#firstarena

I finally saw one of my idols live in concert. The original plan was to have a three day vacation going to Savannah and St. Augustine and unfortunately the plans fell through. I got into a car accident and had to pay for my rental car an extra week which costed me way more money than I planned. I started to pushed the trip to Monday since the day before I had to do a rehearsal for a duet in a competition (that I ended up not doing because I was sick and lost my voice) and also had to take Lily, my cat, to the vet because I saw a puddle of blood coming out on her pooped. I was cool with leaving in Monday but that didn’t happen because I ended up getting my car back on that day and in the end, money was super tight. On the day of the show, I thought I wouldn’t have a sub to cover for me and after an hour of crying and squirming trying to find a teacher, I finally did. With so much against me, I thought seeing Janet Jackson would not happen at all. But it did. Oh my God thank goodness!!

My friend and I left Orlando in the early afternoon to make it to Jacksonville by 7:30. My GPS was being weird and had to use Waze in which I don’t like using because if I make a wrong turn, it takes too long to figure out where I need to go and sometimes it just takes me to the wrong destination.

When we finally reached where we need to go, there was a lot of traffic because it felt like everyone in town wanted to see her. I saw parking lot Z was to my right and I asked the lady if that’s where I need to go. She ignored me and told me to keep going. Of course, I drove around because I ended up at another parking lot where I had to pay and I’m not down to pay for parking again. After 15 minutes of chaos a parking spot was found in the lot I was supposed to be at.

My friend and I ran to the arena because we thought we were going to be late and miss the opener. People around us laughed and one said that we’re not late. They were right. We waited I feel about 20 minutes for anything to happen. A DJ came on and started warming up the crowd by playing music from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Many songs by the Jackson 5, Michale Jackson, of course Janet and a Bruno Mars tune. Everyone were on their feet and dancing. There was this one guy with one drink in hand, broke down and danced while everyone around were cheering him on. It felt great to connect with a group of strangers for a few hours once again.

When Janet Jackson came on, everyone of course freaked out. Her entrance after a little video was powerful. She started with Knowledge (from her Rhythm nation era) and everyone were on their feet. She may be around 5 feet tall but the way she demanded our attention is of someone who is 7 feet tall. Everyone laid their eyes on her bed soaked in every move she made. The first set were mostly of her past hits that made us fall in love with her. Everyone were singing along and enjoyed her dancers who were incredibly talented. There was definitely a variety of dancers. Young, older, big, small, black, white, biracial and everything in between. It was great to see a great group of representation and strengthens the message of unity for the show.

What I admired about watching Janet was how much she commanded the stage and would keep our eyes on her whenever she’s on stage. While we were giving her love, she gave so much back. I love how her concert carried many messages and not some random concert of songs put together. You walk away from the concert thinking and feeling something with substance. While she brought the everyday issues we face, she also gave us moments for us to forget about them. It was such a great balance of what she was feeding us. And in the end, I felt inspired. One of the biggest things about being a songwriter is having something to say. If you don’t have anything to say, no one would listen and well as an artist, how can you feel inspired? How can you?

It was clearly one of the best birthdays ever. Not kidding. I hope maybe one day I can get a brief conversation with her to thank her honestly. Thank her for being a core part of my childhood and giving me the sparks to start the fire within me. She’s an amazing artist and performer and I’m happy to hear that she will possibly come back with new music again. You all know I’ll be one of the firsts to buy.