Janet Jackson is an absolutely legendary singer and her music played a large part of my life in the 1990s. I couldn’t believe it when I heard that she was coming to the Royal Albert Hall for a concert. I was immediately on the website looking for tickets but was put off by the very expensive prices! Jo wanted to see Janet too so we comprised and got tickets Circle … which is only one level down from Standing! and it was still nearly £60 …

Doors opened at 7.00 for a 7.30 start. We thought that she might have had a support act but to our surprise there was no one! Finally, after 50 minutes, Janet made her appearance on stage! I couldn’t believe how good she looked – you’d hardly believe that she was already 45 years old!

I went to one Janet concert when I was about 16 years old. I know – a long time ago! And I remember how amazing the concert was from the cool sets, to our outfits to her way over the top energetic dancing. It was so theatrical and more than just Janet getting up on stage and singing/dancing. We didn’t really get this tonight … perhaps it was the venue which was limiting and yes there was smoke, there was a dance troupe, but it was fairly stock standard. Apart from the fact that there were a lot of videos that were used to fill in time – like showing all her clips from when she was on TV (like on Different Strokes), and her movies (Mo’ Money), and all her photo shoots. Each clip went for what felt like 10 minutes. If I had to guess I’d say Janet was on stage for about 70 minutes at most?

However, that is not to say we didn’t have a good time. It was fantastic to hear Janet live again. She has lost none of her voice or her moves and she was very gracious to the audience – blowing loads of kisses, saying she loved us, tagging those in the front row etc. but she didn’t really chat much (so it was more Up Close and less Personal.)

From the audience reaction she is still a much-loved icon which was really lovely to see. When she sang Scream in duet with Michael – the crowd reaction was just ridiculous. Fan loyalty was very touching. Her encore was a tribute to Michael, singing Together Again with arms outstretched to the air – so beautiful.

It was a nice trip down memory lane and if there was anything Janet inspired me to do tonight, it was to get out all her old stuff and onto my iphone!

PS Disappointingly no wardrobe malfunctions! 😉