I got the opportunity to see Janet Jackson on The Velvet Rope tour but I did not see "What About" performed live. I saw this on HBO with millions of o
I got the opportunity to see Janet Jackson on The Velvet Rope tour but I did not see “What About” performed live. I saw this on HBO with millions of others.
Janet Jackson performed “What About” during her 1998 Velvet Rope Tour, and one of the most powerful televised performances of that song aired during her HBO special, The Velvet Rope: Live in Madison Square Garden on October 11, 1998. This wasn’t just a concert—it was a cultural reset.
📺 Why That Performance of “What About” Was So Monumental:
🔥 1. A Survivor’s Anthem—In Prime Time
“What About” was never released as a single. It didn’t top charts. But it was sacred fire for those who listened.
In the live performance, Janet acted out scenes of domestic violence onstage—complete with sound effects, shoves, screaming, and emotional breakdowns. Then she screamed, face contorted with fury and pain:
“What about the times you said no one would want me?
What about the times you hit my face?
What about the times you kept on when I said ‘No more, please!’”
Millions watched this on HBO, unfiltered.
🧨 2. Pre-Sporadic Support
This was 1998.
Artists like Tina Turner and some brave female voices in hip hop, country, rock, and sub-genres had already begun cracking open the silence around abuse—but performances that made intimate partner violence that raw, explicit, and emotionally unfiltered on a mainstream global stage were still sporadic.
Mainstream public had not embraced the voices.
No corporate campaigns.
No wide public embrace of Survivors’ stories.
Janet used her platform to dramatize what so many had lived through—and many were still too afraid or too silenced to name. Her performance didn’t offer a neat message or a tidy resolution. It was rage, grief, and release—spoken in a language Survivors understood.
She didn’t stand alone in history, but that night, she stood powerfully in her truth.
And for those watching—many of us for the first time—it felt like someone finally saw us.
💔 3. It Was Autobiographical
Years later, Janet would confirm what many suspected: she was drawing from her own experience with abuse. She didn’t name names—but she didn’t need to.
Her body said what words couldn’t. She collapsed on stage, sobbing, after reenacting the trauma.
She told us:
“This is not entertainment.
This is my life.
This is our lives.”
🎤 4. She Gave Voice to the Silenced
Janet used her global stage to say:
“I see you.
I believe you.
You are not alone.”
In doing so, she risked everything—backlash, misunderstanding, erasure—for the sake of truth.
🌹 Gratitude and Appreciation
Remembrance. Too many have forgotten that she broke open a silence long before it was safe to do so.
Gratitude. That performance was a balm and a battle cry for so many women, especially Black women, who had no language for what they were going through.
Power. She has been targeted, vilified, and scapegoated for decades. Yet her legacy remains one of the most revolutionary, soul-baring, and feminist in pop history.
🕯️ Let’s Never Forget:
Before Survivors were trending, Janet Jackson screamed truth about abuse.
And they didn’t know what to do with a scream like that—because it wasn’t meant to entertain.
It was meant to awaken.Janet Jackson was invited to perform at the VH1 Fashion Awards in 1998. Organizers expected a glamorous, upbeat performance—something light, stylish, or more in line with the theme of the night.
But Janet had other plans.
Instead of giving them “Go Deep” or “Together Again,” she insisted on performing “What About”—the searing, emotionally raw song from The Velvet Rope about domestic violence and psychological abuse.
🔥 Why That Was Revolutionary:
VH1 didn’t expect it. This was an event celebrating fashion, style, and pop culture—not a place where most artists would take a political or emotional risk.
They asked her to perform something else. Reports suggest the network preferred a more mainstream or on-brand song. She refused.
She performed “What About” anyway.
And not only did she perform it—she brought the same intense stage choreography from The Velvet Rope Tour, which included simulated scenes of domestic violence, emotional breakdown, and survivor rage.This was one of the first times a global pop star refused to shrink her message just because the platform wasn’t “designed” for it.
🧭 What That Meant for Us:
Janet didn’t just perform—she claimed space for Survivors in rooms that were never built to hold our stories. She did it in high heels, under bright lights, in front of fashion elite—and she didn’t flinch.
She knew what she was doing.
And she did it anyway.
