Janet Jackson Biography

Singer, songwriter, actress. Born May 16, 1966, in Gary, Indiana. The youngest of nine children born to Joseph Walter Jackson and his wife, Katherine, Jackson grew up in the affluence of a show business family.

Her five brothers—Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Jermaine, and Michael—signed a contract with Motown Records in 1968 and would go on to rule the charts as The Jackson Five, with such hits as "I Want You Back," "Stop, the Love You Save," "ABC," and "Dancing Machine."

In late 1969, Jackson took her daughters Rebbie, LaToya, and Janet, and her youngest son, Randy, to join her husband in Los Angeles, where they had moved to further the band's career. (Tito's twin brother, Brandon, had died within 24 hours of the twins' premature birth in 1957.)

The Jackson children were raised in the Jehovah's Witness faith, as Katherine Jackson had been baptized as a Jehovah's Witness in 1963. LaToya Jackson famously chronicled their tumultuous childhood—including charges of physical and sexual abuse by Joseph Jackson—in her tell-all autobiography, but Janet and others of her siblings disputed LaToya's account. The tensions within the family certainly increased on account of Michael Jackson's emergence as a solo artist and a superstar beginning in the early 1970s.

Janet Jackson first appeared on stage in April 1974, singing and doing impressions alongside her brother Randy in the Jackson family's Las Vegas act. In 1976, she appeared on The Jacksons, a summer replacement television show. Her performance earned her the attention of a producer who hired her to play Penny, a regular on the TV comedy series Good Times, from 1977-79. She continued her television work in the short-lived A New Kind of Family (1979-80), the sitcom Different Strokes (1981-2), and the teen drama Fame (1984-5), based at a New York City performing arts high school.

Unlike many of her siblings, Janet Jackson attended public school in Encino, California, for some time before switching to Valley Professional School, from which she graduated in 1984. During her time on Fame, she was able to break away from her family's supervision while on location in New York. In September 1984, she eloped with James DeBarge, a musician in the group DeBarge, also on the Motown label. Jackson's family disapproved of DeBarge, and the marriage was brief, as she applied for an annulment in January 1985, which was granted the following November.

With the guidance of her brother Michael, she released her debut album Janet Jackson, in 1982. The album reached No. 84 on the pop charts and had three hit singles, including "Young Love" and "Give Your Love to Me." The self-titled album sold about 250,000 copies, as did her follow-up, Dream Street, which featured contributions from her brothers Michael, Tito, Jackie, and Marlon.

Jackson scored her first major success in 1986 with Control, released on the A&M label. Control, produced with the writing-producing team of Jimmy Jam (James Harris III) and Terry Lewis, sold eight million copies worldwide and featured two No. 1 singles, "What Have You Done For Me Lately" and the title track. Nominated for three Grammy Awards and nine American Music Awards, it won two of the latter. Jackson"s new, sexier style, stage presence, and dancing ability were all showcased in her videos, and combined to make her a star.