Sexy queen: Janet Jackson performs alongside a couple of her dancers.She promised us an intimate night. She sang and danced, and danced and sang some more, reminding us of why she has sold more than 100 million albums around the world.
Pop diva Janet Jackson wowed some 4,000 fans at the Jakarta Convention Center Plenary Hall on Wednesday night. As part of her 35-city world tour “Janet Jackson Number Ones — Up Close and Personal”, her largest one yet, she dedicated the song All Night (Don’t Stop) to Jakarta.
Her Wednesday concert was a well-crafted performance, peppered with cool and familiar choreographies combined with an impressive multimedia backdrop. The 44-year-old Janet, accompanied by 15 dancers, sang and danced almost non-stop for one hour and a half.
Wearing a black leather futuristic body suit and sporting sassy short hair, Janet started right through with a medley of her hits, which included Pleasure Principle and Feedback.
After the medley, the crowd screamed out her name as she greeted Jakarta.
Janet said her “Number Ones” concerts were conceived as an intimate affair between her and her audience. The stage, consisting of a two-story platform with a backdrop of a giant screen projecting multimedia images, was designed to make spectators feel close to the artists. The band and the backing vocals played on the higher platform, while Janet and her dancers moved up and down between platforms, owning the stage.
While the stage was designed to bring a sense of closeness between the artists and the audience, Janet was not very talkative during her show. She once and a while yelled out “Jakarta!”, encouraging the crowd to sing. But she mostly went straight from one song to another.
During the show, Janet and her dancers changed into five different costumes. From the futuristic black leather suit, she changed into a sexy long dress with a front slit to sing her slow romantic ballads such as Again. She changed again and wore a black vest with a plunging neckline for her sexy That’s the Way Love Goes.
For the military-style Black Cat and Rhythm Nation songs, Janet sported a black military-inspired suit. Her fans would have recognized her choreographies that night, which were very similar to that in her videos and previous concerts. Energetic and powerful, she moved her body in time with the beat and kept a steady beautiful singing voice through out.
The concert did more than demonstrate Janet’s innate musical talent. During an interlude, the big screen projected scenes of her acting career, from her roles in the sitcom Good Times, the Nutty Professor to recent films where she showed raw anger on screen.
Janet has often said acting was her first love. And so she showed a glimpse of her first love to her music fans.
Three event promoters, Berlian Entertainment, Trilogy Live, and Mahkota Promotion, organized the event. The promoters explained Janet’s decision to come to Indonesia was driven by the many requests her fans lodged through her website.
The hall was indeed filled with Janet’s fans, including public figures like 1990s Trio Libels singer Ronny Siantury, designer Ghea Panggabean, and sinetron actress Wulan Guritno.
Recently, Janet told NBC Correspondent Meredith Vieira that her brothers, including Michael, used to tease her about her bottom when she was a kid. Her brothers would call her a “horse”, “pig”, and “cow”.
The teasing made her feel insecure about her looks and made her “literally bang my head up against the wall because I didn’t feel attractive”. She said she used to laugh it off as they probably meant in an affectionate way, although she was in fact internalizing all of the remarks.
She started grieving for her late brother singer Michael Jackson long after members of her family did and has only recently allowed herself to watch his videos or listen to his music.
During her concert she also shared with her fans her love for him. She performed the song Scream with her brother’s voice. The duet Scream in 1995 was her way of showing support for Michael, who was under a lot of pressure after he was accused of pedophilia.
Her last song for the night also seemed to be dedicated to Michael, as she sang the more jovial Together Again while the screen projected a picture of her and Michael.
Janet started her solo career in 1982 with a self-titled album. With her albums Control in 1986, Rhythm Nation 1914 in 1989 and Janet in 1993, she made her mark in the international music industry.
She was selected to be the first MTV icon in 2001. She has since released All For You (2001), Damita Jo (2004), 20 Y.O. (2006) and Discipline (2008).
Her Number Ones album, which was released late 2009, is her second greatest hits compilation.
— Photos by JP/J. Adiguna
