Janet Jackson, O2 Arena, review: In the limelight where she belongs

Pop icon’s London show evokes so much joy that it’s hard to work out why her incredible legacy isn’t more celebrated

4/5
For an artist with one of the most famous surnames in pop, Janet Jackson often labours under descriptors such as “underrated” or “underestimated”. 
The shadows of her brother and her domineering father loom large, and when she did step out of them to become a major chart player in the late 1980s and 1990s, society couldn’t handle a financially independent, sexually liberated black woman — so much so that something as trifling as nine-sixteenths of a second of exposed breast during the 2004 Super Bowl was enough to torpedo her career. 
A reappraisal of the youngest Jackson sibling shouldn’t even be necessary. Her CV speaks volumes: five Grammys, an Oscar nomination, one of the most lucrative record deals of all time ($80m, in 1996), 180 million records sold. 
Last year she marked fifty years in the entertainment game — she made her TV debut in 1975, aged 8 — and celebrated that milestone by embarking on the Together Again world tour, now into its seventeenth month, with over half a million attendees.
Saturday night at London’s O2 Arena was all about claiming and celebrating that legacy.
Tiered curtains lifted to reveal Jackson imperial atop a platform in a billowing cape, that was swiftly shed for a series of costumes: a long blazer with shoulder pads wider than the nearby Thames, a glittering suit and tie, a tartan kilt, sheer white layers, and combat boots and boiler suit. 
On a spacious stage reminiscent of a 1990s TV set, she charged through nearly forty songs in two hours — many shortened, some clinically, to maintain momentum — the setlist leaping between eras even more nimbly than her four backing dancers and live band. The first act included 2008’s Kylie-ish Rock With U, the 1997 Joni Mitchell-sampling Got ’Til It’s Gone, and 1993’s seductive hit That’s The Way Love Goes: a run that flaunted her musical versatility as well as her near-constant choreographed moves.
It was the music from her commercial and creative peak between 1986 and 1997 that really got the audience moving, including many hits made with super-producers Jam & Lewis, whose experience working as Prince’s bandmates was clearly felt on tracks like What Have You Done For Me Lately. That song appeared on Jackson’s 1986 album Control, her third record but first made completely free of her father, and its staccato beats and futuristic feel continued to define her sound for the next decade, from 1989’s socially conscious Rhythm Nation 1814 (which earned a record-breaking seven Top 5 singles) to the candlelit R&B of janet. in 1993 and 1997’s introspective The Velvet Rope. 
By the show’s third act, and highlight track Escapade, the exhilaration in the arena had even found its way to Jackson herself, who was finding it increasingly difficult not to smile. 
Even when Michael snarled from the backing screens during the siblings’ collaboration Scream, the night remained Janet’s. Never one to hog the limelight — she’s so inconspicuous a superstar that she remained unnoticed in the audience at Snoh Aalegra’s 2022 Brixton show (just one of many artists Jackson has influenced, from up-and-coming R&B singers to Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar) — she nevertheless belongs in it, commanding the stage even when alone in front of the microphone.
Childhood photographs of her Jackson 5 guitarist brother Tito, who died unexpectedly a fortnight ago, accompanied closing hit Together Again, a song that overcomes loss and tragedy with upbeat music, perhaps aptly summing up her career. 
The sheer emotion and joy felt in the arena was a reminder that Janet Jackson’s legacy is more than worthy of celebration. 
Touring the UK and Europe. Tickets: https://www.janetjackson.com/tour
5/5