African-American R&B and pop singer La Toya Jackson (born La Toya Yvonne Jackson, May 29, 1956 in Gary, Indiana) is the fifth child of the hugely successful Jackson music family. She is the older sister of Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson.

La Toya Jackson was the first female sibling of the Jackson family to pursue a solo musical career. Her debut album "La Toya Jackson" was released in 1980 on Polydor Records, comprised by a mix of funk uptempo songs and ballads.

One year later Jackson released her sophomore album "My Special Love," which was basically similarly constructed as her debut album. Again, she co-wrote one of the songs with her sister Janet Jackson and she did another cover version of a Billy Ocean hit, this time the song "Stay The Night," which was also released as the first single off the album. Her brothers, Tito Jackson, Marlon Jackson and Jackie Jackson also contributed to the album. During that time, La Toya was still managed by her father Joseph Jackson.

In 1983 she signed a new record deal with Private Eye Records, a division of Epic Records. She recorded her most successful album so far: "Heart Don't Lie," which was released in 1984. Jackson co-wrote half of the songs herself and worked with the producer team Amir Bayyan. La Toya finally cracked the US Billboard Charts with the hit single "Heart Don't Lie" (#56) and scored a few other Top 40 hits on the Billboard Dance/Club Play & R&B Charts with singles off the "Heart Don't Lie" album. While promoting the album, she did a guest appearance on the US TV show "The Unknown Stuntman" with Lee Majors and presented her current single "Hot Potato" on the show.

Another album, "Imagination," was released in 1986 without much notice. It received mostly poor reviews.

In 1987 Jackson left the management company of her father Joseph Jackson and also left the Jackson residence in Encino, USA. At that time she was 31 years old and she decided it was time for her to stand on her own feet. She also decided to let Jack Gordon manage her music career from then on.

In 1987 Jackson signed a record deal with Teldec Records in Germany. They teamed her up with European's hottest dance producer team during that time: Stock/Aitken/Waterman. They recorded 3 songs for her 1988 album "La Toya." The first single from the album was "(Ain't Nobody Loves You) Like I Do". She recorded the anti-drug campaign song "Just Say No," which was recorded for Nancy Reagan's anti-drug campaign for which Jackson was also a spokesperson.

Jackson caused much controversy when she posed for Playboy magazine in March 1989. A few months later she recorded another album, "Bad Girl," for Teldec Records. The album was never released on the Teldec label but appeared one year later on the Italian Record label Sherman Records. It was later licensed to hundreds of small record labels, thus the album was re-released at least in 50 different editions under various names, such as "Sexual Feeling," "He's My Brother" or "Playboy."

In 1991 Jackson moved to Europe where she released her 7th studio album No Relations. The album explored European house music and included the single Sexbox which was a minor hit in Holland. (#25) In the album sleeve she slated her parents and called for an end to child abuse. No Relations was never released in the US. She also posed a second time for Playboy magazine this year.

In 1992 La Toya signed up to do a Cabaret Showgirl act at the Moulin Rouge for 1 year, the bulk of her songs were in French, the only English one being a cover of Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion. After doing the show for only 4 months, La Toya quit and was immediately sued by the Moulin Rouge for breach of contract.

In 1993, she recorded a Country Music album by the name of "From Nashville To You", the album has been released 2 more times as "My Country Collection" and "Little Misunderstood" with more dull covers than the first pressing. No singles were released from this album, although La Toya did perform Patsy Cline's "Crazy" on The Maury Show.

In 1994, La Toya's husband, who was also the controlling force behind From Nashville To You, forced La Toya into recording an album of Motown classics, it was recorded within about 2 hours. La Toya's vocals weren't as polished on this album as they were on the Country album and the rest of her Jack Gordon produced albums. The bulk of the songs were Supremes covers as well as covers by The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and her very own brothers, The Jackson Five. One CD Single of two Supremes covers was released, it was a double A-Side CD Single with 1 track being "Baby Love" and the second track being a slightly shorter version of "I Can't Help Myself" than on the album. The CD Single failed to top the charts in Holland (where it was released) and even failing to at least dent the charts.

These would be the last 2 albums La Toya recorded under Jack Gordon's control, before filing for divorce and possibly a restraining order against him.

LaToya did not have any professional accomplishments between 1996 and 2002; she claims that she took this professional absence voluntarily, though many would speculate that prior behaviour had decimated her career to the point of no return.

In 2001 she started to work on a new album titled "Startin' Over". She started to return into the spotlight in the year 2002, when she returned with a tell-all interview on Larry King, where she first made public comment about her alleged situation with Gordon.

The first single, "Just Wanna Dance", was released to radios under the stage name "Toy" in the summer of 2004, a decision Jackson claimed was made to give the song a chance without association to her sullied image. The single was a decent hit on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart peaking at a respectable #13. The album's second single, "Free the World", reached #24 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart signalling that Jackson may have a future as gay club dance diva if she ever decides to follow that route.

Her new album "Startin' Over" has been postponed for three years now. Jackson claimed the album would be out in Summer 2002. Then she stated it would be out in the Summer of 2003. The latest scheduled release date by her record label Bungalo Records now is Summer 2006, although 2 singles were already launched to clubs in 2003 - 3 years prior to the album's release.

Source: Wikipedia.org / MJIFC.nl