Made For Now

Album: Single release only (2018)
Charted: 88
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This uplifting ode to living in the present is a collaboration with Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee. It is Jackson's first single and music video since "Dammn Baby" was released in May 2016. During the mini hiatus, Janet Jackson gave birth to her first child in January 2017 and announced three months later she was divorcing her husband, Qatari businessman Wissam Al Mana.
  • The song was produced by Harmony Samuels, who has crafted tracks for Ariana Grande ("The Way"), Fantasia ("Without Me") and Jennifer Lopez ("Let It Be Me"). It was Janet's A&R, JQ, who asked him to write some material for her. Samuels recalled to Billboard how writing song after song for 10 days, he was feeling he'd not come up with anything different to her normal sound.

    "I was scratching my head and pacing around the studio, like, what is it? One morning, it just hit me," Samuels said. "I quickly did research on her and she's never done an Afrocentric cultural record before. I said, perfect. That's exactly what I'm going to do: cultural, Afrocentric, with a little bit of Latino [inspiration] and we're gonna write a great record to it."
  • The first guitar line you hear in the song was something Samuels literally heard in his head while showering. He recalled: "I jump out the shower and scream, yes yes! I sing into my phone, I get in my clothes and run to the studio, speeding down the freeway like, this is going to be the record. I'm making the track and going crazy. We end up making the song, the team of us: Al Sherrod [Lambert], Shawn Butler, Verren Wade, Edgar 'JV' Etienne and myself. We're all just working together like, this is actually going to be perfect for Janet."
  • Jackson performed the song for the first time live with Daddy Yankee on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on August 17, 2018. It marked her first appearance on late-night television in the US in 14 years.
  • Shot in Brooklyn, New York, in July 2018, the music video was the work of American director Dave Myers. The clip takes place at a neighborhood dance party where we see Janet and Daddy Yankee throwing some moves supported by a contingent of international dancers from Ghana, Nigeria, Grenada, Trinidad and the US. The international dance crew was chosen by Jackson along with her longtime creative director, Gil Duldulao.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Tommy James

Tommy JamesSongwriter Interviews

"Mony Mony," "Crimson and Clover," "Draggin' The Line"... the hits kept coming for Tommy James, and in a plot line fit for a movie, his record company was controlled by the mafia.

Steely Dan

Steely DanFact or Fiction

Did they really trade their guitarist to The Doobie Brothers? Are they named after something naughty? And what's up with the band name?

David Gray

David GraySongwriter Interviews

David Gray explains the significance of the word "Babylon," and talks about how songs are a form of active imagination, with lyrics that reveal what's inside us.

JJ Burnel of The Stranglers

JJ Burnel of The StranglersSongwriter Interviews

JJ talks about The Stranglers' signature sound - keyboard and bass - which isn't your typical strain of punk rock.

Tim McIlrath of Rise Against

Tim McIlrath of Rise AgainstSongwriter Interviews

Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath explains the meanings behind some of their biggest songs and names the sci-fi books that have influenced him.

George Clinton

George ClintonSongwriter Interviews

When you free your mind, your ass may follow, but you have to make sure someone else doesn't program it while it's wide open.