MARSHA LEDERMAN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail 
September 10, 2008 at 3:29 AM EDT
VANCOUVER — Indelibly linked to a wardrobe malfunction that made the Guinness Book of Records and a big-brother pop star whose name frequently appears alongside the term "creepy," Janet Jackson wants the focus of her world tour - kicking off in Vancouver today - to be on her music, the choreography and especially the audience.
"This show is for all the fans," Jackson, 42, said of her Rock Witchu Tour, during a telephone press conference from Los Angeles last week.
"A lot of the kids have told me what they'd like to hear," she said of a call-in number she set up for fans to leave her message. "I've tried to do as much as I possibly can and incorporate it into the show."
The tour, she promises, will be upbeat, dance-heavy and will mix songs from her most recent album, Discipline, with old favourites. Lest anyone think the tour's name is any sort of shout-out to big brother Michael, who scored a smash hit with the song Rock with You back in 1979, Janet Jackson says absolutely not. "It has nothing to do with my brother Mike. The reason I called the tour Rock Witchu is it's nothing but dance. This whole show is two hours of dance."
Jackson is, of course, a pop star in her own right, with 10 No. 1 singles and worldwide sales totalling more than 100 million albums.
It's been more than seven years since she's toured, and like many other acts before her (the Police, Spice Girls), she is kicking things off in Vancouver. "We love Canada and it was just a great place to start."
Jackson does have a history with Vancouver. Production rehearsals for her last tour were held in the city and last week she expressed fond memories of going on Starbucks runs in the mornings, and getting her teeth cleaned by a dentist recommended by one of her dancers. In 2004, in what became a notorious incident, Jackson appeared with Justin Timberlake during the Super Bowl half-time show. At the end of a performance of the song Rock Your Body, Timberlake peeled off part of Jackson's bustier, revealing her right breast (the plan, apparently, was to reveal only her red bra). The incident caused an uproar and the Federal Communications Commission fined CBS $550,000 (U.S.) - a Guinness World Record at the time for highest fine imposed on a TV broadcaster.
When asked at the press conference what she'll be wearing for this tour, Jackson joked: "Clothes."Janet Jackson's Rock Witchu Tour starts in Vancouver tonight at GM Place. She'll be in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre on Sept. 28 and at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Sept. 29.
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