A PRESTIGE HONG KONG EXCLUSIVE
BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
by Mariel Rittenhouse

And the hits kept coming. In 1989 she followed up with the multi-award-winning Rhythm Nation 1814, which produced smash singles like “Escapade,” “Black Cat” and “Love Will Never Do (Without You).” Amid the Rhythm Nation hoopla, Jackson snuck in another wedding, this time to René Elizondo Jr, her boyfriend and business partner. Unfortunately, this marriage didn’t stick either, and in 1999 the two bid adieu.

The release of Janet on Virgin Records in the early 1990s – along with a controversial topless Rolling Stone cover and a role as a foul-mouthed hairdresser-cum-poet in John Singleton’s Poetic Justice – established Jackson as a pop culture icon. The Grammy-winning Janet became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one, and it remains her most successful.

After Janet, Jackson recorded The Velvet Rope in 1997, All for You in 2001, Damita Jo in 2004, and 20 Y.O. in 2006. The later albums have signalled a change of musical direction and have been far more introspective and autobiographical than her earlier releases.

This past autumn, Jackson returned to the silver screen in Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?, her first film since 2000’s Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. She is also back in the studio, this time working with Island Records’ LA Reid and her long-time lover, Jermaine Dupri, on an album slated for release early this year. A devout workaholic, Jackson is also in the midst of writing a book that details her lifelong – and much-publicised – struggle with her weight.

For Jackson, paparazzi are part of the package. She is perpetually plagued by a swarm of photographers who chronicle every misstep, dust-up, joy and triumph. From her teenage elopement and a slew of family dramas to Grammy awards, Billboard chart-toppers, legal woes, weight gain, weight loss and the Super Bowl Nipplegate controversy, the world has seen Miss Jackson at her best, her worst, and her most exposed.

Is she any the worse for it all? Hardly. She’s a survivor, a humble, well mannered listener with a self-deprecating but lightning-quick sense of humour. A return to the spotlight is imminent. So, for now, it’s all business for the unstoppable Janet Jackson. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

You’ve lived your entire life in the limelight. Everything has been recorded for better or worse. How do you keep it all in perspective? What’s life like for Janet Jackson?
It has its moments; I can’t complain. There are moments when it’s a little boring. There are a few times when it’s a great deal of fun. There are times when it’s a lot, a lot, a lot of work.