For all of the over-the-top glitz that marked his career, the public memorial of Michael Jackson [ tickets ] on Tuesday (7/7) proved to be a fairly restrained affair--perhaps as restrained as could be managed for an event at a basketball arena, where the deceased lay on stage in a closed, golden casket.

The somber, two-hour-plus memorial included performances by Mariah Carey (who sang "I'll Be There" with backup singer Trey Lorenz), Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer (playing guitar during a mostly-instrumental version of "Human Nature") and Usher.

Jackson's brother Jermaine sang "Smile," a song written by Charlie Chaplin with lyricists James Phillips and Geoffrey Parsons. Actress Brooke Shields, a childhood friend of Michael, said in introducing Jermaine that the song was Micheal's favorite.

"There is a line [in the song] that says, 'Smile when your heart is aching,' " Shields said. "And though our hearts are aching, we need to look up, where [Michael] is undoubtedly perched in a crescent moon, and we need to smile."

The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered one of the more memorable (if debatable) lines during the memorial: "Wasn't nothin' strange about your daddy," he said, addressing Jackson's three children. "What was strange was what your daddy had to deal with."

Others giving eulogies to Jackson onstage at the Staples Center included basketball greats Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, and Smokey Robinson.

The musical performances ended with what was to be Jackson's London tour group taking the stage to perform "We Are the World" and "Heal the World."

Perhaps the most moving tribute to Jackson came after "Heal the World," when Jackson's daughter, Paris, 11, took the stage.

"I just want to say ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine," the tearful girl said. "And I just want to say I love him so much."

About 17,500 tickets to the memorial event were distributed by an online lottery, with 11,000 fans filling the Staples Center and the overflow watching the event via a live video feed across the street at the Nokia Theatre.

According to The Los Angeles Times, 3,200 L.A. Police officers were called to duty to man a private service for Jackson's family at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills and the public event at Staples Center. Some speculated that hundreds of thousands of people would flood into downtown L.A. for the event, but police estimated that only about 600 turned out.

Major freeways were shut down as Jackson's funeral procession traveled from Forest Lawn to the Staples Center.

Jackson died on June 25 after suffering cardiac arrest; toxicology reports that might explain the exact cause of death are pending.