am getting 50 per cent of the whole project, actually, which is fair," said Anka in a video statement on the celebrity gossip website TMZ.com.
Anka, 68, said that Jackson took the tapes from his studio after the pair had a falling out in 1983, and their recording was never released. It was originally titled I Never Heard, and both he and Jackson were credited as co-authors on its 1991 release by Puerto Rican singer Sa-Fire.
The Jackson estate confirmed that the "new" song had actually been written in 1983.
"The song was picked because the lyrics were appropriate because of the name Michael gave his tour," the estate said, referring to the singer's planned comeback tour This Is It. "We are thrilled to present this song in Michael's voice for the first time and that Michael's fans have responded in unprecedented numbers."
The song was released Monday to great fanfare but only lukewarm reviews, four months after Jackson's death. Its release came in advance of the release of a similarly titled CD later this month and a documentary movie based on rehearsal footage for the aborted comeback tour.
The song opens with the words: "This is it. Here I stand. I'm the light of the world. I feel grand."
"Falling in love wasn't my plan," Jackson croons. "I never thought I would be your lovebird."
Background vocals sung by Jackson's brothers were added to the track, a production that otherwise dates back to the singer's 1983 recording session, Anka said.
The documentary is to give film-goers a look behind the scenes at Jackson's rehearsals for a sold-out series of 50 concerts in London that was to have begun in July. The theme of those shows was to have been This Is It.
The song was expected to be the first of a long line of Jackson material that recording label Sony and his family would make available as they sift through his unreleased work.
The singer of such hits as Thriller, Bad and Billie Jean has again topped the best-seller lists since his June 25 death. Billboard magazine said that Jackson sold 5 million albums in the week after his death in Los Angeles at the age of 50, after selling 750 million records during his career. His collection Number Ones became the best-selling album so far this year.
Anka, who rose to fame in the 1950s and '60s as a pop singer, wrote and recorded such hit songs as Diana, Lonely Boy and Put Your Head on My Shoulder. He wrote lyrics for other singers, including My Way for Frank Sinatra and She's a Lady for Tom Jones.
