Singer-songwriter, actress and dancer Janet Jackson is celebrating her 50th anniversary in the music business while out on her Together Again Tour. The jaunt also commemorates the 30th anniversary of her 1993 self-titled album and the 25th anniversary of her highly successful 1997 album, “The Velvet Rope.”
Jackson, the 10th and youngest child of the star-studded Jackson family, gave the sold-out crowd at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Saturday night merely a sampling of her illustrious, hit-filled career during a two-hour set that included 40 songs. The 57-year-old began officially began performing at the age of 7 when she joined her older brother Randy on stage at the MGM Casino in Las Vegas.
She went deep into her catalog on this tour, dusting off “When I Think of You,” a track written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for Jackson when she was still a teenager.
“This was my very first No. 1 song … I was 19 years old,” the soft spoken singer said to crowd, which responded as enthusiastically to that 1986 hit as they did to cuts from her most recent album like “No Sleep” off of the 2015 release “Unbreakable” and a previously unreleased song, “Keep Dancing.”
Jackson’s show at the Hollywood Bowl marked the official kickoff of the venue’s LA Phil concert season, an evening which typically spotlights all of the programs supported by the ticket sales, including YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). The program gives kids ages 5 through 18 free instruments, instruction and opportunities to perform on concert stages around the world.
On this night, 16 kids came out to play Jackson’s award-winning 1993 hit, “Again,” with Thomas Wilkins, principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, leading the charge. Though she sang the majority of the song, she held out her mic for the fans to sing along. And they did, very, very loudly.
“It feels so good to be home, I love you L.A.,” Jackson, who grew up in Encino, said to the…
Read the full article here