I was supposed to do this thread a little earlier. I broke down MJ's sales #'s last week (slight correction: he sold 161m ww off studio albums but sold an additional 25m off compilations/soundtracks/video albums) but this thread is focused on the number of actual awards he won.

One reason that had me to debunk claims of numbers for MJ stats is because over the years, fans, Michael's label (Epic, not Motown) and his camp had pushed several lies (750m records sold never made sense from the jump and that Thriller 100m number? LOL) (2/?)

But the poster that had me to get back on dissecting everything MJ (and oddly enough it's the anniversary of his death) mentioned MJ won some crazy number: 858 awards.

Now that number looks plenty ridiculous from the jump (3/?)

First things first, we don't call Guinness World Records records, keys to the city, network countdowns and magazines (without actual awards) awards. It's pushing the limit and fans need to stop doing this. (4/?)

This is why it's not clear on the real awards that each big time singer from MJ to Whitney to Beyonce to Mariah to Celine to Madonna to Lady Gaga and so on actually won. And having researched Michael, he actually lost a long number of awards he was actually nominated for. (5/?)

Also, fans have the tendency to add awards won by groups that singer was a part of unto that star's total (MJ and Beyonce mainly). But with Michael, I can actually break down what award he won and what he didn't. (6/?)

Now back in 1995, Michael put out his HIStory album, a two-disc set that featured his classics on Disc 1 and newer songs on Disc 2. In the liner notes, he listed a number of awards and special honors he received up until that time. (7/?)

In the liner notes, he added J5 honors, one of which acknowledged a "Grammy" for Best Pop Song for 1971. Which is odd because when you check out the 1971 Grammys, the Jackson 5 only received one nomination that year for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance for "ABC". (8/?)

And they lost that Grammy - the only one they were actually nominated for - to the Carpenters, another popular family group (or duo in this case) of that era. Another myth exposed here: Carpenters sold double the albums the J5 sold in their heyday. (9/?)

Now maybe my memory banks are messy but I also saw Michael mention a 1972 "Grammy" for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocals for the J5. Or from NARAS. But there's no data of this award and the J5 weren't even nominated that year. (10/?)

And neither was Michael. Until the 1979 show (as opposed to the 1980 show that started his Grammy wins), none of Michael's songs were ever nominated for a pop or R&B Grammy. Motown and the Grammys never quite gel, neither did most contemporary music at that time. (11/?)

Until the Jackson 5's arrival, the only Motown act who won a Grammy was the Temptations. Other Motown acts such as the Supremes, Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas and Marvin Gaye had nominations but lost out to who NARAS thought was the best one. (12/?)

Most ex-Motown acts would later win Grammys however in the future. The Isley Brothers won theirs in 1970, followed by Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1974, while Marvin Gaye finally won his only two in 1983. (13/?)

Anyway, the real question is "what DID the Jackson 5 win? Did they at least get an American Music Award?" Nope. No nominations despite MJ co-hosting the first AMA show in 1974. (14/?)

"What did they win?" The NAACP Image Awards. In December 1970, they won the first of four Image Awards for Outstanding Duo or Group (then known as Best Singing Group), including three in a row up until 1972. As far as the major awards, that was all they got. (15/?)

"Not really impressive for a huge early '70s singles act," you might be saying. So to break it down, what other legit awards can we say they actually got? (16/?)

They had at least two honors. According to Michael's HIStory liner notes, in 1972, the bubblegum pop quintet received a special commendation from the United States Congress for being positive role models (I've still yet to find footage of them receiving this). (17/?)

The second honor was in 1974 when the Organization of African Unity gave them an honor for "strengthening Afro Americans". A year later, the Congressional Black Caucus named them "honorary members". Again, I'm not questioning these honors, I just want proof of 'em. (18/?)

Another question you might have, "did they receive another Grammy nod?" Yes they did: "Dancing Machine" in 1975 and for the "Triumph" album in 1981. All in the R&B vocal categories. Who was better than the Jacksons in those years? Rufus & Chaka Khan and the Manhattans! (19/?)

After 1981, the Jacksons would never receive another Grammy nod for as long as they live. Though at least three of their songs at least got inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame. And while that's a great honor, it doesn't beat actually winning a competitive Grammy. (20/?)

The other big awards the J5 would receive would be the 1980 Hollywood Walk of Fame star, the 1997 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a 1999 inclusion into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and the 2008 BMI Icons Award (infamous for Michael being a no-show). (21/?)

I don't recall if they ever got a Pioneer Award at the Rhythm & Blues Foundation but it doesn't seem like they did and as of 2020 have yet to be inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame though Michael and their father Joseph got honored. (22/?)

Now the real question: "when did Michael start winning awards for real?" Some will claim in 1973, he won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song contributing vocals to "Ben". But immediately you have to question the validity of the source. (23/?)

The confusing part is that in the actual Golden Globes site, they have a page for Michael where it says that "Ben" won the award but then again they do the same with Diana Ross and Barbra Streisand and neither wrote their GG-winning/nominated hits. Neither did MJ. (24/?)

According to what they say about receiving the GG for Best Original Song, you have to be a WRITER of the song. Period. Unless Michael was on stage receiving the Golden Globe Award, then he didn't win it. It would've been its writers Don Black and Walter Scharf (sp?) (25/?)

"Ben" was also nominated for an Academy Award in 1973. According to the nominee list, only Black and Scharf are listed. Not Michael. So therefore, there is no proof that Michael ever won a Golden Globe unless he got a certificate and that doesn't really count. (26/?)

In fact, it wouldn't be until January 1980 when Michael Jackson finally received the "big" music awards. The first of which was the American Music Awards, winning three for "Off the Wall" (all in the R&B categories). In 1981, he would win two similar awards. (27/?)

In February, he outdid his brothers even more by winning a Grammy for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance for "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough", this was when MJ got fed up of being seen as simply an R&B singer. (28/?)

MJ's American Music Awards wins were pretty large. To this day, he continues to hold the record for most wins by a male with 24, including four special honors (Award of Merit, Award of Achievement, Special International Artist and, dubiously, Artist of the Century). (29/?)

However, before recent edits, Michael was listed with two other awards: the Award of Appreciation and the more dubious Song of the Year trophy but HOLD UP, on the official AMA site, those two awards are not listed in his tally. Wait what gives? (30/?)

In 1985-86, the song "We Are the World" was starting to receive honor after honor for its success as a single and for helping Ethiopia famine relief. At the AMAs, Jackson was present when Diana Ross called him, Lionel Richie and other singers onstage to sing the song. (31/?)

What strikes as odd is as Jackson headed to the stage, he was given a GOLDEN AMA and held it up. There wasn't much talk about it. Soon after holding it up, Diana rushed into leading the audience into singing WATW. What was that award he was holding up? (32/?)

Come to find out, the award wasn't actually an individual JACKSON award but an award for We Are the World itself for Award of Appreciation. Meaning it was shared with co-writer Lionel Richie, and possibly Quincy Jones. (33/?)

Earlier that night, however, the AMAs actually gave out individual Award of Appreciation trophies to three men: Willie Nelson, Bob Geldof (whose Band Aid inspired Live Aid and who also sung on WATW) and Harry Belafonte, the man mostly responsible for WATW at all. (34/?)

So this explains why the "special AMA" is not seen as an actual MJ award and for fans (and the people of GWR) to include that song and the more mysterious "Song of the Year" AMA is not doing the AMA justice. FTR, Taylor Swift currently holds the all-time AMA record at 29. (35/?)

Unfortunately for Jackson, the Grammys didn't give out special awards like that. Between 1980 and 1996, Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards and was nominated for 35 of them. Of course, people know of the legendary 1984 Grammy sweep of 8 (7 alone for "Thriller"). (36/?)

He would eventually receive the Grammy Legend Award in 1993 and the Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 2010. In the 1986 ceremony, We Are the World received 4 Grammy nominations, winning three, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. (37/?)

But here's something funny: Michael Jackson wouldn't receive an individual award for either Record of the Year or the other award, Best Pop Vocal Group. Instead, the only Grammy he actually won that night was Song of the Year with Lionel Richie. (38/?)

Now you may be asking, "Michael Jackson didn't win Record of the Year? Didn't he produce WATW?" Would you be surprised if I told you the answer to that was no? (39/?)

Another question you might ask: "well didn't he contribute vocals? They usually give it to a singer." But see, here's the thing: Record of the Year only goes to the producers and individual performers. (40/?)

Since WATW was a charity single and he had to share with 44 other singers, I doubt they all received such a Grammy so in this instance, Quincy Jones, the producer, became the sole recipient. And this is why he's not credited for ROTY. (41/?)

By the way, both Jones and Stevie Wonder dwarf him in the Grammy wins department. Quincy, to my knowledge, has over 25 and Stevie over 20. (42/?)

So far, Michael has received 24 American Music Awards and 15 Grammys (including the lifetime honors). So far so good. Let's break down what can be a controversial topic: the Billboard Awards. (43/?)

Going back over Michael's HIStory liner notes, MJ included Year-End rankings on Billboard dating as far back as 1972 up until the late 1980s (IIRC). (44/?)

Here's where it gets tricky: in 1990, Billboard announced its first-ever awards show, the first that would be televised and be like all the major awards shows. Meaning anything before 1990 suddenly doesn't sound much like an actual award. (45/?)

Before the Billboard Music Awards, the Year-End Billboard charts used to post an annual Billboard Number One Awards/Trendsetter Awards (Trendsetter was taken off in the 70s). According to its magazine, MJ at least held 32 year-end honors until 1988. (46/?)

However, when the actual Billboard Music Awards debuted in 1990, MJ was nowhere to be found. In fact, it wouldn't take until 1992 when he would receive a nomination, this one for Top R&B Artist. Did he win? No, Jodeci beat him. (47/?)

So did he win ANYTHING from the actual Billboard Awards? Yes. But there were ALL special honors. This includes the 1992 awards for No. 1 World Single ("Black or White") and No. 1 World Album ("Dangerous"), another for the success of "Thriller"... (48/?)

And two others. Even in 1992, when Billboard's year-end ranking had him topping the Hot 100 list as a male artist, he loses the Billboard Music Award for the pop awards they named that year, doesn't even get a nomination. (49/?)

This leads to the MTV Video Music Awards. For a man who helped to redefine music videos, probably the most shocking thing about this is how many MTV VMAs MJ actually won. (50/?)

Some like to include the number of nominations since the wins itself weren't that much. For the record, discount the 1985 VMAs for We Are the World: it didn't go to him either. (51/?)

Here were the ones MJ actually won:
Best Concept of a Video (Thriller)
Viewer's Choice (Thriller)
Best Choreography (Thriller; shared with Michael Peters)
Best Dance Video (Scream)

(52/?)

Yes. That's it. As an individual, Michael Joseph Jackson only receive four VMAs and not Video of the Year. Who beat him in 1984? A Cars video. Yes seriously. (53/?)

Smooth Criminal and Leave Me Alone earned nominations and Scream won 2 other awards (Best Art Direction and Best Choreography) but neither of those awards went to either Michael or Janet. Leave Me Alone won Special Effects but that went to Jim Blashfield. (54/?)

"But what about Best Group Video and Viewer's Choice for WATW?" Not even in MTV's Wayback portion of its VMA page did they list them as MJ's awards. In fact, the MTV site only credited 8 awards, yet four of them didn't go to him. (55/?)

This revelation surely exposes that these artists didn't win all the VMAs their videos won. For the record, Beyonce holds the record as an INDIVIDUAL with 12. Madonna is right behind her with 8. Sister Janet ties with her brother with four competitive awards. (56/?)

Michael received the Video Vanguard Award in 1988, his honorary "fifth" VMA, though the VMAs had given out Video Vanguard honors since its inaugural year. (57/?)

Who were the other honorees before MJ, you ask?

1984: The Beatles, Richard Lester, David Bowie
1985: David Byrne, Russell Mulcahy, Godley & Creme
1986: Madonna, Zbigniew Rybczyński
1987: Peter Gabriel

Michael was the tenth recipient...and the fifth individual artist to receive the VVA, which was later renamed in 1991 to the MJ VVA because MJ was still mad with MTV for giving an award to Madonna as their "Artist of the Decade" in 1989. (59/?)

Anyway, so far, we have:
24 American Music Awards (4 honors)
15 Grammys (2 honors)
5 Billboard Music Awards (all honors)
5 MTV Video Music Awards (1 honor)

This brings a total so far to 49 awards (37 awards in competition). (60/?)

Something that has become a pop quiz question of sorts: "did Michael Jackson win an Emmy?" Answer? No.

He did win two Emmy nominations, yes. One for the Motown 25 "moonwalk" performance of 1983 and the other for singing (I guess) "You Were There" for Sammy Davis Jr. (61/?)

It's hard to find out the nominations of who won and these awards were part of the Creative Arts Emmys (a major award still because it's THE EMMYS dammit) but apparently the Emmy committee was not too impressed to give it to a glittering pop star. (62/?)

One pop legend that WOULD benefit from winning an Emmy around this time? This woman. (63/?)

Another major awards show is of course the NAACP Image Awards. As mentioned before, Michael as a member of the Jackson 5 received four group awards. So what competitive NAACP Image Awards did Michael win in all? (64/?)

You'll be shocked.

1979: Outstanding Male Actor ("The Wiz")
1988: Best Male Artist
1988: Best Album ("Bad")
1993: Outstanding Music Video ("Black or White")
2002: Outstanding Music Video ("You Rock...")
2002: Outstanding Variety Special (30th)
2002: Outstanding Performance/Var.

Just 7 awards. And no competitive 1983 award for "Thriller". Instead, that year, they gave him and Quincy Jones the "Entertainer of the Decade" honor, a little ridiculous since it was given out in NINETEEN EIGHTY THREE... (66/?)

Besides that "special honor", Jackson would receive two more awards: 1988's Leonard Carter Humanitarian Award (one of his first "humanitarian awards" btw) and 1993's Entertainer of the Year (contrary to popular belief, Whitney Houston won EOTY for 1994's show). (67/?)

If you were to include the Jackson 5's four competitive wins, that would bring the total to 11 but since I know better, I didn't include them. Though fans always do it. As Chris Rock would say, "shit's big but don't make it bigger than it is." (68/?)

Now we're up to 59 major awards. Let's break down some other major awards before we get into those...others. The People's Choice Awards would seem like a very special award for MJ. Kinda seems tailor made especially for his era. Did he win big there? Sorta. (69/?)

In 1984, Jackson would win two that year, incl. Best All Round Entertainer of the Year. But afterwards, not much. We see a 1986 award for Song of the Year for We Are the World (which is where fans tallying the AMAs may have messed up) and a 1989 one for Smooth Criminal. (70/?)

However, he would only get nominated two more times and lose (1989 and 1996) without getting any nominations in 1992 or 1993. So that's all he ever won there: four. And now we're up to 63. Up next: SOOOOOOOUL TRAIN! (71/?)

In 1988, a no-show Michael would be nominated for several ST Music Awards, winning two including Best Single, Male and Best Album of the Year, Male. I have no idea if he accepted these via satellite or did the presenter say he accepted it in his honor or what. (72/?)

A year later, MJ would actually show up, but not for any nominations, in particular. He was there to receive not one but TWO glittery honors for his career. I know about one special honor but two on the same night? More on that later. (73/?)

The 1989 Soul Train Music Awards was notable for two reasons: one was where Whitney Houston was booed for no damn reason when her name was called for an award (she lost), two, Bobby Brown performed right after and that's when they met. Three, TWO AWARDS TO MICHAEL?! (74/?)

First, let's get this out of the way: MJ won two STMA's for Man in the Mirror, bringing his competitive wins to four. Now let's move on to why Michael receive these two special awards in just one night:
Sammy Davis Jr. Entertainer of the Year
Heritage Award (75/?)

Michael had two people giving him those awards. One was presented to MJ by Eddie Murphy and the other to Elizabeth Taylor (I know, "LIZ TAYLOR ON SOUL TRAIN?!") (76/?)

Now MJ winning the Entertainer of the Year trophy was probably accurate since MJ had a big year in 1988 despite "Bad" selling much less than Thriller. But the second one was probably where it started the process of him being called "King of Pop".

In March of 1989, there was another awards show called the Black Radio Exclusive Awards and they often gave out awards to artists who were successful on black radio. That year, MJ was to receive a special honor from them called the Triple Crown Award. (77/?)

Quincy Jones was the presenter of this award to MJ. Jackson had won a previous award in 1983 and was nominated for Best Music Video which he won (odd choice for a RADIO award but okay). (78/?)

Before giving the speech, Bob Jones had the speech altered to have Quincy calling MJ "the king of pop, rock and soul". Instead, Q, who had rehearsed the original script, said "in honor of Michael Jackson for his achievements in pop, rock and soul." MJ wasn't pleased. (79/?)

So a month later at the STMA's, Jones and Jackson invited Liz Taylor who went along with the script and named him the "king of pop, rock and soul" before Jackson received the Heritage Award. Ridiculous. (80/?)

Anyway, after the adulation in 1989, Jackson wouldn't return until 1993 where MJ got them to give them an award that only he would get: the dubious "Humanitarian of the Year". To say this man was braggadocious about his humanitarianism is an understatement. (81/?)

This is the show where Jackson claimed he twisted his ankle and had to use a crutch, the show where he lipsynch "Remember the Time", and the one where he received two more competitive STMAs. (82/?)

Less than two years later, MJ took to the stage in November 1995 to perform on the "Soul Train 25th Anniversary Hall of Fame". There, he received a "Hall of Fame" honor alongside Diana Ross, Patti LaBelle, Barry White, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. Not a bad list lol (83/?)

He wouldn't win anymore competitive awards while living. 1993 seemed like the beginning of the end. Despite some nominations afterwards (3 after 1993), he would lose out to other artists. In 2009, after his death, Soul Train gave him the posthumous "Entertainer of the Year" honor

So where does that leave his Soul Train total? Excluding the Hall of Fame honor (which 1995 was the only year they gave 'em out), Michael won a whopping...6.

Yeah, just six. And three honors. Two on the same night. Jesus, they had to get him there, huh?! (84/?)