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Janet Jackson Brings Teyana Taylor to Tears With Surprise Appearance at BET Awards 2026
Janet Jackson making a head-turning red carpet appearance? That’s the way she goes.
The Grammy winner had an ultra-rare public outing at the Gala With the Stars benefitting Dancers Against Cancer Oct. 22 but her look is so good, you’ll definitely be asking for one more chance to see it.
Jackson, 60, stepped out sporting a long-sleeved sheer black lace dress, complete with a slim V-cut on the neckline and a mermaid style skirt. The “That’s The Way Love Goes” singer let her dress act as the main event, opting for simple waves on her short blonde bob and sported tasteful dangle earrings and gold painted fingernails.
And Jackson’s appearance at the event was stunning even for those who walked the red carpet alongside her. Dancing With the Stars alum Maks Chmerkovskiy, who hosted the evening that honored Missy Elliott and more with awards, admitted that he was more excited to be in her presence than he was letting on.
“I’m going to play it cool, but on the inside it will not be cool,” Chmerkovskiy told E! News in an exclusive interview at the event. “I’m already sweating just talking about this. Everybody’s an icon. For me, it’s a huge honor to be part of this—let alone be in the room with those people.”
Although Jackson isn’t completely reclusive—her last red carpet was back in May—the sister of the late Michael Jackson has made conscious steps to keep her private life sacred, especially when it comes to being mom to 9-year-old son Eissa Al Mana, whom she shares with Wissam Al Mana.
Back in 2022, Jackson admitted that she was making a conscious effort to keep her son unaware of her fame.
Victoria Sirakova/Getty Images
“I’ve kept him away from it,” Jackson explained during an appearance on Today at the time, though admitting, “I think his friends are starting to put it together for him.”
But while Jackson is recognized any time, any place she goes, she typically rocks with the attention.
“You never get tired of it,” Jackson explained. “It’s part of why you do what you do—hoping that you could touch someone in a positive way. Making a difference in someone’s—even if it’s just one person’s life—you’ve accomplished. You’ve succeeded.”
For all of Jackson’s immeasurable accomplishments over the years, keep reading…
A&M Records
1.
With the release of Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814, her fourth studio album, on September 19, 1989, Janet delivered the only album in history to ever produce No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in three separate calendar years, beginning with "Miss You Much" that year. In 1990, both "Escapade" and "Black Cat" topped the chart, followed by "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" in 1991.
Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage
2.
Despite being released in 1989, Rhythm Nation would go on to become the best-selling album of 1990. Since it's release, it has been estimate to have sold over 12 million copies worldwide.
Shutterstock
3.
To this day, Rhythm Nation also remains the only album to have seven commercial singles peak within the top five of the Hot 100. The only one.
REX USA/Eugene Adebari
4.
When Janet embarked on the Rhythm Nation World Tour 1990, her first headlining tour, it became the most successful debut tour by any recording artist, a title it still holds. Grossing $28.1 million in the U.S. alone, it ranked No. 5 of the best-selling tours that year, making her the only female to place in the top 10.
Bill Nation/Sygma via Getty Images
5.
Having fulfilled her initial recording contract with A&M Records in 1991, she signed a multi-million dollar deal with Virgin Records, estimated to be between $32 and $50 million dollars, making her the highest paid recording artist at the time.
Virgin Records
6.
When Janet, her fifth studio album, was released in May 1993, it opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making her the first female artist in the Nielsen SoundScan era to do so.
7.
Teaming with her brother Michael Jackson for "Scream," the lead single from his 1995 album HIStory, the siblings delivered the first song to ever debut within the top five on the Hot 100. (It debuted at No. 5.) The music video, directed by Mark Romanek, cost $7 million to make and was listed in the Guinness World Records as the most expensive music video ever made.
A&M Records
8.
With the release of "Runaway," a new track recorded for her first greatest hits album, Design of a Decade: 1986-1996, the same year as "Scream," she became the first female artist in Billboard's history to debut in the top 10 of the Hot 100, entering at No. 6.
John Barrett/Shutterstock
9.
In 1996, Janet renewed her contract with Virgin Records for a reported $80 million, making her the then-highest-paid recording artist in history, surpassing her brother Michael and Madonna's then-unparalleled $60 million contracts.
KMazur/WireImage
10.
When "I Get Lonely," the third single off her sixth studio album The Velvet Rope, debuted at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in February 1998, it became her 18th consecutive top-10 hit on the chart, setting a record as the only female artist to have done such a thing. To this day, she is surpassed only by Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
AP Photo/David Phillip, file
11.
While her wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in 2004 nearly derailed her career completely (and rather unfairly, we might add), the incident in question became the most recorded and replayed moment in TiVo history and went on to inspire the creation of YouTube.
Christopher Polk/Getty Images
12.
Despite the Super Bowl debacle, she wasn't done making history just yet. With the release of "Make Me," the lead single from her second greatest hits compilation Number Ones, in September 2009, she became the first artist to have No. 1 singles in four separate decades. (It became her 19th No. 1 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart in 2010.)
Michel Dufour/WireImage
13.
With a performance under the iconic I.M Pei glass pyramid at the Louvre Museum in Paris in 2011, part of the museum's biannual fundraiser, Liasons au Louvre, she became the first female pop star to ever do so. "Janet Jackson is one of the world's greatest artistic treasures," Louvre President-Director Henri Loyrette said in a statement at the time. "Accordingly, we are profoundly honored, and believe it most fitting, that her performance in the Louvre Museum will be yet another masterpiece captured under our glorious glass pyramid."
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
14.
In 2018, Jackson became the first Black woman to receive the Billboard Icon Award, seen here with Bruno Mars doing the presenting honors.
“I’m deeply humbled and grateful for this award,” she said in her acceptance speech. “I believe for all our challenges, we live at a glorious moment history. It’s a moment when, at long last, women have made it clear that we will no longer be controlled, manipulated or abused. I stand with those women and with those men equally outraged who support us in heart and mind. This is also a moment when our public discourse is loud and harsh.”
Plus, she added, "everything we lack, God has in abundance.”
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