Industry Weekly

[Legend Status]

Janet Jackson’s State of the World tour visits Mandalay Bay

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Janet Jackson’s long-awaited Vegas show couldn’t have come at a better time.
Photo: Farrenton Grigsby / Courtesy

After taking time away from the stage to give birth to her first son early this year, Janet Jackson is back with the State of the World tour, which makes a stop at Mandalay Bay Events Center Saturday night for an epic concert that couldn’t have come at a better time. The long-awaited visit from the pop music icon is exactly what the Las Vegas Strip needs to show that it’s back to business as usual as the entertainment capital of the world, but the uplifting theme of Jackson’s tour is also incredibly relevant.

“People can’t find enough to eat/Now our kids can’t go out and play/That’s the state of the world today,” she sings on “State of the World,” just one of the memorable tracks from 1989’s Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. The message in the music resonates today as much as it did almost 30 years ago, but it’s the performance that are receiving rave reviews. Variety called her October 8 Hollywood Bowl concert an “all-stops stadium pop show” loaded with personality: “The show really got moving in the latter half, with Jackson balancing style and substance as she steadily ratcheted up the intensity.” Imagine how much more intense her Las Vegas performance might be. Janet Jackson at Mandalay Bay Events Center, October 14.

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Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of editor-at-large at Las Vegas Weekly magazine. ...

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