Music

Just Janet: Newly single and always sizzling, the youngest Jackson is back in control

Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson

Her name's not "baby." It's Janet. Miss Jackson if you're ... anybody?

Janet Jackson's breathy soprano, catchy tunes and envelope-pushing songs and videos have led to her being called the Queen of Pop, just as late brother Michael was referred to as the King. She's said to have influenced a host of those who came behind her, from Britney to Beyonce. She's known for infectious dance numbers, beautiful ballads, strong anthems and over-the-top ear porn.

Janet Jackson State of the World Tour

8 p.m. Saturday, Verizon Arena, North Little Rock

Tickets: $39.90-$125

(800) 745-3000

ticketmaster.com

The baby of the legendary Jackson family, we of a certain age first saw on her family's show The Jacksons, then as cute, abused little Penny on the 1970s hit TV show Good Times. But she grew up to launch a music career that has earned her multiple Grammy awards (and numerous awards from other sources) as well as multiple chart-topping albums. In 2015, her 11th album Unbreakable debuted at No. 1. It was, in fact, her seventh No. 1 album, making her only the third artist (behind Barbra Streisand and Madonna) to beget No. 1 albums in each of the last four decades, according to Billboard.com.

Jackson's 56-city tour began Thursday, in the Cajundome at Lafayette, La., and brings her here Saturday. Her appearance has been a long time coming: She last performed at Verizon on Sept. 21, 2001. In 2016, she called off her Unbreakable tour shortly before a scheduled stop at Verizon Arena. She and husband Wissam Al Mana, who married in 2012, wanted to work on starting a family, she announced. This January, the couple said hello to their son, Eissa -- then said goodbye to their marriage.

Now that she's back on tour, the gossip headlines are rolling again. "Unleashed Janet Jackson Ready to Ditch Burka for Twerking," according to the headline of a Radar Online article that promised that the show would be as "'nasty' as possible to get back at her 42-year-old soon-to-be ex!'' Trumpeted Celebrity Insider: "Janet Jackson Will Flaunt Post-Baby Body During 'State of the World' Tour."

The word from Verizon Arena officials is more diplomatic: The concert "will include fan favorites from ... Unbreakable ... , an array of her socially conscious music she's released throughout her career, and other smash hits and soon-to-be released new tracks with a state-of-the-art-live production."

Those of us who just couldn't seem to get the romance thing right would say, "Well, look at Janet." Her romances include a youthful marriage to James DeBarge, a marriage that to this day is said to have produced an unannounced offspring. Her secret marriage to Rene Elizondo Jr. Her longtime relationship with Jermaine Dupri. And then her short marriage to Al Mana, a Qatari billionaire.

Said romances/marriages, along with some well publicized weight swings, are among her very few failures. She, not Justin Timberlake, was the one who took the hit for the "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in February 2004. The incident dogged her for quite a while and reportedly affected her subsequent Damita Jo album. But she finally shook the dust of that scandal.

Jackson has indeed racked up a reputation for music that has often been, well, nasty. But even at her most R-rated, Jackson somehow manages to exude a regal persona and seems almost ladylike. It's a persona whose message seems to have been "I'm really above all this, but y'know, I gotta give my fans what they want."

For Jackson, it all started with her third album, 1986's Control, a follow-up to two fairly forgettable albums. Steered by the Midas-touch production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Control was a coming-of-age declaration of independence, a hint of things to come, and produced multiple hits including "What Have You Done for Me Lately," "Pleasure Principle," "Nasty" and "When I Think of You." Who didn't want the big hair and precision dance moves in "What Have You Done for Me Lately," where neck-rolling, padded-shoulder-hunching Janet sang her disgust with a slacking boyfriend and had that kick-rear footwork duo with then-Rudy Houston (who has since transitioned to Lana Houston)? Control went on to be listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 200 Definitive Albums of All Time, according to a Billboard.com. article, "50 Incredible Things Janet Jackson Achieved Before Her 50th Birthday." Jackson is now 51.

Jackson's dance moves only got better as her career progressed; they were comparable to those of Michael. And we wished producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis would come fix our lives.

We also wanted to don the uniformed costumes and copy the even sharper dance moves in "Rhythm Nation," from the 1989 Rhythm Nation 1814 album. That album yielded hits like feel-good "Escapade," "Love Will Never Do (Without You)," which came with an award-winning video featuring a visually stunning landscape and the easy-on-the-eyes hunks Djimon Hounsou and Antonio Sabato Jr. Actually, Janet was pretty good at recruiting hunks for her videos; remember the disappointed swain (Taimak Guarriello) in "Let's Wait Awhile?" And Elizondo in "Come Back to Me?" And Gary Dourdan in "Again"?

Speaking of "Again," Jackson went straight-up sex symbol on her fifth album, Janet (1993), which featured the cut. Elizondo's hands are all that's keeping her from being topless on the album cover. She added variety to her music with collaborations that included opera singer Kathleen Battle on the rock-tinged tell-him-off ditty "This Time." The album yielded six top-10 hits including the "That's the Way Love Goes"; "If," the guilty-pleasure dance number in which she delivered explicit lyrics in a deep monotone in a provocative video; and the "Anytime, Anyplace" song and video. In that album she combined beautiful music and lyrics you didn't want your mother or pastor to know you were listening to.

The Velvet Rope (1997), her sixth album, with songs and videos even more eye-hiding and ear-covering for the conservative and the squeamish, went triple platinum and had themes that helped gain Jackson popularity in the LBTG community. It included hits "Got Til It's Gone" and "I Get Lonely" along with a beautiful title cut, featuring a mean guitar solo and electronic bells tolling out the theme music to, of all movies, The Exorcist.

Jackson is known as much for her big- and small-screen appearances as she is her singing. In addition to Good Times, her credits include Poetic Justice, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Why Did I Get Married?, Why Did I Get Married Too and For Colored Girls. Other TV credits include Fame, Diff'rent Strokes, The Love Boat, Saturday Night Live and Will & Grace. Along the way, she racked up additional albums: All for You (2001), Damita Jo (2004), 20 Y.O. (2006) and Discipline (2008).

Unbreakable, a reunion between Jackson and the Jam/Lewis team, was released by her own company Rhythm Nation, and referred to as a comeback for the singer. Accompanied by several videos of a more modestly dressed Jackson, the album got nods for its musical diversity -- the midtempo, sublime, shout-out-to-fans title cut; the fast-tempo, dancey gut-punch "Burnitup!" featuring Missy Elliott; the sensuous, also midtempo "No Sleeep." YouTube video fans raved about how she was able to "slay" with her clothes on. The album was also noted for being message-laden: clapbacks to haters, issues making the headlines, the nod to Michael.

So which Janet will show up Saturday? Cute and sweet Janet, sex-vixen-on-steroids Janet, as promised by Radar Online and Celebrity Insider? Modestly-clothed Janet? Socially conscious Janet, as promised by Verizon Arena?

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Janet Jackson shown performing in Little Rock in 2001

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AP Photo/Elise Amendola, Files

File photo showing Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII

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Janet Jackson plays Denise Gaines, fiancee of professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) in the 2000 movie Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.

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Album cover for Janet Jackson's "Unbreakable"

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Album cover for Janet Jackson's "Damita Jo"

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Album cover for Janet Jackson's "No Sleeep"

Whether it's all of the above, some of the above or just one incarnation, Miss Jackson's fans are not likely to mind.

Style on 09/12/2017

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