Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966 in Gary, Indiana) is an African American pop, R&B and soul singer-songwriter, dancer, actress and the youngest child of the famed Jackson music family. Breaking away from the shadows of her brothers, Jackson now ranks as the ninth most successful artist in the history of rock and roll, and is the youngest artist in the top ten of that group, according to Billboard magazine in 2004, and has gone to sell over 130 million albums and singles worldwide. Her high-octane choreography, music videos and pop appeal has influenced some of today's young female singers including Ciara, Missy Elliott and Beyonce Knowles.

Janet was born the last of ten children in Gary, Indiana to parents Joseph and Katherine Jackson. Living in a two-bedroom shack with eight older siblings, Janet's father, Joseph, or Joe, worked as a crane operator in a steel mill and before she became a devout Jehovah's Witness, her mother Katherine worked as a store clerk for Sears. Before Janet's birth, her father decided to try a hand at a music career fronting the R&B band the Falcons, but never got as far as the top nightclubs in Indiana. According to reports, Janet's father was gregarious and stern while her mother was deeply religious and seemed saintly.

By the time she was a toddler, Janet's older brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael had already begun to perform on stage at nightclubs and theaters as the Jackson 5. In March 1969, the group signed to Motown Records, and by the end of the year, the group recorded their first of their four consecutive number-one singles, "I Want You Back". By the time the Jackson 5 had achieved success when they became the first band to score their first four #1 singles, the entire family moved to Southern California, eventually settling in a gated mansion they named Hayvenhurst in 1971.

Aspired to be a horse jockey after a profound infatuation with horses at the age of seven, Janet had no intention of entering show business. However, her father thought otherwise, as he saw her potential early on. After the success of the Jackson 5 began to dwindle, Joseph decided to bring the rest of his children into the spotlight, including Janet. On April 9, 1974, Janet made her public debut performance at a Las Vegas nightclub, with nearly all nine members of the Jackson family. Jackson quickly became the star of the show, emulating and imitating various celebrities of the day such as Cher, Marie Osmond, Toni Tennille, and Mae West, in particular.

By 1976, Janet and the family's Vegas act had caught the attention of CBS' president Fred Silverman. The network was desperately trying to find a new variety act to replace the recently ended Sonny & Cher Show, since ABC had a competing show featuring Donny and Marie Osmond. Debuting on June 16, 1976, The Jacksons show became the first African-American family to have a variety show on TV. The show lasted only two seasons and was canceled in 1977.

In 1977, 11-year-old Jackson's enthusiasm for acting caught television producer Norman Lear's ear. Lear was looking for someone to reawaken one of his groundbreaking shows from TV ruin - the family sitcom Good Times. Lear cast Jackson in Good Times as an abused child named Penny. The show's star, J.J. Evans, played by Jimmie Walker, was the apple of Penny's eye on the show, a fact the character would make known every time she saw him. Jackson became one of the show's starring cast members during the 1977-1978 season, and would remain in the show until it was canceled in 1979.

Jackson continued her acting career, appearing briefly in a short-lived but Emmy nominated sitcom titled A New Kind of Family which also starred Rob Lowe, but was cancelled in early 1980. In 1981, she landed a recurring role on another family sitcom, Diff'rent Strokes, playing Charlene Duprey, the love interest of Willis (played by Todd Bridges). Jackson had become the idol for black girls, a notable example being Moesha Mitchell, who was portrayed by Brandy Norwood in the 1990s sitcom Moesha.

In 1984, Jackson reluctantly took the role of Cleo Hewitt in the musical series, Fame. She later told interviewers that her father told her to do the role. After a year, Jackson asked to be let go of her contract, and did not appear in another television series for nineteen years.

Jackson always had an interest in music, writing her first song at the age of nine, but she never aspired to be a professional singer. Nonetheless, she agreed to participate in music just to help her family out. Her first ever recording was a duet with her brother Randy on a song titled "A Love Song for Kids" in 1978. She would participate in her family's other recordings, particularly with sister LaToya and brother Michael.

In 1981, Jackson and her two older sisters LaToya and Rebbie had wanted to start their own musical group, but disagreements between the older sisters forced the group to disband before ever making a record. Instead Janet featured on LaToya's 1981 album called My Special Love on the pop track titled "Camp Kuchi Kaiai".

Although she was asked by her father Joseph to start a singing career, Jackson was uncomfortable with being in the recording studio, feeling she was not as talented vocally as her brothers, particularly brother Michael, who was becoming a solo pop superstar. Nonetheless, at the age of sixteen, she released her debut album simply called Janet Jackson (1982), though the teenager protested that her last name should not have been on the cover. Produced by soul singers Angela Winbush, Rene Moore and Leon Sylvers of the famed Sylvers family music group, the album reached the top ten of the Billboard R&B album charts, and spent forty-five weeks in the top fifty, but was less successful on the Billboard Pop albums chart. The album yielded three singles including her first top ten hit on the Billboard R&B charts, "Young Love", and two top twenty follow-ups, "Say You Do" and "Come Give Your Love to Me". Janet Jackson sold over a quarter million copies, and was the tenth best-selling R&B album of 1983 according to Billboard magazine.

In 1984, Jackson, now eighteen, released her second album, titled Dream Street. It marked a musical progression from her debut, with funkier, up-tempo production by brother Marlon and famed disco producer Giorgio Moroder, producer of songs for artists such as Donna Summer. The album failed to make the top one hundred of the Billboard pop album charts and barely reached the top twenty on the R&B chart. With sales of Dream Street amounting to about half of her debut's, critics soon began to demean Jackson's career as a pop star over.

Around the same time, Jackson fell in love and eloped with James DeBarge, member of the Motown family group DeBarge. The marriage was annulled in March 1985, with DeBarge's drug habit often cited as the reason. After the marriage was annulled and after years of dealing with being a member of a world-famous family, Jackson began to search for independence.

After the limited success of her first two albums, A&M A&R John McClain recruited producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to enliven the music career of the nineteen-year-old. Before leaving for Minneapolis, however, the producers were given the blessing of Jackson's father, who was her manager at the time, after they promised him that Jackson would not sound anything like Prince. Within months, Jackson, Jam & Lewis crafted the record Control, in which Jackson told her life through a musical basis.

Control, released in 1986, became a smash hit spawning five top ten singles, including her first number one single When I Think Of You. The album became a breakthrough record for Jackson partly due to the singles' music videos that showcased a different side of Jackson, containing dynamic dance moves choreographed by Paula Abdul. By the end of 1986, the album had sold over five million copies in America alone, making Jackson a popular artist.

In 1989, Jackson began recording her fourth album, Rhythm Nation 1814. Executives at A&M wanted a record that was similar to Control, but Jackson was determined to do the exact opposite. Instead, she presented a mixed bag of socially-conscious tracks (inspired by the work of Marvin Gaye and Joni Mitchell), danceable New Jack Swing tunes, a rare rock number and several romantic ballads. Released in 1989, Rhythm Nation 1814 sold six million copies by the end of the following year, and became the first album to spawn seven top five singles, aswell as four number one singles. Jackson won multiple awards, and went on a top-selling tour to promote the album that has since been regarded as the most successful debut tour of any artist. The letter 'R' is the 18th letter of the alphabet and 'N' is the fourteenth.

After finding success as a singer, Jackson was given a chance to resume her acting career when director John Singleton allowed her to audition for his film Poetic Justice, as a tough, poetic hairdresser from South Central, Los Angeles. Jackson won the role in the romantic drama, starring opposite rapper Tupac Shakur. The film opened in 1993, and depicted a very different image of Jackson than what had been seen before; her character cursed and even threatened people who ever crossed her. This coincided with a change in Jackson's music as she entered the studio to record her fifth album (and third with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis), whose music was brasher and more sexually charged than her previous work.

The album, titled janet., was released by Jackson's new label Virgin in 1993, and lead single "That's The Way Love Goes", became a number-one hit on the pop and R&B singles chart. The Oscar-nominated "Again" reached number-one on the pop chart and "Any Time, Any Place" spent ten weeks at the top of the R&B Singles Chart. The album became the first of the Nielsen SoundScan era to debut in the U.S. at number one, and it reached number one in twenty-two countries, sold seventeen million copies and won several awards, including a Grammy Award. It was the fourth best-selling album of the year in the U.S., and the eighth biggest selling album of the following year on the year end Billboard Top Albums chart.

In September 1993, Jackson appeared topless on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The magazine cover became one of the most celebrated photos ever taken of a rock artist, and Rolling Stone named it their "Most Popular Cover Ever" in 2000.

In 1996, Jackson re-signed with Virgin for a reported $80 million, which made her the highest paid recording artist of all time. Around the same time, she was busy trying to create a concept around her seventh album, and went through clinical depression. The result was The Velvet Rope (1997), her fourth number-one album on the Billboard 200. Alongside a love song ("I Get Lonely"), sex song ("Rope Burn") and anti-racism anthem (the hidden track "Can't Be Stopped"), most of the album showcased pain, life lost, and spiritual growth. The album's became another multi-platinum effort for the singer, and yielded a total of four hit singles: the Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell-assisted "Got 'til It's Gone", "Together Again", which was dedicated to AIDS victims, "I Get Lonely", which became one of the biggest R&B hits of the year, and the number-one dance number, "Go Deep".

Following her failed marriage to James DeBarge in 1985, Jackson had begun an on-again, off-again courtship with former dancer Rene Elizondo that resulted in a secret marriage in March 1991. Around the release of The Velvet Rope the media speculated that their marriage had begun to fall apart, with both Jackson and Elizondo admitting that they had become more business partners than a couple, cultivating the sounds that made Jackson's music popular. By 1999 their marriage was over, though it was not made public until the following year. Jackson explained in interviews that, having been in the public spotlight herself at a young age, she felt that announcing her marriage publicly would have a negative effect on the relationship, which was already struggling. Elizondo later sued Jackson for spousal support, their court battle finally ending in 2002 with the divorce finalized and Elizondo receiving half the multi-million dollar pay-off he was hoping for. Jackson's song "Son of a Gun" (2001) was believed to be about Elizondo, but she has neither disputed or confirmed that rumour, only saying "the song could be about anybody".

Jackson was given a chance to continue her acting career when the producers of the sequel to the comedy film Nutty Professor (1998) offered her the role originated by Jada Pinkett-Smith in the first film, though for several months there was speculation over whether or not Jackson would take the part. Starring Eddie Murphy, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps was released in 2000 and went on to gross $142.7 million at the box office. Jackson recorded a single for the film's soundtrack, "Doesn't Really Matter", which reached number-one on the Billboard pop charts within a few weeks of its release.

Jackson's eight album, All for You, a more upbeat record than The Velvet Rope, was released in 2001. The album's number-one title track became the first single to reach every format of radio on the day of its release, and its success helped the album debut at number-one in its first week of sales with more than 605,000 copies sold in the U.S. All for You would go on to sell more than three million copies in America (and six million overseas), and spawned the top five hit "Someone To Call My Lover". Gossip columns, meanwhile, were alleging relationships with actor Matthew McConaughey, singer Justin Timberlake, singer Johnny Gill and rapper Q-Tip, as well as reporting that Jackson engaged in lesbianism with her female back-up dancers. In reality, by 2002, Jackson had started a relationship with hip-hop producer and music mogul Jermaine Dupri.

After scoring a top forty single with "Son of a Gun" and performing her last concert for her tour in Hawaii, she collaborated with reggae singer Beenie Man on the top forty song "Feel It Boy". Jackson began work on her next album the following year, and accepted an invitation to join that following year's Super Bowl festivities, saying it would be a pleasure to be performing there.