Jackson's daughter surprises crowd with tearful goodbye !!!

In a memorial to Michael Jackson on Tuesday that featured superstars Mariah Carey and Stevie Wonder, the moment that may be best Michael Jackson's daughter Paris Katherine becomes emotional as she speaks at a memorial service for music legend Michael Jackson, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles remembered came when his 11-year-old daughter Paris spoke a few heart-wrenching words and called him ‘Daddy”.

Paris was quietly ushered onstage with her brothers, Prince Michael, 12, and Prince Michael II, seven, as the nearly two-hour event wound down to the strains of Jackson's charity single "We Are the World," then appeared to catch even members of her family off guard by addressing the hushed crowd at Staples Center.

Embraced by her aunt, Janet Jackson, who held back her long brown hair and urged her to "speak up," Paris stepped to the microphone, tears streaming down her face, as some in the audience were already filtering out of the sports arena.

"I just want to say, ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine, and I just wanted to say I love him so much," Paris said, sobbing as she stood near his gold coffin.

To gasps from the throng of about 18,000 people, she then turned and buried her face in Janet Jackson's arms and was hugged by other family members, including her brother.

Coming at the end of a largely scripted tribute to Jackson that included such fiery orators as civil rights activist Al Sharpton, observers quickly predicted that Paris' simple, impromptu eulogy to her father would be long remembered.

"Nobody was prepared for that. That will be one of the iconic moments from today's service," said media historian Ron Simon, who compared it to the salute to slain President John F Kennedy by his son John during his 1963 funeral.

Paris and her brothers, Prince Michael Jr. and Prince Michael II, have rarely been seen in public, their faces typically shielded from photographers by masks or veils when they accompanied their famous father.

Jackson, who felt hounded by paparazzi, closely guarded his children's privacy. "This kid in an odd sort of way has been liberated," Syracuse University media scholar Robert Thompson said. "Literally, the veil has been dropped from her, and one gets the sense that this liberation will be a good thing. But then she opens her mouth and reminds us that she's lost her daddy."

Michael Jackson’s former wife of three years, Debbie Rowe, is the mother of the two eldest children, while the third also known as "Blanket" was born in 2002 to a surrogate whose identity has never been made public.

After being thrust into the spotlight from the age of five, Jackson went to extreme lengths to protect his children such as covering their faces in veils or masks whenever they were in public. And they had not been seen since his death on June 25 from an apparent cardiac arrest.

But the three children joined other members of the Jackson clan at the Los Angeles Staples Center ceremony on Tuesday, sitting between their grandparents Katherine and Joe Jackson just in front of the 14-karat gold casket bearing the body of their father.

At times Paris dissolved into tears as star after star spoke of Jackson's legacy to the world, while her youngest brother played with a Michael Jackson doll on his lap.

But she stood and applauded as Al Sharpton addressed the children directly and said fiercely: "There weren't nothing strange about your daddy."

"It was strange what your daddy had to deal with, but he dealt with it," Sharpton said, his voice rising in the rich cadence of a sermon.

Temporary custody of the children has so far been granted to their grandmother Katherine Jackson, in line with the terms of Jackson's will, which also names pop diva Diana Ross as a back-up guardian.

But Rowe, who signed away her parental rights to her two children in 2001, has vowed to fight for them in what could presage a bitter legal battle, even though they are believed to have had little contact over the years.

"I want my children," Debbie Rowe told NBC television's local network in Los Angeles last week, adding she was willing to submit to any testing, including DNA, to prove she was the biological mother of Prince Michael and Paris. Her lawyer Eric George later appeared to dial back on his client's comments, saying in a conference call no final decision had been made.

A custody hearing has now been set for Monday.