When Janet Jackson was ‘found guilty of helping Hongkong discover what a good time is’
The youngest of the Jackson clan gave power-packed performances for three nights at the Hong Kong Coliseum in 1990 as part of her Rhythm Nation tour
“Jackson pencils in HK concert dates,” ran a South China Morning Post headline on September 30, 1990. The Jackson in question was Janet, “who looks set to perform three concerts at the Coliseum in early November”.
An October 14 profile detailed how the youngest of the Jackson clan had “moved from a short-lived acting career to an even shorter marriage”.
“Always struggling to remain independent of her family, she used stage-stealing techniques from her brother Michael to attract attention to herself,” the article stated, later conceding that after several successful releases, “Jackson has made her own success apart from her family.”
The concerts would be part of Jackson’s Rhythm Nation tour, which boasted a crew of more than 80. “We don’t expect to make money on this,” Florence Chan, managing director of promoters Artist World Enterprise told the Post on October 15. Not only was she bringing an enormous entourage, but “Hongkong audiences have spent the last few years shunning the majority of Western artists treading the boards here”, according to the newspaper.
