BY GLENN GAMBOA | glenn.gamboa@newsday.com

6:58 p.m. EDT, July 2, 2009
LOS ANGELES—
Michael Jackson looked good and sounded strong in a video from rehearsals, two days before his sudden death on June 25, which seemed to contradict the theory that the King of Pop was chronically ill and had been sickly for a while.

The video, released to CNN by AEG Live, the promoter behind Jackson's scheduled comeback tour at London's O2 Arena, does, however, seem to bolster the company's claim that it has hundreds of hours of material from tour rehearsals that could be used as a concert DVD and live album.

In the nearly two-minute video, Jackson performs a highly choreographed routine to the end of "They Don't Care About Us," arguably the most controversial hit of his career, with a troupe of eight dancers.

"They Don't Care About Us," from the 1995 hits collection "HIStory," raised protests when it was initially released over what many considered anti-Semitic slurs, charges Jackson denied as a misinterpretation of a song about tolerance. After the uproar, Jackson returned to the studio and exchanged the offending words for a new version of the song that was used on all subsequent pressings of "HIStory."