Last Sunday, October 11, Janet Jackson played an hour-long set at the Singapore Grand Prix. It was her first show in Singapore since 2011, and the crowd on the Wharf Stage had waited a long time for it.
She gave them the hits. The loudest cheer of the whole night came for “Scream,” the song she recorded with her brother Michael back in 1995. People sang every single word.
Then she closed with “Rhythm Nation,” took her bow and walked off. Fans figured that was the end of it. Many of them started heading for the exits.
But Janet wasn’t finished.
She came back out on her own. No band around her, no dancers, just Janet and the stage. And while she sang one more song, the giant screens behind her changed to something very personal.
Before we tell you what showed up on those screens, here’s the song fans have loved for years.
Janet’s official music video for the song she saved for last
Give this one a minute and you’ll understand why she chose it for a tribute. Turn the sound up for this.
The encore was reportedly “Together Again,” a song Janet wrote in memory of a dear friend. And as she sang it, the screens reportedly filled with childhood photos of three people from her own family. Her brothers Michael and Tito, and their father Joe.
A room that had been halfway to the parking lot stopped and turned right back around.
Janet also gave the crowd a little hint about what’s coming next for her. “Now.. they call me Diamond Black,” she told them. “You’ll get to know me soon.” Nobody’s quite sure yet what Diamond Black means, but fans have been talking about it all week.
Here’s a look from inside the arena that night.
Fan footage from Janet’s night at the Singapore Grand Prix
This was shot from the crowd, so you get the real feel of the room and a sense of how big that stage really was.
It’s easy to forget how much family runs through Janet’s music. She was the baby of the Jackson house, watching her big brothers rehearse before she was even old enough to join in. All these years later, on a stage on the far side of the world, she still made room to look back at them.
That quiet moment at the end is the one people walked back inside for.