Paul Rizzo is the world’s number 1 Michael Jackson tribute artist. He is the 3-time undefeated Michael Jackson Dance Off Champion and a 4-time undefeated competitive winner.

It wasn’t until 1995 at age 13 and he saw a video of Michael Jackson’s performance of Billie Jean from Motown 25 from 1983 that the Jackson fandom began. It was here Paul decided to attempt some of Jackson’s dance moves in what would end up paving his entire career for the rest of his life. His first professional performance was on July 13, 1996 and Paul still remembers the first 10-15 seconds of the first song.

“There was 147 people in the audience which may as well have been 147,000 to me at that age. As soon as the music started I remember feeling awkward, scared, excited, nervous, embarrassed, pumped and thrilled all at the same time and then, at age 14, my life crystallized and I decided THIS was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So I did. But I’m always going to be a Michael Jackson fan FIRST, tribute artist second.”

From then on he had tunnel vision. By 2002 the years of trial and error paid off when he was named in the world’s top 5 Jackson tributes by America’s BET (Black Entertainment Television) before attaining the top position.

However, the real turning point was in 2003 when he entered into the Ultimate Michael Jackson Dance Off at Crown Casino Melbourne. This was a contest to find the best MJ dancer/tribute available and was open to anyone from anywhere in the world. This was Dance Off number 2 as Paul had not heard about the first one.

But he entered the heat and got through, then the final and got through, so it ended up coming down to Paul and the winner of the first comp the year before. They competed side by side and Paul was declared the winner by the judges.

This began his winning streak. Over the years he won 3 of these MJ Dance Off contests on a row then retired from competition. This was until 2017 where he would compete one last time in the Follow Your Dreams dance competition just to see if he “still had it”. He won again.

Since then he has performed internationally in various regions including all of Australia where he and his dance team have headlined their own standalone shows as well as numerous corporate events.

This has extended internationally to New Zealand including a very interesting public performance at Franz Josef glacier. They were the only entertainment at the Fireworks Festival in Taiwan. Co-headlined the world record breaking fireworks display in Dubai on New Year’s Eve. Paul performed solo to rave reviews at a Michael Jackson fan convention at Alexis Park Resort in Las Vegas organised by MJSUNIFC. He has been acknowledged by some in Michael Jackson’s world such as Jennifer Batten, La Toya Jackson, Orianthi Panagaris, LaVelle Smith Jr and Tommy Organ to name a few.

He was also acknowledged by Michael Jackson himself in 2003:

“I appreciate what you do. You pick up on the little things that all the others seem to miss.