Fans around the world have gathered at arenas and record stores, big screens and makeshift shrines, to watch the memorial service of Michael Jackson and pay homage to their idol. An eerily similar Michael Jackson impersonator performs for devotees in China Tuesday.As thousands of fans joined Jackson’s family and closest friends at Los Angeles Staples Center arena, millions more followed proceedings on television and online.

In Germany, at least 8,000 Jackson fans watched events in Los Angeles unfold at a Trauerfeier,” (translated as Sadness Party) at Berlin’s O2 World arena, reported CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen. Pleitgen said that fans began arriving at least three hours before the event was due to begin. “He [Jackson] connects races, religions and ages,” said one fan, “his music connects the world.”Many fans were moved to tears when Jackson’s daughter Paris Katherine wept as she called the singer “the best father you could ever imagine.” Pleitgen added: “A lot of people got very wet eyes.”Hundreds of British fans in London braved torrential rain to watch a giant screen outside the city’s O2 Arena, where Jackson was scheduled to play a series of 50 concerts from July 13. Many more fans are expected to converge on the venue next Monday to mark what would have been the first of his concert dates.

“I am still in denial,” said Jenny Keme, 21, among the crowd braving the storm. “We’re going to stay here to the end of the ceremony even though it’s pouring. He had such a gentle soul, that’s what I love most about him.”Celeste Dixon, 28, added: “He is the King of Pop, not was. No one will ever be worthy of him, he is bigger than life. Without Michael Jackson breaking barriers, Barack Obama would never have made it.”
Elsewhere in London the cast of musical “Thriller- Live” paid their own tribute during the evening performance at the Lyric Theatre, with cast, crew and audience observing a minute’s silence. “Many of them were in tears during it.”