L-R: Questlove, Janet Jackson; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Juggernaut Productions, Inc.Janet Jackson wasn’t a part of Sunday’s NFL championship game, but the music icon was definitely there in spirit.
That’s because a group of her biggest fans created a major social media campaign in an effort to make #JanetJacksonAppreciationDay a trending topic on Super Bowl Sunday — and it worked.
Celebrities and Jackson fans from around the world included the Janet Jackson Appreciation Day hashtags in tweets about the singer’s legacy and influence, making her a top-five trending topic on Twitter Sunday.
Chance The Rapper, Empire star Jussie Smollett and Questlove were among the stars who tweeted and Instagrammed their support of Janet’s monumental impact in the music industry and around the world.
Chance tweeted a childhood photo of Janet and her late brother Michael Jackson with the hashtag #JanetJacksonAppreciation Day, while Questlove used his Instagram account to raise awareness about the fact Janet has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Questlove wrote, “…as a voting member of the @RockHall it’s criminal that @JanetJackson has NOT been inducted yet. 32 years ago today #Control dropped AND CHANGED EVERYTHING: including her brother AND the mentor of her producers jimmy [jam] & terry [lewis].”
Jussie tweeted a picture of him standing next to Janet, writing, “Happy #JanetJacksonAppreciationDay #GreatestLivingEntertainer #JanetJackson.”
The Janet Jackson Appreciation Day campaign started out as a way to protest Justin Timberlake as this year’s halftime headliner, after he ripped off a piece of Jackson’s costume during a halftime performance in 2004.
Jackson’s career took a hit in the wake of the so-called “wardrobe malfunction”-slash-Nipplegate controversy, while Timberlake went on to enjoy a mega-platinum film and music career with few repercussions, according to some.
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