1966–1982: Early life and career debut
Janet Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, the daughter of Katherine Esther and Joseph Walter Jackson, and is the youngest of the nine Jackson children. The family were lower-middle class and devout Jehovah's Witnesses. By the time she was a toddler, her older brothers—Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael—had already started to perform on stage at nightclubs and theaters as the Jackson 5. In March 1969, the group signed a record deal with Motown Records, and by the end of the year they had recorded the first of four consecutive number-one singles. The Jackson 5's success allowed the entire family to move to the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, California in 1971. The Jacksons settled in a gated mansion that they referred to as "Hayvenhurst." Although born into a family of musical prodigies, Jackson—whose love of horses initially inspired her to become a race-horse jockey—had no aspiration to become an entertainer. Her father, however, planned for her to follow in the family's footsteps. Jackson commented, "No one ever asked me if I wanted to go into show business...it was expected."
In 1974, at the age of seven, Jackson appeared on stage in Las Vegas, Nevada alongside her siblings in a routine show at the original MGM Casino. Jackson's career as an actress began with the debut of the CBS variety show The Jacksons, in which Janet appeared alongside her siblings Tito, Rebbie, Randy, Michael, Marlon, Latoya and Jackie. In 1977, at the age of ten, Jackson was selected by producer Norman Lear to play a recurring role in the sitcom Good Times. From 1979 to 1980, Jackson starred in A New Kind of Family, and then joined the cast of Diff'rent Strokes from 1981 to 1982. Jackson played a recurring role during the fourth season of the television series Fame—based on the 1980 feature film of the same name—as Cleo Hewitt.
Although Jackson was initially apprehensive about starting a music career, she agreed to participate in recording sessions with her family. Her first recording was a duet with her brother Randy on a song titled "Love Song for Kids" in 1978. At the age of fifteen, her father (and manager) Joseph Jackson launched her recording career by arranging a contract with A&M Records. Her debut album, Janet Jackson was released in 1982. And the rest is history...
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