Just 18 years old, Janet has all those desirable attributes that many would-be mother-in-laws are seemingly forever searching. Despite her tender years, Janet has been entertaining audiences for some 11 years, when at the age of 7 she joined her brothers and sisters onstage for a family revue during which the embryonic Janet performed her impression of Mae West! Like most of the family, Janet got the performing bug early which perhaps under the environmental circumstances wasn't that surprising.

At the age of 9, Janet was spotted by TV producer Norman Lear when she appeared in a Jacksons TV special. Lear signed Janet for the role of Penny Gordon in the popular TV series 'Good Times', a role she played for some two years until she switched to the 'Diff'rent Strokes' sitcom in which she played the feisty Charlene Dupree.

Even though Janet at the time had concentrated specifically on her acting career, she had not lost touch with musical talents. Between TV tapings and her educational chores, Janet worked hard on her voice and piano attributes and used these to a good advantage when she performed a version of 'Magic Is Working' on the 'Diff'rent Strokes' show in 1981.

Janet's father, the irrespresible Joe Jackson, recognised her need to establish a musical avenue within her professial career and arranged a demo tape session which resulted in a contract with A&M Records and her self-titled debut album the following year in 1982. The album utilized two separate production teams, with Foster Sylvers and Jerry Weaver taking care of business on side one and Rene (Moore) and Angela (Winbush) onside two. The album had an immediate effect and produced satisfactory results with considerable critical acclaim for her honeyed vocals which were compared (favourably) to her brother Michael's familiar vocals tones. Janet herself accepts the comparisons but suggests that because they are brother and sister, a resemblance is not entirely to be unexpected.