Celebrity Arc

Name: Janet Jackson

Birth Name: Janet Damita Jo Jackson

Height: 5′ 4″

Nationality: American

Birth Date: May 16, 1966

Birth Place: Gary, Indiana, USA

Profession: actress, musician

Janet Jackson was born on May 16, 1966 into a well known musical family. She was the youngest of nine children. Janet, not wanting to grow up in the shadow of her siblings, got some help from creative and professional advisors outside the family. Janet was seen as the pop funk diva of the late Eighties and early Nineties. Janet’s live performances revealed a crisp, athletic dance technique not unlike her brother’s. Singing wasn’t the point. Janet’s beats, and impeccable production values were perfectly suited together, and through her music she reveled her social and sexual independence.

In 1976 Janet made her first appearence on the popular sitcoms Good Times and Diff’rent Strokes. In 1982, her career took a turn when she secured a contract with A&M Records. Her father guided and managed her. The debut album, Janet Jackson, did yield a #6 R&B single, “Young Love.” From there another TV role, on the series Fame, followed, as did another unremarkable album, 1984’s Dream Street, and another R&B hit, “Don’t Stand Another Chance”. Also in 1984, Jackson defied her family by marrying singer James DeBarge, whose R&B sibling act DeBarge was being hyped as a successor to the Jacksons. The marriage was annulled after less than a year, but the damage was done and it led to her independence.

Janets real success came from her breakthrough album, 1986’s Control, which topped the pop and R&B album charts and spawned numerous hits, “What Have You Done For Me Lately”, “Nasty”, “When I Think of You” and in 1987, “Control”, “Let’s Wait Awhile” and “The Pleasure Principle”. In 1987 Janet dismissed her father as manager. Her next album “Rhythm Nation” came in 1989 and generated many more hit singles. To promote the album, Janet embarked on her first major tour.

In 1991 Virgin Records’ lured Janet away from A&M with a contract worth more than $30 million. Her final A&M project was a 1992 duet with Luther Vandross, “The Best Things in Life Are Free”, recorded for the soundtrack to the film Mo Money.

Jackson has credited her primary musical influences to be her elder brothers Michael and Jermaine. Her musical style has encompassed a broad range of genres, including pop, R&B, rap, rock and dance. Known for reinventing herself, Jackson’s themes have touched on several different topics, such as love and relationships, personal freedom, sexual freedom, depression.

At the 1999 World Music Awards, Jackson received the Legend Award alongside Cher for “lifelong contribution to the music industry and outstanding contribution to the pop industry.” Recognized as one of the biggest female pop and R&B stars of the 1980s and 1990s,Jackson was awarded a top honor from the American Music Awards—the Award of Merit—in March 2001 for “her finely crafted, In 2006, it was announced that Jackson was the “Most Searched in Internet History” and the “Most Searched for News Item” by the Guinness World Records as a result of the halftime show controversy of Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Discography and Studio albums


1982: Janet Jackson
1984: Dream Street
1986: Control
1989: Rhythm Nation 1814
1993: janet.
1997: The Velvet Rope
2001: All for You
2004: Damita Jo
2006: 20 Y.O.
2008: Discipline
U.S. number one singles
1986: “When I Think of You”
1989: “Miss You Much”
1990: “Escapade”
1990: “Black Cat”
1991: “Love Will Never Do (Without You)”
1993: “That’s the Way Love Goes”
1993: “Again”
1997: “Together Again”
2000: “Doesn’t Really Matter”
2001: “All For You”