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Janet Jackson review – glitz, glamour and a very quick run-through of the hits
She lets eight songs go by before she breaks out the old favourites – but when she does, it reminds you why she ruled the charts
It’s not a situation that seems to be bothering tonight’s audience – largely, but not exclusively, old enough to recall Jackson’s 1980s and 90s purple patch first-hand – but it’s a little unfortunate nonetheless, because her tour is presumably supposed to be about reframing a career held to have slumped because you couldn’t hear her music over the noise of controversy, following her infamous appearance at the 2004 Super Bowl. You’ve got to admire her determination to reclaim her lesser works and the degree of high camp hauteur with which she does it, but you can’t miss a surge in audience excitement that feels close to gratitude when she cries “I know everybody in the building knows this one!” and starts clobbering them with the stuff that sold millions. But a hint of the flip-book approach of a Vegas residency (she undertook one in 2019, and starts another at the end of this year) hangs over proceedings: plenty of choreography and costume changes, 40 songs in well under two hours.
Or read this on The Guardian
