The Velvet Rope Tour was the third concert tour by American recording artist Janet Jackson. Launched in support of her sixth studio album The Velvet Rope (1997), the tour visited Europe, North America, Japan, New Zealand, Africa, and Australia. Jackson was inspired to create an autobiographical show using elements of Broadway theatre, portraying her struggle with depression and self-esteem. The tour's stage production was developed as a storybook setting, allowing spectators to cross beyond her "velvet rope" and experience her life story through the evolution of her musical career. It consists of twenty-six songs, several band interludes, and intense choreography along with nine costume changes and four sets. Jackson depicts themes such as burlesque and domestic violence among the show's complex production of pyrotechnics and theatrics.
Its setlist was composed of a wide array of Jackson's discography, focusing on new material in addition to medleys of previous hits. The tour is divided into five segments, each displaying different themes and settings. In "What About", Its racy visuals and depictions of violence drew controversy. In her rendition of "Rope Burn", Jackson selects a fan from the audience, performing a lap dance and kissing them while strapped into a chair. The show's suggestive promotional ads were banned from a number of publications, the image was reported to cause traffic accidents in Europe. A number of reviews commended Jackson's stage presence as consistently exceptional, noting improvement in her vocal delivery. It broke several attendance records and is the most attended stadium concert of all time in Hawaii. A private show was held in Brunei by request of Princess Hamidah, for her thirty-first birthday.
HBO broadcast the show during a special titled The Velvet Rope: Live in Madison Square Garden. It drew over 15 million viewers and was the most watched program among homes subscribed to the network. The special won an Emmy Award, and was also nominated for Image Awards and TMF Awards. It was released on DVD as The Velvet Rope Tour – Live in Concert, certified platinum in several territories. Various aspects of the tour have influenced numerous performers, including Britney Spears, Pink, Rihanna, Christina Aguilera, Panic! at the Disco, Jay-Z, and Arashi. Jackson notably selected NSYNC and Usher to open for the tour; introducing both to the public during their early careers. It has also inspired the careers of several performers, dancers, and professional choreographers.
Development Jackson developed the tour as an audiovisual storybook, sharing her life experience through the evolution of her music. Catherine McHugh of Entertainment Design reports "Part of the reason Janet Jackson titled her latest record The Velvet Rope was to criticize barriers that separate different classes in society. So from the beginning of her show, Jackson strives to prove her accessibility to her audience. The spectacular opening presents Jackson's life—at least professionally—as an open book." The stage was designed by Mark Fisher, saying "She wanted to have a book opening and herself come out of it. So I finessed that book into the video screen." Fisher explained, "Each different scene in the show would be akin to turning the pages in this book, and all the albums that she'd done in the past—Control, Rhythm Nation, janet.—would be represented." Regarding its introduction, Fisher said, "The elevator deposits her gracefully, as befits a princess, on the very front of the downstage." "And of course, the entirely cool and wonderful and breaking-new-ground aspect of it is that it's all made possible by a thin LED screen." Roy Bennett stated "We talked about developing the show around the scenarios of her career. I kept that in mind while lighting each different scene, but I tried to do it in an abstract way, without jumping too far away from the overall look of the show."
Jackson said, "To me, being onstage is about entertaining. I know there are people who just walk onstage and give you a show by just doing their music, but I always wanted something extra." Jackson conceptualized the tour in Paris, saying "I knew what I wanted everyone to look like, especially for the opening number. I knew what I wanted everyone to wear. I visualized the whole thing." Jackson desired to create new themes for prior hits to avoid repeating previous performances. The tour's logo is a variation of Akan symbol the Sankofa, meaning "you can't move into the future until you understand your past." Jackson tattooed the symbol onto her wrist and used the image frequently throughout the tour's promotional imagery.
Concert synopsis The show's setlist consists of twenty-six songs, several band interludes and over twenty dance numbers, along with nine costume changes and four different sets, in addition to frequent pyrotechnics and theatrics. At the beginning of the show, burgundy curtains accented by golden tassels are drawn apart, exposing an enormous book. It is covered by an equally large quilt embossed with "The Velvet Rope." A master of ceremonies opens the book, revealed to be an LED screen. The screen shows a nighttime sky with stars and planets. The images dance across the screen, gaining in speed until pyrotechnics explode and the screen splits, revealing Jackson behind it. She is subsequently lowered by elevator onto the main stage and the book stand is removed, leaving the screen hanging in place. It then moves to the back of the stage, followed by the appearance of the band and dancers.
Jackson is dressed in a top hat and velvet suit, resembling a "19th century British merchant", and along with eight dancers, performs the opening number "Velvet Rope", using a refrain of The Exorcist theme. After transitioning into "If", Jackson stares at the audience in silence for several minutes to cheering and applause before performing "You." Jackson is backed by dancers strutting alongside her wearing dual-sided masks, representing an isolated persona. Jackson then takes to a center stage stool to perform unplugged versions of "Let's Wait Awhile" and "Again" with her and an guitarist playing acoustic guitars. A "frenzied" medley of hits from Control succeeds the ballads, including "Control", "The Pleasure Principle", "What Have You Done for Me Lately", and "Nasty", as well as janet.'s erotic house number "Throb." The red velvet curtain closes the stage while a "hidden light-and sound show" likened to extraterrestrial film Close Encounters entertains the crowd during set changes. The stage reveals the "deranged madness" of the following "hallucinatory" segment, featuring Jackson in a jester's headdress and satin bustier, with dancers dressed as "flowers, Mad Hatters, and horny gnomes" in a "Wonderland" setting. Jackson performs an upbeat medley of "Escapade", "When I Think of You", "Miss You Much", "Runaway", and "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" across a "blindingly bright, poppy-induced set design" with varied props, which include a smiling clock tower, inflatable moons, mammoth chaise, vases, and books.
The set transitions into a "steamy burlesque house" with a succession of "Alright", "I Get Lonely", and instrumental interlude of "Any Time, Any Place." Jackson strips to a black bra and tight pants during "Rope Burn", selecting a participant from the crowd at random, "pointing and demanding, "You!". The chosen fan is strapped into a chair as Jackson proceeds to pole dance and perform a striptease and lap dance, planting a kiss on the fan for the finale. "Black Cat" is followed by an emotionally charged rendition of the rock-influenced "What About", one of the tour's most controversial and praised renditions. Jackson narrates as four dancers demonstrate two vignettes of domestic violence in abusive relationships, including rape and physical abuse, concluding in a gun pulled on the abusers in self-defense. Proceeding is "Rhythm Nation", in which Jackson rapidly dances using martial arts movements and nunchucks, followed by the ballad "Special." The tour's encore includes chandeliers and a final outfit change, performing "That's the Way Love Goes", "Got 'til It's Gone", and "Go Deep" before concluding with "Together Again." Piano ballad "Every Time" and "Whoops Now" were performed exclusively on selected international dates.
Critical reception
The tour was highly praised by critics. Sean Daly of Rolling Stone commended the show's "Vegas-style glam" and Jackson's "pure showmanship" as providing "a hellzapoppin' spectacle that featured enough over-the-top special effects to make Armageddon look like Driving Miss Daisy." The concert was considered "a lust-driven fairy tale", featuring "a giant storybook, containing a massive video screen" which opened and closed the show. Its varied themes were contrasted with psychiatric thrillers A Clockwork Orange and Solid Gold, being "as damn freaky as it sounds", using a color scheme described as "a well-lighted explosion at the Crayola factory." The show's second segment was analyzed as "deranged madness", questioning "Can this really be little Penny from Good Times?" Daly praised Jackson's "breakneck speed" and favorably considered it "summer-entertainment bliss", adding "Janet's still as nasty as she wants to be."
Sean Piccoli of The Sun Sentinel applauded the tour as a "birth of a new form of entertainment", effectively taking "music-video fundamentalism to a new extreme in live performance." Jackson's "athletic, superchoreographed presentation" was considered "sheery sensory thrill", thought to have "made Spice World look like public theater." The show was analyzed to be "as much a broadcast as it was a show", transitioning through "a seamless whirl of songs, costumes and set changes." Jackson's performances were described as a "technicolor barrage", ranging from "punched-up, steely grooves" to "pillowy, whispered ballads." Piccoli declared highlights to include the opening number, "an eerie incantation on the strangeness and isolation of celebrity", and the "explosively colorful" Control medley incorporating themes of "children's theater." The tour's rendition of "Rope Burn", showcasing Jackson as she "coaxed a young man from the audience onstage for a veritable striptease routine – for which the fellow was strapped by wristbands to his seat", was also praised. However, the show's unplugged ballad segment was thought to be "the evening's most unadorned moment." Piccoli added the crowd's "animated cheering" had been the most the arena had mustered in his experience.
Robert Hilburn of The Los Angeles Times favorably reviewed the tour, exclaiming "There is so much of the ambition and glamour of a Broadway musical in Janet Jackson's new Velvet Rope Tour that it's only fitting that the concert program credits her as the show's creator and director." Although "those aren't terms normally employed in the pop-rock world", Hilburn applauded Jackson's credibility in portraying "a dazzling package, complete with snappy choreography, a colorful array of costumes and often striking staging." Hilburn observed "there were several moments in the show when Jackson stepped beyond the production values and touched us in a way the best pop performers have done over the years." Emphasis was placed on the "playfulness of the fairy tale staging" of "Escapade", the "artful musical stretch" of "Got 'Til It's Gone", and the intimacy of "soul-searching" ballad "Special", adding "Jackson has put a personal stamp on this show that humanizes not only the music but also the performer too." Jackson's "radiance and warmth" was believed to be the result of "her own new-found self esteem", overcoming some of the insecurities plaguing her since childhood. Hilburn stated "the tour and album should go a long way toward helping Jackson finally get the credit she deserves as an artist."