What Have You Done for Me Lately

The music video for "What Have You Done for Me Lately" won a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video in 1987. Directed by Brian Jones and Piers Ashworth, it showed Janet Jackson visiting a diner with her friends to discuss her relationship problems, and its choreography came from singer Paula Abdul. The song itself, released January 13, 1986, by A&M Records as the lead single from her album Control, earned a nomination for Best Rhythm & Blues Song at the 1987 Grammy Awards and first reached a live audience when Jackson performed it at that ceremony.

The track had been written for one of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis's own records before the lyrics were rewritten to reflect Jackson's feelings about her separation from James DeBarge in January 1985. It was the last song recorded for Control, with A&M executive John McClain asking for one more uptempo number. Jackson co-wrote it with her producers, and its words revolve around a woman's frustration with an inattentive partner. Critics responded positively, with many believing it erased the "pop-ingénue image" of her first two albums and reestablished her as an independent woman figure.

Commercially, the single peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. It topped the US Hot Black Singles chart, reached number two on the Dance Club Songs chart, and hit number one in the Netherlands. Jackson later performed it on every tour from the Rhythm Nation World Tour 1990 through the State of the World Tour in 2017.