Janet Jackson Announces Control 40 Concert Film

Janet Jackson is celebrating one of the most important albums of her career in a major way.

The music icon has teamed with Airtab Music for Janet Jackson: Control 40, also billed as The Airtab Music Movie, a new concert film honoring the 40th anniversary of her breakthrough 1986 album Control. The project is set to capture Jackson live on stage while also giving fans a closer look behind the scenes.

Filming is scheduled for December 12, 2026, at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida. Director Leslie Small will oversee the production, which is planned as a cinematic, multi-camera concert presentation featuring both live performances and exclusive backstage footage. Producers have described the project as an effort to create a definitive filmed celebration of Jackson’s career.

Fans who want to be part of the taping will get their chance soon. Tickets for the December concert are scheduled to go on sale August 20.

Although Control provides the inspiration and anniversary milestone behind the project, the concert won’t be limited to songs from that album. According to the official announcement, Jackson will perform music from across her catalog, turning the production into a broader celebration of the career she has built over four decades.

That gives fans plenty of material to look forward to. Jackson’s music stretches from the attitude and independence of Control to the socially conscious sound of Rhythm Nation 1814 and countless hits that followed.

Still, Control remains a pivotal part of her story.

Released in 1986, the album marked Jackson’s first collaboration with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, beginning a creative partnership that would become one of the defining forces in pop and R&B. The album became Jackson’s first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and produced five singles that reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100.

Those songs included “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” “Nasty,” “When I Think of You,” “Let’s Wait Awhile” and “Control.” The success of those records helped establish Jackson not simply as a member of one of music’s most famous families, but as an artist with a sound, image and identity completely her own.

The album’s themes of independence, confidence and personal authority also became closely tied to Jackson’s public image. Forty years later, that message provides a fitting foundation for a concert film looking back on the career that followed.

Control 40 is expected to incorporate songs from later eras as well, allowing Jackson to connect the album that changed her trajectory with the hits and creative evolution that came afterward.

The project also arrives during a period in which Jackson’s legacy continues to be celebrated by longtime listeners and rediscovered by younger audiences. Her influence remains visible in contemporary pop and R&B, particularly in the combination of choreography, visual storytelling and music that became a signature part of her career.

For fans who experienced Control when it first arrived in 1986, the concert film offers a chance to celebrate an album that became part of their own musical history. For those who discovered Jackson years later, it provides an opportunity to see why that era remains such a defining moment in pop culture.

The production is being planned for a global release, with streaming expected to follow, although an official theatrical release date has not yet been announced.

Four decades after Janet Jackson declared that she was taking control of her own life and career, she is revisiting that moment on her own terms and bringing fans along for the celebration.

Janet Jackson: Control 40 will be filmed December 12, 2026, at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, with tickets going on sale August 20.