34, female, Born on May 16, 1966, in Gary, Indiana, USA. Jackson was the youngest of the nine children in the family that produced the Jackson Five (including Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson and LaToya Jackson ). When Janet was four years old, the family moved to the Los Angeles area; three years later she made her performing debut in Las Vegas with her brothers. At the age of nine, she joined them on a television special. She was cast in the US television programmes Good Times from 1977-79 and Diff'rent Strokes from 1981-82. She signed to A&M Records in 1982 and recorded her self-titled debut album, followed by Dream Street in 1984. Both albums sold only moderately, although they each yielded one US Top 10 single. Jackson's breakthrough came in 1986 with Control, which reached number 1 and produced an astonishing five US Top 10 singles and three UK Top 10 singles. The album was ultimately certified quadruple platinum for sales of over four million copies in the USA. Jackson followed up in 1989 with Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814, another quadruple platinum album, which yielded chart-topping singles such as 'Miss You Much' and 'Rhythm Nation'. Jackson undertook her first concert tour in 1990. By the end of the year she had scooped eight Billboard awards, including Top R&B Albums and Singles Artist, Best Pop and R&B Album Award for Rhythm Nation, and Top Hot 100 Singles Artist. The success of the Rhythm Nation album continued into 1991 when, in January, Jackson became the first artist in history to have culled from one album seven Top 5 singles in the Billboard chart. Jackson's commercial peak continued into the 90s with the unprecedented performance of Janet, which entered the US album chart at number 1, beating brother Michael's sales record by selling 350,000 copies in its first week. The compilation album Design Of A Decade was another huge seller, and followed her collaboration with brother Michael on 'Scream'. Her first studio set in four years, The Velvet Rope, was a deeply personal album which dealt frankly with her much self-publicized emotional breakdown.