Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, activist and record producer from Gary, Indiana, United States. Janet Jackson is the tenth and youngest sibling of the Jackson family of entertainers comprising of brothers and sisters Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Michael and Randy.
Janet Jackson’s commercial breakthrough came with the release of her 1986 album Control which established her career-long relationship with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. In September 1989, Janet Jackson released her fourth studio album Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, which encompassed a multitude of genres such as new jack swing, rock, pop, dance and industrial, leading to Janet becoming the only artist in history to receive nominations in five genres at the GRAMMY Awards. Rhythm Nation was the first album ever to produce Number 1 hits on the US Billboard Chart in three separate calendar years (1989, 1990, 1991).
Janet Jackson also became the first woman to be nominated for Producer of the Year at the GRAMMY Awards in 1990 for her work on Rhythm Nation. Janet left her label A&M in 1991, opting to sign with Richard Branson’s Virgin Records in a deal estimated to be worth $40 million, the biggest ever. Future deals inked by Janet’s brother Michael Jackson and Madonna would eclipse that figure, but Janet re-established herself as the highest-paid musical act in the world when she agreed to a contract renewal worth $80 million in January 1996.
Her first album with Virgin titled janet. (the full stop signifying she was a star regardless of her surname, period) is her only to reach Number 1 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart. The album’s lead single That’s The Way Love Goes is Janet Jackson’s highest-charting single and peaked at Number 2 on the Official Singles Chart in May 1993. The album’s third single Again – which featured in the 1993 film Poetic Justice – was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
Next came Janet’s first greatest hits album Design of a Decade: 1986-1996 in 1995, which is her best-selling album in the UK and peaked at Number 2. 1997 album The Velvet Rope contains Janet Jackson’s most successful single in the UK Together Again, which peaked at Number 4. The biggest single of her career worldwide is All For You which features on the 2001 album of the same name.
Janet Jackson has many accolades to her name including scoring the most UK Top 10 singles by a female artist never to have reached Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, with 17. Janet was named the inaugural MTV Icon in 2001 and was bestowed the Icon Award at the Billboard Music Awards in 2018 too. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. As an actress, Janet Jackson made her screen debut aged 11 on US sitcom Good Times in 1977 before starring in another Diff’rent Strokes in 1980. She’s also starred in feature films such 1993’s Poetic Justice alongside Tupac Shakur, and 2000’s Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, for which also supplied the soundtrack single Doesn’t Really Matter, which was a UK Top 5 hit.