In March, Michael Jackson called a news conference to announce what would have been his swan song as a touring artist: the 50-date concert series at London’s O2 Arena, “This Is It”. “These will be my final show performances ... in London,” said Jackson before a throng of screaming fans in what would be his final public appearance. “This is it! When I say this is it, it really means this is it!” He laughed.

With the singer’s untimely death, that title has taken on a grave alternate meaning. And now with the release of the documentary Michael Jackson’s This Is It on October 28, as well as a new song titled This Is It that was leaked earlier this month, that terse, three-word title is more front-of-mind than ever.

But according to Jackson’s closest collaborators in the last months of his life—Kenny Ortega, director of both the “This Is It” concerts and movie, and Travis Payne, associate director/choreographer of “This Is It”—the moniker came to mean a number of different things throughout the development of what would have been Jackson’s return to performing after a 12-year touring absence.

Ortega recalled Jackson reaching out to him in March to enlist his directing services for the comeback concerts. Ortega told the Los Angeles Times last week, “I’ll never forget, he said, ‘This is it!’ And I said, ‘OK.’ He said, ‘This is it’ two or three times. And I said, ‘You should call the show that.’ ”

According to Ortega, a confluence of personal reasons compelled the superstar to make such an extended return engagement to the limelight. “He started saying, ‘Kenny, my kids are so fascinated with what I’ve been doing my whole life, they’re like super fans. So I want to share with my children now that they’re old enough to appreciate it and I’m still young enough to do it,’ ” Ortega said. He recalled Jackson as saying: “ ‘I want to do it for my fans, the greatest fans in the world. Then there are the messages in my songs. Some of the ones I wrote 10 years ago are more meaningful today.’ He said, ‘This is the time now.’ ”

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