Janet Jackson All For You Concert Tour 2001 00

In the Duelling Diva Smackdown that has filled MCI Center for five of the past nine nights, Janet Jackson KO'd Madonna with a two-hour show that favoured jubilant entertainment over sombre art, and embraced the past instead of avoiding it. Jackson .. also trumped Madonna in terms of staging, choreography and audience participation. © The Washington Post August 2001

Janet's show took the audience on a journey from cool, minimal, tecno-funk, through escapades of inflatable fantasy to the dystopian cyberpunk world of her Rhythm Nation. The show opened with a snatch-Kabuki reveal of Janet alone on top of a zip lift in front of a plain white wall. As the song began, her dancers dropped into view behind her. After two songs, the while wall opened to reveal the band, and later, the video screen. Then we had stairs, elevators, a garden of inflatable sweets, and finally, a complete transformation into an Asian cityscape with flashing neon.