Moment Justin Timberlake nearly ruined Janet Jackson's career during Super Bowl

19 October 2023 , 00:36

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Justin Timberlake almost ruined Janet Jackson's musical career

As Justin Timberlake is under fire after Britney Spears' explosive memoir, we're taking a closer look at one controversial moments of the famous pop singer's career, when he almost single-handledly derailed Janet Jackson's musical career in a split second.

The Super Bowl halftime show is one of the most memorable performances of the year, and 2004 was one that went down in history folllowing a shocking wardrobe malfunction on stage. During Janet and Justin's iconic performance of his hit song "Rock Your Body" Justin ripped off part of Janet's outfit briefly exposing her breast for 150 million viewers to see.

During the moment, Justin intended to just pull away the bustier of Janet's outfit to show off her red lace bra underneath, but accidentally ripped off the wrong spot and revealed her breast on stage instead. The brief moment on viewer's screens led to a world of damage of Janet's career later referred to as "Nipplegate." The moment went on to lead to the viral hashtag #JusticeForJanet on Twitter as many believe race, gender, and white privilege played a role in how Justin left the situation unscathed and Janet's career suffered.

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Justin accidentally exposed Janet's breast on stage during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show (Getty Images)

Both performers later apologized to viewers for the mistake (FilmMagic)

After the incident, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received half a million complaints from viewers watching the annual NFL game. After the mishap, almost all live broadcasts implemented a five-second delay to catch any major live incidents.

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After the accidental nudity, Janet's representatives released a statement to the public about how it occurred. The statement read: "Justin was supposed to pull away the rubber bustier to reveal a red lace bra. The garment collapsed and her breast was accidentally revealed."

After the incident, Justin immediately joked about the situation. He told interviewers: "I love giving y'all something to talk about" and then went on to say that it was "every man's dream" what happened during Janet's performance. Janet, however, did not find the situation comical and was reportedly crying backstage after the performance as her stage manager comforted her and wrapped a blanket around her.

Justin and Janet later both apologized for the mishap. Janet told Rolling Stone: "The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my halftime show performance was made after final rehearsals. MTV was completely unaware of it," She continued: "It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. MTV, CBS, [and] the NFL had no knowledge of this whatsoever and, unfortunately, the whole thing went wrong in the end. I apologise to anyone offended, including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL."

Janet's career greatly suffered from the incident as Justin's remained unscathed (Getty Images)

But backlash from the incident didn't stop after the pair apologised. Following the malfunction Janet was banned from performing at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards the next week. She was originally set to take the stage alongside Justin, but was later removed from the schedule and uninvited from the event.

But despite Janet being cut from the show, Justin still attended and performed. At the award show he was honoured with two awards and addressed his mistake in the absence of Janet during his acceptance speech. During his speech he laughed and said: "I know it's been a rough week on everybody. What occurred was unintentional, completely regrettable, and I apologise if you guys are offended."

Not only was Janet cut from performances after the incident, her entire career began to suffer. After the show, Janet's songs and music videos were blacklisted from MTV and CBS following orders from their parent company Viacom. The next album she released Damito Jo also dropped in popularity compared to her previous albums.

Justin later went on to address the fact that Janet was the one that was unfairly targeted following the performance. In August of 2006, Justin told MTV News: “It's an understatement to say that it was sort of unfair if you consider it 50-50, I probably got 10% of the blame,” he continued: “And that says something about society. I think that America's harsher on women, and I think that America's unfairly harsh on ethnic people.”

But despite the setback, Janet has since been able to revive her career. The 57-year-old singer recently wrapped up the tour in June and drew in an estimated $50.9million (£39.9 million) after selling 479,000 tickets during the span of 37 shows across the United States, marking the highest of any of her previous tours.

Caroline Gaspich