LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Hundreds of millions of fans across the world will bid a final farewell to Michael Jackson on Tuesday in a lavish memorial to the tragic "King of Pop" expected to bring America to a standstill.
An exclusive guest list of family and VIPs will be joined by around 11,000 fans crowded into the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the send-off, which Jackson once said he hoped would be "the greatest show on earth."
Precise details of the service have been kept under wraps, but amid speculation that some of the biggest names in showbusiness may perform in an event intended as a celebration of the tortured pop icon's life and times.
Jackson's mysterious death from an apparent cardiac arrest at the age of 50 on June 25 sent shockwaves rippling around the world, triggering an avalanche of tributes from Beverly Hills to Beijing.
Thousands of fans continue to flock to Jackson's star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame" in Los Angeles while a makeshift shrine of flowers, cards and toys has steadily grown outside the gates of the singer's Neverland Ranch.
Jackson sold more than 750 million albums during a glittering four-decade career that was ultimately overshadowed by repeated allegations of child abuse, his startling physical transformation and eccentric behavior.
Jackson's family has not revealed where the singer will be buried.
The musical clan earlier quashed the idea of a poignant ceremony at Neverland Ranch, which posed logistical headaches due to its remote location in ritzy Santa Barbara wine country.
However, Jackson's elder brother Jermaine said he would still like the pop legend to be buried at the estate, a tribute to Jackson's fascination with childhood that in its heyday boasted giraffes, tigers and a private amusement park.
"I feel his presence because this is his creation," Jackson said Thursday. "This is where he should be rested because it's him."
Organizers of Tuesday's memorial, which gets underway at 10:00am (1700 GMT), have appealed to ticketless fans to watch the event on television, fearing chaos if hundreds of thousands take to the streets to mourn.
Some 1.6 million applied online for only 11,000 tickets to attend the tribute at the Staples Center and another 6,500 for seats at a neighboring venue where giant screens will show the event live.
A website set up to manage an online lottery of the available tickets received more than half a billion hits within two hours on Friday, reflecting the huge interest in the event.
"Potentially, this could be enormous," said Robert Thompson, an expert in pop culture at Syracuse University in New York. "Everything that has to do with Michael Jackson was done huge, super-sized."
While all eyes turn to Jackson's memorial, multiple law enforcement agencies are continuing to probe the circumstances of his death while an army of lawyers prepare to tussle over the fate of his estate and children.
An autopsy on Jackson's body was carried out on June 26 but the Los Angeles County Coroner's office has said it will not issue a final cause of death until the results of exhaustive toxicology tests are known in "several weeks."
Police investigators have meanwhile zeroed in on the possible role of drugs in Jackson's death.
Close friends and associates of the star have angrily alleged that Jackson was surrounded by a coterie of medical professionals willing to provide him with potent prescription medication.
US media reports citing unidentified law enforcement sources say investigators found the powerful sedative Propofol, also known as Diprivan, amongst a variety of prescription medications at Jackson's home.
The discovery has raised the stakes in the probe, which widened last week as the Los Angeles Police Department enlisted the support of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Propofol is commonly used in hospitals to induce unconsciousness in patients before major surgery. Healthcare experts say it should never be used at home and should only be administered by trained anesthesiologists.
Police have questioned Jackson's personal physician Conrad Murray but have stressed he is not suspected of criminal wrongdoing.
As the investigation into Jackson's death deepens, lawyers are preparing to head to court next week to tussle over his legacy.
Jackson's 79-year-old mother Katherine was placed in temporary control of her son's assets last week and appointed guardian of the singer's three children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11 and Prince Michael II, 7.
A 2002 will filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last week named Katherine Jackson as guardian but the singer's ex-wife Debbie Rowe indicated she planned to seek custody of the children. A custody hearing scheduled for July 6 has now been reset for July 13.
On Monday, the two men named as executors of Jackson's are scheduled to appear in court with lawyers for the star's family in the first full hearing on the star's assets, reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
A lawyer for the Jackson family has not said whether the clan intends to contest the will.
