celeb news Lizzo: Britney is a Janet impersonator

[Anticipating]

  On 4/4/2025 at 12:57 AM, LovingDays said:

How I love to see an enemy fall. 

Expand  

Girl your fave's career is literally in the gutter  

[Terylee]

  On 4/4/2025 at 7:03 AM, Mezter said:

I wouldn't call her an impersonator but Idk why y'all get so mad when someone says Britney was inspired by Janet. Britney has said it herself countless times...

Expand  

The word "impersonator" is the problem. I think nobody is mad when someone says Britney was inspired by Janet.

[Obsession]

Honestly, just disrespectful and purely ahistorical. Janet inspired Britney at times, and musically so on Britney, but she wasn't just some Janet Jackson tribute act.

 

But what can you expect from someone who thinks they're following the footsteps of Prince and Tina Turner by making late-career P!nk rejects

[PopThatCorn]

Where is the lie though?

 

Britney herself has literally said time and time again how nearly every project she does is inspired by Janet.

 

Obviously with time she carved out more of an identity for herself, especially by the In The Zone era. But even later projects had direct references to Janet and even the producers she worked with on Blackout (Danja) are MASSIVE Janet fans and cite her as their biggest influence. 

 

Britney is an icon in her own right and "impersonator" is harshly worded but let's be real, she reheated Janet's nachos enough times to burn down a Mexican restaurant. 

[PopThatCorn]

  On 4/4/2025 at 4:56 PM, Obsession said:

Honestly, just disrespectful and purely ahistorical. Janet inspired Britney at times, and musically so on Britney, but she wasn't just some Janet Jackson tribute act.

 

But what can you expect from someone who thinks they're following the footsteps of Prince and Tina Turner by making late-career P!nk rejects

Expand  

You downplaying Janet's influence on Britney is far more disingenuous than whatever Lizzo said.

 

Britney was not inspired by Janet "at times" or only on the Britney album, she is her biggest influence PERIOD.

[Obsession]

  On 4/4/2025 at 5:09 PM, PopThatCorn said:

You downplaying Janet's influence on Britney is far more disingenuous than whatever Lizzo said.

 

Britney was not inspired by Janet "at times" or only on the Britney album, she is her biggest influence PERIOD.

Expand  

I am not downplaying her influence. Janet was a major influence, but she was not Britney's only influence, and Britney's discography has many other musical influences that are not limited to just imitating Janet Jackson.

 

It's weird to attempt to claim responsibility for someone's entire artistry, and saying she's a Janet impersonator is reducing her artistry to nothing more than recycling Janet Jackson, and Britney's discography does far than just recycling Janet's discography. 

 

Also sorry, musically Britney's discography does not sound like Janet anywhere else as much as it does on Britney. "Toxic", "I Wanna Go", even most of Blackout sounds nothing like Janet's discography. 

Edited Friday at 06:53 PM by Obsession

[Bookmark99]

well she's not wrong lol

 

wasn't the stronger chair choreo lifted straight from Janet?

[The Slayer]

To call the legendary Ms Britney Spears an impersonator is insane to me.

 

What terrible wording, no wonder she keeps getting cancelled.

 

I also just wanted to say as much as a stupid thing it is we shouldn't be calling her 'fat' or other personal insults.

 

 

[KKKIMO92]

She didn't lie tho and Britney would happily accept that statement.

[Stankonia]

I'm very confused by some people in here saying that the Janet influence on Britney stops at dancing/performing. That is vastly inaccurate.

 

Even the album y'all claim she stopped giving Janet musically was in fact heavily inspired by her.

 

Danja, Blackout's main producer : 

 

"I can't hold the secret any longer. Janet Jackon's Control and Rhythm Nation are probably my biggest influence on how I approach music for female artists. 

 

I don't know how I got these tapes as a kid but I remember listening to them so much so it's in my blood. I've been trying to duplicate the essence of Janet forever.

Just listen to anything I've done with female artists you will hear my choices in bright chord progressions over high energy and aggressive beats.

 

Of course I did it my way but Janet is THE blueprint for my Pop period."

 

Some of y'all have no idea how big of an impact Janet has had on music. That lady shifted the sound of popular music on more than one occasion and that's something that can be said about very few pop singers.

Edited Friday at 08:06 PM by Stankonia

[prézli]

Miss Lizzo, you will never have a career as legendary as Miss Spears'.

[PopThatCorn]

  On 4/4/2025 at 6:50 PM, Obsession said:

I am not downplaying her influence. Janet was a major influence, but she was not Britney's only influence, and Britney's discography has many other musical influences that are not limited to just imitating Janet Jackson.

 

It's weird to attempt to claim responsibility for someone's entire artistry, and saying she's a Janet impersonator is reducing her artistry to nothing more than recycling Janet Jackson, and Britney's discography does far than just recycling Janet's discography. 

 

Also sorry, musically Britney's discography does not sound like Janet anywhere else as much as it does on Britney. "Toxic", "I Wanna Go", even most of Blackout sounds nothing like Janet's discography. 

Expand  

I never said Janet was Britney's only influence? But if we are being factual according to Britney's own words as well as the observations of dozens of music critics (and anyone who has observed pop culture for more than an hour), she is clearly her biggest influence.

 

Also you say Toxic sounds nothing like Janet's discography meanwhile Cathy Dennis admitted the song was originally written with Janet in mind.

 

I mean, Britney and Janet both have emotional ballads titled "Every Time" / "Everytime" where they both appear in a bathtub during the music video. And she chose to shoot the Overprotected Remix video in the exact same hotel as Janet's Son Of A Gun... Are we really saying these are just funny coincidences?

[Jeremiah]

  On 4/4/2025 at 5:16 AM, Genie in a Bottle said:

I'm not sure what the context of Lizzo's comment is

Expand  

She's using Britney to determine Janet Jackson as The Queen Of Pop and not Madonna. If you watch the full clip, it's evidently how utterly ignorant Lizzo is, not only for relegating Britney to an "impersonator", but for also unacknowledging Madonna's impact (both overall and on Britney). "Janet did it all first" when in fact Madonna was a global superstar while Janet was putting albums that fans today refer to as mixtapes.

 

Britney has never hidden her influences, she loves Janet and it's like the one person who still brings her up. Lizzo needs to keep the names of all these three LEGENDS out of her nasty loud mouth.

Edited Friday at 09:12 PM by Jeremiah

[LovingDays]

  On 4/4/2025 at 3:55 PM, Anticipating said:

Girl your fave's career is literally in the gutter  

Expand  

How did Manjobi do?

[TouchinFree]

Oh not this forgotten lockdown singer discrediting Britney's legendary contribution to pop music. Also, Britney had said it 10000 times that she saw Janet on tv and decided she wants to be a singer/performer. That's called inspiration.

 

I'll wait for Britney to drag her ass for the next 500 instagram post, before i drag her myself. I had enough sugar in my coffee this morning so im good. 

[Misguided Ghost]

Inspiration? Sure

But calling someone as big as Britney, who herself inspired so many pop stars is insulting

[Zendayababes]

  Quote

There were no such things as Pop divas before Janet. Janet was first. She was famous when Madonna was a kid watching her on television.

Expand  

WHAT is this????  

 

Does the streamline of time BEND in her vicinity like it does in a blackhole?

[BionicWooHoo]

  On 4/4/2025 at 12:15 AM, PoisonPill said:

Strictly in regards to choreography, sure, but that's where it ends. Janet and Britney's producers innovated and shaped the sound and look of pop music for their times.

Expand  

fixed that for you

[MatiRod]

I kind of expected better from Lizzo, she always struck me as someone who was a real student of music but I guess I was wrong. This is such a weird take for her to say because the music that Britney blew up with with her first two albums was Swedish euro pop. Those massive Max Martin choruses and power chords are rooted in the Swedish pop tradition dating back to ABBA. What Max did which was revolutionary was combine that melodic sensibility with American R&B/Pop style production. Now that production style absolutely is indebted to Janet's New Jack Swing sound. But melodically there is very little trace of her in songs like "...Baby", "Oops", "Lucky" etc. So while Janet was a huge influence on the bubblegum pop scene in terms of production and look and performance, the songs themselves weren't impersonation at all, it was using some influence and putting a very different spin on it. Ditto with her post-conservatorship hits like "Womanizer", "Circus", "If U Seek Amy", "3", the Femme Fatale singles, the will.i.am stuff. I don't think anyone is seriously going to argue that "Till the World Ends" is Janet-lite.

[Anticipating]

  On 4/4/2025 at 11:30 PM, BionicWooHoo said:

fixed that for you

Expand  

Maybe if your fave's producers did the same for your fave, her catalog wouldn't be dead and forgotten in 2025. They always hopped on trends and/or gave her scraps.

  On 4/4/2025 at 10:36 PM, LovingDays said:

How did Manjobi do?

Expand  

Justin Timberlake's 2020s discography:

 

2020 - The Other Side (with SZA) — #61
2020 - Believe (with Meek Mill) — #90
2020 - Better Days (with Ant Clemons)

2021 - Just Be (with DJ Khaled) — N/A

2022 - Parent Trap (with Jack Harlow) — N/A
2022 - Stay with Me (with Calvin Harris, Halsey, and Phrarell Williams) — N/A
2022 - Sin Fin (with Romeo Santos) — #100
2023 - Keep Going Up (with Timbaland and Nelly Furtado) — #84
2023 - 3D (Remix) (with Jungkook) — N/A
2024 - Selfish — #19 
2024 - No Angels — N/A
2024 - Drown — N/A

2024 - Paradise (with NSYNC) — N/A

 

Tried every trick in the book and hopped on every trend known to mankind (Latin pop, K-Pop, nostalgia baiting with Nelly Furtado and Timbaland and even NSYNC) and everything his alcoholic ass has touched this decade has been bomb after bomb. How do you even have the audacity to talk about failures?

Edited Saturday at 12:33 AM by Anticipating

[Genie in a Bottle]

  On 4/4/2025 at 4:43 PM, Terylee said:

The word "impersonator" is the problem. I think nobody is mad when someone says Britney was inspired by Janet.

Expand  

Edited Saturday at 12:35 AM by Genie in a Bottle

[Rogue_Redux]

  On 4/4/2025 at 2:50 PM, Sabrina Carpenter said:

yawn, quote me when you say something new because my notifs are filled that same retort 

 

 

Expand  

That's what happens when you have trash ass takes. Get the hint. 

[vipanonymous]

She's irrelevant. Trying to create buzz to keep her name going

[UrMom]

this is so rude

[BionicWooHoo]

  On 4/5/2025 at 12:33 AM, Anticipating said:

Maybe if your fave's producers did the same for your fave, her catalog wouldn't be dead and forgotten in 2025. They always hopped on trends and/or gave her scraps.

Justin Timberlake's 2020s discography:

 

2020 - The Other Side (with SZA) — #61
2020 - Believe (with Meek Mill) — #90
2020 - Better Days (with Ant Clemons)

2021 - Just Be (with DJ Khaled) — N/A

2022 - Parent Trap (with Jack Harlow) — N/A
2022 - Stay with Me (with Calvin Harris, Halsey, and Phrarell Williams) — N/A
2022 - Sin Fin (with Romeo Santos) — #100
2023 - Keep Going Up (with Timbaland and Nelly Furtado) — #84
2023 - 3D (Remix) (with Jungkook) — N/A
2024 - Selfish — #19 
2024 - No Angels — N/A
2024 - Drown — N/A

2024 - Paradise (with NSYNC) — N/A

 

Tried every trick in the book and hopped on every trend known to mankind (Latin pop, K-Pop, nostalgia baiting with Nelly Furtado and Timbaland and even NSYNC) and everything his alcoholic ass has touched this decade has been bomb after bomb. How do you even have the audacity to talk about failures?

Expand  

The way whenever I bring the fact that Britney had little to no creative impact on her commercial success, you can't form any rebuttal without bringing up my faves. My other faves include Gaga and Mariah both of whom also sing the house down and have major creative control. What does that say about your argument?