''This is a moment that I wished I didn't live to see,'' Stevie Wonder offered before his performance of Never Let You Leave in Summer. Usher cried after singing Gone Too Soon.

Queen Latifah read a poem composed by Maya Angelou:

Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing

now that our bright and shining star

can slip away from our fingertips

like a puff of summer wind.

STIRRING REFLECTION

The tribute was also a public forum for friends to defend Jackson's life, defined as much by tabloid scandal as astonishing success.

Motown music mogul Berry Gordy Jr. said that despite ''some sad times and maybe some questionable decisions,'' the title King of Pop was inadequate for Jackson. ''I think he is simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived,'' he said.

In an impassioned eulogy, Sharpton listed the challenges Jackson rose above. ''Every time he got knocked down, he got back up,'' Sharpton said, as the crowd roared.

Then, turning to Jackson's children, he said: ``There wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with.''

Late in the program, Jackson's daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11, spoke publicly for the first time.

''Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine,'' she said, crumbling into tears and leaning into her aunt Janet. ``And I just wanted to say I love him -- so much.''

PAYING RESPECTS

After Jackson's death at 50 -- just 18 days shy of his first comeback concert in London -- the days were filled with mourning, tributes, a custody battle, legal wrangling, a police death investigation and a last-minute lottery for tickets to Tuesday's memorial, drawing more than 1.6 million people registrations.

A total of 8,750 were chosen -- the odds were 1-in-183 -- to receive two tickets each.

The day began with a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, but it is unclear if Jackson will be buried there.

The cemetery is the final resting place for such stars as Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Andy Gibb, Freddie Prinze, Liberace, David Carradine, Ed McMahon and Jackson's own grandmother.

Fort Lauderdale's Pulp Live nightclub -- owned by huge Jackson fan Alfonso Brooks -- opened its doors at 11 a.m. to stage its own memorial music and video tribute.

By early afternoon, only a few people had trickled in.

Brooks vowed to keep the doors open.

''He was the greatest entertainer in the world,'' Brooks said of Jackson. ``And he will be missed.''

Miami Herald staff writers Vytenis Didziulis and Michael Vasquez, along with wire services, contributed to this report.

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