France has been experiencing a major wave of high-school student protests, with demonstrations and blockades spreading from the Paris region to schools across the country.
The movement has seen students take action over concerns surrounding education, including school conditions, resources, class sizes and the pressures facing young people in the French education system.
What started as school blockades has, in some places, escalated into clashes with police, fires and property damage. But alongside the more disturbing images coming out of France, there have also been many peaceful demonstrations, with students gathering outside their schools to make their voices heard.
And somewhere in the middle of all this, Michael Jackson unexpectedly became part of the story.
Sûnow Dances “Billie Jean” In Front Of Police
One of the videos now being shared among Michael Jackson fans shows a 16-year-old French student known as Sûnow.
During the blockade of Lycée Martin Luther King, a public high school in Bussy-Saint-Georges, Seine-et-Marne, Sûnow decided to do something rather different from the scenes of confrontation being seen elsewhere in France.
He started dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” in front of the police.
The contrast is striking.
With police officers standing nearby and the atmosphere surrounding many of the demonstrations becoming increasingly tense, a teenager performing one of Michael Jackson’s most famous dances created a remarkably peaceful and almost surreal moment.
There were no fires.
No confrontation.
No shouting match.
Just a 16-year-old boy dancing.
And, naturally, Michael Jackson.
The video quickly travelled beyond the original protest, with Michael Jackson fans picking it up and sharing it across social media.
Sûnow subsequently posted a video on his newly created TikTok account confirming that he was the teenager in the “Billie Jean” video and explaining that the unexpected attention had suddenly made him famous.
He has now said that he wants to become a content creator.
It is certainly an unexpected career opportunity to emerge from a school blockade!
We would, however, gently suggest that perhaps finishing school should remain somewhere on the agenda too.
And Then Came Rayan Jackson
As is often the case when something catches fire on social media, it did not take long before someone else decided to give it a try.
This time, the Michael Jackson moment came from Montpellier.
Another young student, Rayan Jackson, posted his own videos, having already established a social media presence around his love of Michael Jackson and his appearances dressed as the King of Pop.
He subsequently joined in with the phenomenon, bringing Michael Jackson’s music and choreography into the protest environment once again.
And that is perhaps the most interesting thing about these videos.
The French protests are serious. Students are making genuine complaints about their education and the conditions in which they are expected to study. Those concerns should not be confused with the violence and destruction that have occurred alongside parts of the movement.
But amongst the images of burning barricades, damaged buildings, police intervention and clashes, these two teenagers have created something completely different.
They have put music and dance in the middle of the chaos.
Michael Jackson And A Different Kind Of Protest
Michael Jackson’s music has always travelled far beyond the circumstances in which it was originally created.
For generations of fans, his songs and dances have provided a way of expressing themselves, celebrating together and, sometimes, simply having fun.
Seeing a teenager perform “Billie Jean” in front of police officers during a tense school blockade is therefore strangely fitting.
Michael often spoke about the power of music to bring people together.
And while nobody should pretend that a dance solves the very real problems being raised by French students, there is something refreshing about seeing a peaceful moment emerge from an otherwise i
