An Argentinian performer who has undergone more than 11 surgeries since the age of 15 in a bid to look like Michael Jackson has shared striking before-and-after photos that show just how dramatic his transformation has been.
Leo Blanco, a Buenos Aires-based tribute act, has dedicated his life to emulating the King of Pop both on stage and in appearance. His recent social media posts showing childhood and pre-surgery photos have gone viral, with fans stunned at how different he once looked compared to the eerily convincing Jackson lookalike he has become.
Blanco's surgical journey began at 15, driven by what he describes as a deep emotional and artistic connection to Jackson that went far beyond admiration. He has had four rhinoplasty surgeries, two otoplasty procedures to reshape his ears, three rounds of liposuction, and multiple hyaluronic acid and botox applications to exaggerate his cheekbones, among other procedures.
Speaking to Barcroft TV, Blanco explained the mindset behind his transformation in vivid terms. "Michael Jackson is much more than an artist for me," he said. "I watched Michael constantly, I listened to him, I felt him. I felt his essence, so this way or the other I absorbed his way of expression, his aesthetic preferences, and it was very painful for me to look different than him."
He described his own body as something to be shaped and moulded, comparing the impulse to a graffiti artist looking at a blank wall. "I like to think that I am a paste, something that I can mould, something that I can decide about," he said. "I feel that the body is a container and I can modify it in an artistic way."
In a 2019 interview he admitted that cosmetic procedures have a compulsive quality to them. "It's impossible to have just one or two surgeries done," he said. "You want more and more." He added at the time that there were "no limits" to how far he would go.
The before photos he recently shared on social media came with candid captions. One, posted alongside a childhood picture, read: "Happy day to my inner child. Never forget that we are all or were children." Another showed him a decade younger with the caption: "I am so embarrassed, but here I am 10 years younger."
Blanco continues to perform as Jackson professionally, with his most recent announcement promoting the Michael Jackson Live Experience at the Canning Theatre in Argentina, billed as "a monumental show celebrating the universe of the King of Pop."
Jackson himself died in 2009 aged 50, and his legacy remains contested. A new Channel 4 documentary, Michael Jackson: The Trial, is set to revisit the 2005 criminal trial in which he was acquitted of all charges, as well as the wider allegations that defined the later years of his career.
