Despite being a five-time GRAMMY winner, Jackson’s profession isn’t about showing off her achievements. She says, “I’ve never been that person to have my awards on display. There’s nothing wrong with it, that’s just not me.”
Janet Jackson has been in the spotlight since she was a child, and she still believes there are aspects of her that are misinterpreted nearly 50 years later. In a recent interview with Essence, the 56-year-old singer speaks out on what people continue to get wrong about her.
She told the magazine, “When it comes to my personal life, I think mistaking my kindness for weakness,” “When it comes to my professional life, I would say it would have to be not liking to hear the word ‘no.”
She added, “Especially being a woman, and someone telling you, ‘No, you can’t because…”
She says of Eissa, her 5-year-old son, “being able to wake up and see my baby another day, the space I might be in at that moment within my soul. What I’ve accomplished within myself. How far I’ve come from that child there to the woman that I am today. That’s success. If you came to my home, you would never know if you did not know who I was that I am an entertainer. I don’t have one award on my wall.”
She also said, “I’ve heard fans tell me we haven’t. Other artists have said the same thing. That never crossed my mind, that’s not important to me, whether I did or didn’t, to be quite honest. It’s really the body of music touching people and how it impacts their lives that matters to me. It’s not the accolades. I honestly don’t think about that stuff.”
She continues, “sometimes things happen that you don’t expect to happen, and you have to figure things out — or you’re in a space in your life when you have to take a step back and take a break for a minute, Even though it’s something that I absolutely love, it still is my work, my job. There will be music at some point. Exactly when? I can’t say just yet, but there will be.”
She says, “I love it too much not to do it, my number one job is being a mama.”
Jackson’s commitment on making music that has an emotional impact will carry over to her next album, but she hasn’t set a date for when she’ll return to the studio.
