FYI, in case those rumors were still floating around, Janet Jackson will NOT be performing with Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl halftime today. In a tweet yesterday she said,
“To put to rest any speculation or rumors as to whether I will be performing at the Super Bowl tomorrow; I will not. Thank you for your support and I do look forward to seeing you all very soon.”
At the 2004 Super Bowl there was the now infamous “wardrobe malfunction” aka, “nipple gate”. Timberlake ripped off a cover over one of Jacson’s breasts during the lyric I’ll,
“have you naked by the end of this song.”
The FCC fined Jackson and CBS $550,000 (which was ruled eventually that the fine was just) Jackson’s got was damaged. Timberlake’s didn’t.
JT’s selection to perform at Super Bowl 52 has stirred up the old controversy that people were still angry about the was he largely hung Jackson out to dry. Three years later that the singer really acknowledged that he got off lightly.
“In my honest opinion now … I could’ve handled it better. I probably got 10 percent of the blame, and that says something about society. I think that America’s harsher on women … And I think that America is, you know, unfairly harsh on ethnic people.”
As Vox’s Alex Abad-Santos recently said, Viacom, the parent company of MTV, which produced the 2004 show, blamed Jackson. They blacklisted her music videos from airing and her songs from playing on their radio stations and CBS too back Jackson’s invitation to present at the Grammy’s. She was reportedly pressured into skipping the ceremony but Timberlake, on the other hand, attended and won two awards.
Jackson’s still a cultural icon but Jackson’s father, Joseph Jackson, told the New York Post he still hasn’t gotten over the incident.
“If [Timberlake’s] such a gentleman, he’d make sure Janet is there.”
— Janet Jackson (@JanetJackson) February 4, 2018
(via Vox)
