TWENTY five years have passed since Janet Jackson first asserted that she was in command.
"It's all about control," she said on her breakthrough album Control.
"And I've got lots of it."
Jackson, now 45, reflects on those times.
"I was a young adult coming into her own and wanted to carve my own niche in the world," she says.
"But I still have so much that I want to accomplish. I am continuing to evolve."
We are at London's Royal Albert Hall, where Jackson's latest tour - Number Ones: Up Close And Personal - perfectly showcases her superstar evolution. It will hit Sydney in November.
The show is exactly what it says - a greatest hits set at close range, in intimate venues that Jackson has never played in before.
"It's been so much fun to perform for the fans in this way. I can see everyone's faces during the show and I get so much energy from them," she says.
Jackson says she likes to confide in her audience - through her albums and also a self-help book True You: A Journey To Finding And Loving Yourself. "There are a few issues I thought I grew past, but when writing the book I learned that there was still some work that I needed to do," she says.
"Most of us struggle with something. The most important thing is to recognise when I'm dealing with it so I can accept where I am and move on."
Jackson said her low self-esteem and body issues dated back to the popular sitcom Good Times, which ran from 1974 to 1979.
Producers had asked her to lose weight for her role on the show - she was 10 years old.
"On my first day of work I went to wardrobe and they bound my chest," she says. "I was developing early and all I remember is that I was not acceptable the way I was."
"It has taken me a good while, but I am happy with who I am.
"Now that I'm older, I've come to see that God is the one who is really in control of things.
"And that's fine by me."
Janet Jackson plays the Opera House, November 5 and 6. Tickets:
www.sydneyoperahouse.com from August 3
