Ciara is broken-hearted by the tragic death of her idol Michael Jackson - because she had struck up a friendship with the late pop superstar years before.

The King Of Pop passed away last month (25Jun09) after suffering a cardiac arrest, leaving the Goodies hitmaker in mourning.Michael Jackson had approached Ciara about appearing on a planned charity record to benefit the victims of 2005's Hurricane Katrina - and she was stunned to receive a personal call from the Thriller hitmaker.Ciara says, I was at Whitney Houston's house for a Super Bowl night about two years ago and I met Janet Jackson. I even had a conversation with Michael Jackson - he wanted me to be part of the Hurricane Katrina charity song which he was doing.I was like, 'Of course!' And he called me and that was really cool. I was like, 'This is so surreal'.