Janet Jackson’s O2 Arena Show Is A Technicolour Hit Parade

A dizzying spectacle that merged the essential hits with a love of the deep cuts.

30 · 09 · 2024

Janet Jackson is the perennial cause célèbre. Wherever she goes a smokescreen of controversy and outrage follows. Historically, she’s been the victim of misogynoir – a rabid, unforgiving press engine censoring her “bawdy” or “hardcore” songs about sex and bodily autonomy, and effectively blacklisting the singer from the industry after a televised slip-up at the Superbowl. Jackson arrives at London’s O2 in a different kind of quagmire, having made some baffling comments about Vice President Harris’ mixed heritage, in addition to mourning the death of her brother Tito Jackson mere weeks ago.

If anyone can handle a media circus, it’s Jackson. The press-averse icon has opted to let her music and videography do the heavy lifting, and tonight’s show at London’s O2 Arena is a showcase in that steely resilience and intensity. Jackson arrives in the capital with her first full-scale headline performance in thirteen years, and it’s an opportunity to reexamine ever era in a career that is synonymous with the great pop pantheon. ‘Together Again‘, is a callback to Jackson’s ‘Velvet Rope’-era international hit – her most-streamed song on Spotify – a much-needed communion with her fans, many of whom have experienced exile or estrangement in their own lives.

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Jackson enters the stage with an homage to the ballroom; the queer fiefdoms that inspired the sweaty club-centric experiments of ‘Janet.’ and follow-up ‘Velvet Rope’, evident in the overblown coat and a lookalike dancer parading, leading, cajoling Jackson until she assumes form as the head of the troupe. The troupe in question is made up of just four male dancers, and not the usual abundant dancing cohort Jackson is known for. It’s a real strength of the show; compact, stylistic routines delivered with precision and power, moving between iconic dance sequences of past and more contemporary trends.

The hits – ‘Pleasure Principle’, ‘Miss You Much’, ‘Escapade’ – are revisited in clipped soundbites, proceeding at breakneck pace. From the off, Jackson doesn’t treat this two-hour spectacle as a legacy show reliant on her greatest hits, but an exploration of the unsung deep cuts, namely the underrated, understated albums ‘Damita Jo’ and ‘Discipline’: ‘Rock With U’ into ‘Throb’ into ‘All Nite (Don’t Stop)’ a frenetically-timed reprieve shining a light on the late career surge critics decried at the time as duds, but have since gone on to be honoured retrospectively. ‘Any Time, Any Place’, with Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Poetic Justice’ sample woven in, is the mid-show a highlight, where Jackson slows things down to a breathy whisper – her voice textural and emotive if not mighty. It’s followed by the hankering ‘I Get So Lonely’ with a remixed dance interlude, and you’re reminded of that mid-90s MTV reign, where Jackson was the primary interlocutor of gold-standard adult contemporary RnB.

The show’s denouement sees Jackson and her dancers clad in militaristic, monochrome black and white. The socially-conscious ‘Rhythm Nation’ hits flow in the most technically-clean and explosive part segment of the show; the ‘State of the World’ segue into the thunderous ‘If’ leaves you breathless, before sibling simpatico ‘Scream’ bludgeons you with rotating screens of older brother Michael.

After the obligatory encore, we’re beamed into Jackson’s dressing room as she takes a breather and touches up her makeup; a slick voyeuristic look into the private and public faces of a deified figure. Closing with the celebratory title track to rapturous applause – indeed the packed-to-the-brim arena is entranced throughout – you can’t help but feel this show is a vindication for Janet Jackson. A much-needed victory lap from one of music’s most reliable hitmakers.

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Words: Shahzaib Hussain

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