LISTEN: Justin Bieber and Michael Jackson are together at last on 'Slave to the Rhythm'

The weekend saw the leak of "Slave to the Rhythm," an unlikely collaboration between two pop icons: Justin Bieber, the current king of the teen-pop world, and Michael Jackson, who died in June of 2009 — nearly a month before Bieber's first single, "One Time," hit the pop music charts.

So how did the Biebs and Michael Jackson end up "collaborating" on a song more than four years after Jackson's death? "Slave to the Rhythm" was released posthumously in 2010 amid a flurry of other, higher-profile projects and tributes, so it received relatively little fanfare. Here's the original version:

YouTube

Watch On

But sometime over the past few years, the Biebs saw the potential in the song — and in a potentially lucrative collaboration with Jackson. Though the track hasn't been officially released, Bieber was already working to get fans hyped for it. On Friday and Saturday, Bieber used Twitter to express his admiration for Jackson:

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Given Bieber's obvious reverence for the pop star, it's disappointing that this remix doesn't have a little more impact. The original "Slave to the Rhythm" is by no means Michael Jackson's greatest song, but at least it sounds like a Jackson song. This remix scrubs the song of much of its personality in favor of a generic, club-ready techno beat. Dedicated Beliebers will undoubtedly eat it up, but it's unlikely to convert any Michael Jackson fans to Bieber's army.