In 2004, over 100 million people were watching the Super Bowl when the music stopped and Janet Jackson’s career was disrupted. However, you may not know that this incident helped invent YouTube. People were so desperate to find the footage that it forced the internet to grow fast.
But she was quietly being erased from the industry she helped build. It was a cold and calculated choice by powerful people in high offices. They took her music off the radio. Told her she was no longer welcome at the big award shows.
She stood her ground while others moved on without a scratch.
Janet Jackson Documentary Excerpt
People who saw her live say she was like lightning in a bottle. One viewer noted that Janet commanded the room with a look. Another fan mentioned that without her there would be no Beyoncé or Rihanna.
Watching her speak about it now feels like opening a time capsule. This strength is what inspired artist Paula Varjack to create something new. Paula saw how the media treats women as they get older. She took the pieces of that 2004 scandal and turned them into a story about survival and sisterhood.
Paula Varjack: Performance and Insight
Paula uses bright lights and loud music to show how we all use icons to find our own way. She brings four powerful women onto the stage to prove that being old and Black is a superpower. And not a reason to be hidden
Janet Jackson paved a road through a thick forest so others could run. Her journey from the top of the charts to the center of a storm shows us what real grace looks like.
Follow Janet Jackson on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to yourself to hear the story from the woman who lived it.