u/QueenXiaomuSmash14

Okay, real talk, the song that has been in my head that I haven’t listened to yet that I know a couple of people wanted is Dracula by Tame Impala (and the version with Jennie), and that got me thinking, what other songs could I listen to that is also highly wanted in Just Dance?

I’m willing to take suggestions on what to listen to and give a verdict on if I think it’d fit into the series, but I have a few restrictions.

Number One: No video game soundtracks

Number Two: Not really a strict rule, but I will lean more towards songs that are longer than 2:30

That’s all I have, may edit, but I am open to suggestions for songs to listen to that people want in Just Dance (and will give my verdict on Dracula eventually; I have high hopes for both versions)

Alright, I’m open to suggestions since a JD 2027 Edition is all but inevitable, but I think I wanna take a crack at this idea again, so here we go! More songs for JD that I wanna see get in!

• Ain’t Your Mama - Jennifer Lopez
• Alejandro - Lady Gaga
• Best Friend’s Brother - Victoria Justice
• Bidi Bidi Bom Bom - Selena Quintanilla
• Burning Love - Elvis Presley
• Bye Bye Bye - *NSYNC (PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON’T RUIN THIS SONG!)
• Candyman - Christina Aguilera
• Chains Hang Low - Jibbs
• Celoso - Lele Pons
• Cruel Summer - Taylor Swift
• Dear Future Husband - Meghan Trainor
• Don’t Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
• Don’t Stop The Music - Rihanna
• Fever Dream - Alex Warren
• Girls Chase Boys - Ingrid Michaelson
• Good As Hell - Lizzo
• Good Life - OneRepublic
• Here’s To Never Growing Up - Avril Lavigne
• Higher Love - Kygo & Whitney Houston
• I Just Might - Bruno Mars
• Jam - Michael Jackson
• Late Stage - Erika Harlacher
• Never Say Never - Justin Bieber & Jaden Smith
• Pretty Girls - Britney Spears & Iggy Azalea
• Pumped Up Kicks - Foster The People
• Remember The Time - Michael Jackson
• RITMO - Black Eyed Peas & J Balvin
• Sally Walker - Iggy Azalea
• Say My Name - Destiny’s Child
• Say Say Say - Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson
• Shut Down - BLACKPINK
• Something About The Sunshine - Anna Margaret & Sterling Knight
• That’s My Girl - Fifth Harmony
• That’s What I Like - Bruno Mars
• This Love - Maroon 5
• Wait A Minute! - Willow Smith
• The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson
• We Found Love - Rihanna

That moment when you realize that Jermaine Jackson has a song outside of the Jacksons in the series, but not Michael Jackson, and that’s on top of realizing that by technicality, Jaafar Jackson can also be linked to the Just Dance franchise

Okay, hear me out. With Jaafar playing his uncle in the 2026 biopic, having mirrored the movements down to the smallest detail (I’m not even saying spoilers about the movie, but I tagged it here just to be safe), I could see the Just Dance team eventually reaching out to him for a possible collab. I know that’s a pipe dream, but it’d be cool to have; Camilla Cabello and Ava Max already did it previously, so I don’t see why not.

If there was ever a perfect time to consider this kind of collab, it’d be now. This could also easily kill two birds with one stone; Jaafar collabing with Just Dance for at least one Michael Jackson song (or one of his own if he wanted) would rectify the “no solo MJ songs in the series outside of his spinoff” problem and probably bring in a lot of people to actually buy the game because it turns out, anything MJ related will get people to shell out money faster than a blink of an eye (which is why I hope that it won’t be stuck in JD+ if it does happen; JD+ is hit or miss with some people).

The song “When The Rain Begins To Fall” was originally done by Pia Zadora and Jermaine Jackson, the latter being Jaafar’s dad. Since that song is in the mainline Just Dance series, by default, Jaafar has some association with the franchise already. If he were to personally collab with them at least once, this would make the whole thing come full circle.

With the MJ Experience game being a spinoff featuring Michael’s solo outings (and my guess being that he was also involved in the production before his death), Jermaine having been a part of Jackson 5 and having a song outside of them in Just Dance, Jaafar coming in to work with the Just Dance team would absolutely tie that bow together nicely.

Thanks for reading my weird ted talk post about the Jackson family’s involvement with Just Dance because I just had a thought 😅😂

I’m sitting here reworking my “Michael Jackson: The Experience” playlist since watching the Michael Jackson biopic last weekend, and I came to a sad realization: out of all the songs included in the Just Dance franchise, none of them includes a song with just him in it.

Before anyone points out that Michael Jackson: The Experience is also a spinoff, I know it’s a spinoff in the series, but he apparently requested that game some time before he died to be made, and saying that it should included into this conversation just feels like cheating. I’m talking about the spinoffs that aren’t just showcasing one artist’s best songs and whatnot, I’m talking about the spinoffs that have songs from a bunch of different artists compiled together. Think about it: is there a song from Michael Jackson that appears in the franchise that isn’t attached to the spinoff about him?

There’s a total of four songs that fit this description, half of which are in the mainline, half of which are part of other spinoffs, half of them being covers (in a sense), half of them being by Jackson 5/The Jacksons (or 3/4 of them depending on how you look it), the list goes on. Would you believe me if I said that among the four songs not in the Michael Jackson spinoff, none of them are by him? Would you believe me if I also said that multiple descriptions I gave fit some of the four songs in question?

The four songs that aren’t in the Michael Jackson spinoff are Ease On Down The Road, ABC, I Want You Back, and Blame it on the Boogie.

Blame it on the Boogie and ABC are covers (ABC is covered in Just Dance Kids while the version of Blame it on the Boogie we hear in Just Dance 2014 is a cover of the song originally by Mick Jackson done by Jackson 5). I Want You Back and Blame it on the Boogie are part of the mainline series (Just Dance 2 and the aforementioned Just Dance 2014 respectively; we’ll come back to this point later). ABC and Ease On Down The Road are part of other spinoffs (the aforementioned Just Dance Kids and Dance On Broadway respectively). Ease On Down The Road is the only non-Jackson 5 related song that is included in the whole franchise (as it is sung by Michael Jackson and Diana Ross).

Notice a pattern?

ABC is sung by Jackson 5. Ease On Down The Road is from the movie “The Wiz,” sung by Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. I Want You Back is also done by Jackson 5. Blame it on the Boogie is covered by The Jacksons (who are the same people as Jackson 5, they just renamed themselves). If we ignore the existence of Michael Jackson: The Experience and look at the other installments, the only time he seems to appear at all in an installment is if he’s attached to someone else. I wish I was joking about that.

I’m probably not the only one who wants a solo Michael Jackson song to make it to Just Dance, far from it, but I feel bad that I’m only now realizing that there’s never been a case of that anywhere (and again, before you say “the Michael Jackson spinoff has all his songs be solo,” I know that, but I think it’s a given considering that the spinoff is about him because it’d otherwise be false advertisement). We almost had it happen in Just Dance 2, as one of the scrapped songs from that game according to the Just Dance wiki was Smooth Criminal. With the exception of Perfume (as we have no knowledge of what the song is other than it being the file name), every single other scrapped song has made an appearance in a future installment, with Infernal Gallop having waited the longest with its inclusion in Just Dance 2020.

This means that unless there’s some process of getting approval from the Jackson Estate to use any of MJ’s solo songs that takes forever (because the MJ Experience spinoff had to be approved first by them), we’re either not getting a solo MJ song for a long time (or never depending on what happens to the series) or someone needs to tell the Just Dance team to start the process of getting the rights to add a solo Michael Jackson song to a future installment ASAP and give the a good reason why. I know there’s a bunch of songs we want added to the series (not all of which I understand why), but I’m just surprised we as a community never had a conversation about it before until now. With the booming success of the Michael Jackson biopic, the MJ fever has once again taken hold of music fans around the world, and I am not exception to this; I myself discovered MJ after he passed away via my older sister and want to talk about it with some folks.

PS: yes, I want the first solo MJ song added to be either Smooth Criminal or Billie Jean