Janet Jackson’s 50 years in music, carrying the weight of her famous family name | Culture
It’s a matter of numbers. Janet Jackson may not have the most successful career among the women of U.S. music, but when you look at the numbers, hers is among the longest. Not yet 60 — she’ll turn that age in May 2026 — the youngest of the 10 Jackson siblings is already celebrating half a century on stage.
In fact, even longer: she was just seven years old when she first stepped onto a stage in Las Vegas, Nevada — where she now returns with a new residency, a series of concerts revisiting her career. And it will be in that very desert city that her peers and fellow Americans will honor her, celebrating both her roots and her legacy.
On Monday, Janet Jackson will receive the honorary Icon Award at the American Music Awards (AMAs), which will be hosted by Jennifer Lopez from the Fontainebleau Hotel in Las Vegas. In addition to receiving the award, the singer will take the stage to perform — not only for the audience in the theater, but also for more than six million viewers expected to watch from home on CBS. It will be her first televised performance since 2018. And once again, the Jacksons will remind the world why they are royalty in music, culture, and global entertainment.
This isn’t the first time she’s received an AMA — she already has 11—but it is the first time she’s being honored with one as a lifetime achievement. And she has more than enough accolades to deserve it. In addition to releasing a dozen albums that have sold 180 million copies, earning stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and winning five Grammy Awards and two Emmys, her cultural impact is undeniable — just like that of her entire family.
The Jackson name still carries weight in the U.S. music industry, though at times it has been a burden, as she admitted a few years ago: “I wanted to make it on my own. I wanted people to love my music for me. Not because of my family’s last name.”
In addition to the singer, the Jackson family is made up of Jackie, La Toya, Rebbie, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy — along with the late Michael (who died in 2009 at age 50), Tito (who passed away last year at 70), and Brandon (who died at birth in 1957). Janet Jackson has openly admitted that her childhood was tough, almost nonexistent — but at least she had her siblings, who became her best friends.
And as she revealed in an interview with BBC2 in August 2024, the Jackson family’s reach goes even further: they are cousins — on her mother’s side — with Stevie Wonder, singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, and actor Samuel L. Jackson. Still, Janet has always carved out her own space and, with all due respect to La Toya (who is 10 years her senior), she has become the most recognized woman in her family. This latest award only cements that status.
Talent runs in the veins of Janet Damita Jo Jackson (her full name), born in 1966. But that doesn’t mean fame has come easily, or that she hasn’t had to work hard to stand out within a family overflowing with talent — first led by her brothers, who performed as the Jackson Five, and later by the immense talent and powerful presence of her brother Michael. Their relationship was close, though not without complications. In January 2022, she shared that Michael used to tease her with hurtful nicknames like “pig, horse, slut, slaughter hog, cow.” “He would laugh about it and I’d laugh too,” she recalled in the documentary Janet Jackson. “But then there was somewhere down inside that it would hurt.”
The singer has struggled with body image since childhood, especially during her youth: as she began to develop, her chest was bound down for performances. At just 30, she fell into a deep depression that she eventually overcame. In a 2018 interview with Essence magazine, she said she’s experienced “great happiness and great sadness,” but life has taught her how to navigate both.
Some might argue that Janet Jackson’s best years are behind her — but they probably lack perspective. Hers is a long-distance career, one that’s been growing for decades and is still developing. It’s true that she started fast, skyrocketing to fame, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t maintained stability.
Her enduring presence in the music scene, as well as her impressive numbers, prove it. As Billboard recently noted, she is one of only four artists — alongside none other than Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Barbra Streisand — to have had a No. 1 album on the Billboard charts in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.
And her songs continue to resonate. Her 2001 track Someone to Call My Lover, from the All for You album, is currently riding a viral wave on TikTok, recently hitting No. 3 on Billboard‘s R&B charts and seeing a 1,400% spike in U.S. streams, according to data from Luminate.
Jackson’s career is still going strong thanks to her past hits, though she hasn’t released much new material lately. In fact, it’s been a decade since her last album. Her last television performance was in 2018, when she received the Billboard Icon Award — and debuted what would be her last widely popular single to date, Made For Now, with Daddy Yankee.
She toured across the U.S. last year, and now, approaching 60, she’s still selling out shows in Las Vegas — so much so that she’s extended her residency. Those who work with her praise her tireless work ethic and dedication. At the Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas, she performs for more than two and a half hours without pause. On opening night, with every seat filled, her mother, Katherine, was in the audience to watch her perform.
But while Janet Jackson is highly public and consistent in her professional life, the same can’t be said of her private one. She is discreet, and after several high-profile relationships, she has chosen to keep a lower profile. Jackson has been married three times. The first was brief — barely a year — to singer James DeBarge. The marriage, a surprise even to her family, was annulled due to his drug addiction. The second was much longer: around 12 years with Mexican dancer René Elizondo, a relationship that ended in divorce and a $10 million settlement. The third — and most public — was with Qatari businessman Wissam Al Mana, lasting five years. With him, she became a mother for the first and only time, at age 50.
Just a couple of months after giving birth to her son Eissa, she announced her separation from Al Mana. According to sources at the time, he was overly controlling — dictating everything from her public statements to how she dressed — so much so that she even canceled a tour. Since their split in mid-2017, no new relationships have been made public. Her eight million Instagram followers get glimpses of her routines, rehearsals, and affectionate photos of her mother or nostalgic ones of her siblings — but there’s no sign of romantic partners, or of Eissa.
During this time, Jackson has kept a low profile, focusing on raising her son and performing. In fact, more has been said about her by others than by Jackson herself. One example: a few months ago, Justin Timberlake publicly apologized for the infamous Super Bowl halftime incident in 2004, when he exposed her breast on live television during their joint performance. While the moment catapulted Timberlake’s fame, it came at a heavy cost to Jackson — damaging her career, public image, and even leading to lawsuits, which were eventually dropped.
But perhaps the most public moment for Jackson in recent years — aside from her divorce — came with the release of Janet Jackson. The two-part documentary confirmed what many had long suspected: while the Jackson family was the singer’s foundation, Michael was in a league of his own — his fame overshadowed everything else.
“I remember really loving the Thriller album [in 1982]. But for the first time in my life, that’s when I felt it was different between the two of us. That a shift was happening,” she said “That’s the time Mike and I started going our separate ways. He just wasn’t as fun as he used to be.”
That was also when Michael’s problem with addiction began and the family become concerned. “My family chartered a private jet and they came for an intervention,” she recalled. The singer even tried to convince him to go on a joint tour, but “he got very angry.”
She has admitted that their relationship grew strained following the child abuse allegations against Michael, from which he was acquitted. “It was frustrating for me,” she said in the documentary. “We have our own separate lives and even though he’s my brother, that has nothing to do with me. But I wanted to be there for him, to support him as much as I possibly could.”
That decision came at a cost. She faced public backlash, lost major endorsement deals — including one with Coca-Cola — and some people tried to pit them against each other. But as she has said herself, it’s the price of being raised in the spotlight by a controlling father obsessed with turning his children into stars.
Time has healed many of those wounds, and 16 years after her brother’s death, they’re now well behind her. Still, though the name may weigh less heavily, the Jackson legacy continues to shine.
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