HER daddy the King of Pop lay at her feet in the splendour of a golden casket festooned with red roses.
As the spotlight fell on Michael Jackson for the final time, it was his shy little daughter Paris who provided the poignant finale.
Like her two brothers, she often wore a veil when she ventured out with her eccentric father.
But last night the brave 11-year-old bit her lip and told the world how much she loved her dad.
Tears streaming down her face as she quivered with grief, the youngster declared at his stadium funeral: "Ever since I was born Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine."
Her voice faltering with emotion as the singer's coffin lay just feet away, she added: "And I just want to say I love him so much."
Glittering
Paris - cosseted by her father since birth - then collapsed into the arms of her aunt Janet after taking the microphone in front of 19,000 mourners. Many of those in the crowd sobbed with her.
It was a spectacle that pop's ultimate showman could have dreamt up himself.
The final show ... Jacko's golden casket was wheeled on to the Staples Center stage by pallbearers who included his brothers
Just moments earlier, Paris and her brothers - Prince, 12, and Blanket, seven - had taken to the stage for the climax of a memorial ceremony watched live on TV by a BILLION people around the world.
It began with his glittering coffin being taken into the vast Los Angeles arena by his brothers - each wearing a single jewelled glove.
Jacko's casket - borne to the venue in a motorcade with police outriders from a private family service - was greeted by a gospel choir singing: "Hallelujah, hallelujah, we're going to see the King."
Tens of thousands unable to get in after an internet lottery at the weekend for free tickets watched on giant screens outside the Staples Center - home to basketball giants the LA Lakers.
As word went round that Jacko's coffin would actually take centre stage, one woman fell to the ground screaming: "Oh my God, Michael's here. He's coming here." As his children watched, the £18,000 gold casket was solemnly placed yards from the very spot where he had rehearsed for his comeback shows at London's O2 - 48 hours before the heart attack that killed him.
Paris and her brothers sat with their gran Katherine Jackson, 79 - the boys chewing gum throughout the public celebration of their dad's life. Blanket, who dropped his programme on the way in, clutched a Michael Jackson doll.
I watched Jacko's farewell from seat two in row two of section PR5. In death as in life, it was a spectacle in parts brilliant, unpredictable, poignant and tacky. Pictures of a fresh-faced and bubble-permed little black boy from Gary, Indiana, flashed on to the screen behind Mariah Carey as she kicked things off by singing the Jackson 5 hit I'll Be There.
There were songs from legends Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and his brother Jermaine - as well as our very own Britain's Got Talent finalist Shaheen Jafargholi aged 12.
I entered the arena - where the celebrity red carpets had been replaced by black ones - after walking past street hawkers flogging hastily cobbled-together RIP Michael T-shirts.
Security, police overtime and crowd control cost the city £2.5million - and LA's mayor set up a website begging fans to chip in with cheques payable to "City of Los Angeles". Around me as I made my way into the stadium, mourners chanted in a whisper: "God bless Michael, King of Pop".
Adoring fans - strangers until yesterday - embraced each other in sorrow. While America's mourning for Jacko has not been universal - with one Republican senator branding him a "child molester" even though the star beat abuse charges - the grief at the Staples Center was total.
Shattered construction worker Craig Downey, 42, from Chicago, said: "This is bigger than Elvis, bigger than Diana.
"Apart from my mum dying, this is the saddest moment of my life."
In the row behind me, one blonde girl who looked no more than 15 sat slumped in tears, hugging her knees as she wailed: "Michael come back." Others yelled "See you in heaven" in the direction of his coffin. The memorial show's producer Ken Ehrlich had promised a restrained ceremony without "bells and whistles".
He said: "It will be a celebration of Michael's life, but we're not approaching it as a TV show. We want to keep it low-key."
Perfect
But this was very much a Hollywood production. Systems analyst Dale Andrews, 48, who lives in LA and managed to bag a ticket, said: "This is a perfect ending for Michael - a big show with everyone singing along. He would have wanted to go out this way."
She had been jubilant to win a coveted ticket - only to find she could not get a flight. So we whisked her out to LA. Catherine said after the memorial show: "The atmosphere was absolutely incredible.
"You could just see how much Michael Jackson meant to all these people. The people sitting either side of me were sobbing their hearts out.
"Almost everyone had a Michael Jackson T-shirt on or was carrying some sort of trinket.
"I was fighting back tears myself, especially when Paris paid tribute to her dad. Jermaine's rendition of Smile was incredibly moving. But for me the moment of the whole event was when Shaheen took to the stage. He was phenomenal, he made you feel proud to be British. It was like watching a young Michael on stage."
Stevie Wonder summed up the feeling of mourners as he told them: "This is a moment I wished I didn't live to see come. Michael I love you."
Outside London's O2 arena - where Jacko had been scheduled to make a 50-concert comeback starting next week - fans defied rain to watch the memorial live on a giant TV screen. Barrister Robert Anderson, 26, said: "His whole life was a global broadcast in a way. So I suppose it's fitting that his death also is." Fans also gathered at Berlin's O2 World arena.
The wildest applause in LA came at the very end as 50-year-old Jacko's coffin was finally taken away to be buried - the house lights bouncing off its golden curves.
As the tearful and the traumatised began filing out many made their way to Jacko's star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame.
Candles were lit among the wilting flowers that had been placed there. Jacko is wedged between Mexican-born actress Lupe Velez - who killed herself aged 36 - and alcohol-raddled Country singer Lefty Frizzell who died from a massive stroke at 47. Unlike Lefty and Lupe, there is no chance of the world forgetting Jacko in a hurry.
Whether this supremely gifted but tragically flawed man will be remembered for Thriller and Billie Jean or his bizarre lifestyle, only history will judge.
But however he is treated by posterity, the bravery of his little daughter will never be forgotten either.
RIP MJ
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