Michael Jackson’s New Single Premieres at iHeartRadio Music Awards

Michael Jackson in London, 2009
Photo Credit: Rune Hellestad/Corbis

Michael Jackson’s new single “Love Never Felt So Good” debuted last night during the first ever iHeartRadio Music Awards, which aired at 8 p.m. on NBC, according to a tweet from iHeartRadio.

The tweet also promised the performance would feature a “special guest,” which was rumored to be Justin Timberlake, who had posted a photo to Instagram  of the single’s cover art, which lists Jackson and himself as the song’s artists.

Jackson’s original demo of “Love Never Felt So Good,” was written in 1983 and Johnny Mathis recorded a version of the song in 1984. “Love Never Felt So Good” is one of eight cuts set to appear on Jackson’s posthumous album, Xscape, which sees release on May 27th.

To compile the album, executive producer, L.A. Reid (who also serves as chairman and CEO of Epic Records) scoured four decades’ worth of music in the Jackson estate vault, looking for songs with completed vocal tracks that he then handed off to a variety of producers to give them a “fresh, contemporary” sound. Timbaland acted as the album’s lead producer, while other producers include Stargate, Jerome “Jroc” Harmon, John McClain and Rodney Jerkins (who worked on the original version of the title track, “Xscape,” with Jackson). A deluxe edition of the album will also include the original versions of each song.

Watch Usher assist on the new Michael Jackson single: