Silence, Haters: Janet Jackson Proves She's Still Got Her Groove On Opening Night Of World Tour
Yesterday evening, Janet Jackson kicked off her world tour at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC before a crowd of nearly 20,000.
Not only did she bust out past hits including “When I Think Of You,” “Rhythm Nation,” and “Miss You Much," she pulled a Miley-at-the-VMAs and premiered a brand new track live.
The song, “Burn It Up,” featuring Missy Elliot (whom Jackson collaborated with on the 2001's "Son Of A Gun"), opened the evening where it was included amongst Jackson's other new tracks, “No Sleeep” and “Unbreakable."
These are the first three tracks so far unleashed from Janet's highly anticipated new album, Unbreakable, her first new music since 2008's supremely underappreciated Discipline.
Fun Fun Vancouver brilliantly recapped the evening's proceedings:
She started the set off with a new song nobody knew but it featured Missy Elliot up on the screen, so everyone was screaming for that and screaming for her, and so it was all good.
Then she LAUNCHES into what would become a NON STOP 45 MINUTE MEDLEY of literally all her big dance hits. I'm talking Nasty, Control, What Have You Done For Me Lately, When I Think of You, Miss You Much, Escapade, Love Will Never Do Without You, You Want This, that song she did with Shaggy, The Best Things in Life Are Free (WTF!!), All Nite Don't Stop, Feedback, Someone To Call My Lover, All For You, Alright..... and The Pleasure Principle, complete with her up against a mirror and strobe lights going off. Holy F_CK We were losing our GODDAMN MINDS.
But the real unspoken question of the night was whether or not Janet still had the moves.
It wasn't so much her age we were concerned about (Madonna, 8 years Jackson's senior, has proven that vitality is her bitch) but a concern that her long absence from the stage might have made her signature moves a little rusty.
Well, that quickly proved not at all the case! Jackson silenced the haters and internet trolls straightaway proving, oh yes, she's still got it.
Producer Jimmy Jam spoke to EW about the album earlier this month, saying, “I think it’s totally different from any of her other albums. But it feels like her. At the end of the day, I go back to that. The thing about this album is there’s a lot of different places that it touches, but at the end of the day, it’s pure Janet.”
