I’ve got some nerve I do
When I’ve got so much to lose
I am a fool it’s true
To love and to show it to you
For years, Janita’s journey through the music industry was a battle of will, a fight to forge her own path in a world eager to confine her. A prodigy from the start, she sang before she spoke, played piano by three, and composed songs by four. Classical training shaped her hands, ballet disciplined her body, but no tradition could contain her spirit. In her native Finland, she became a phenomenon: her voice a fixture on airwaves, her presence undeniable. Fame came swiftly, but freedom lagged behind.
At seventeen, she took off for New York, seeking space to grow beyond the expectations pressed upon her. A deal with Sony promised opportunity…but also delivered restriction. “They actually had me work with a ‘trainer’ whose job it was to teach me how to walk, and how to sit ‘like a lady,’” Janita laughs. “I was like, look, I already know how to walk, man. I’m good.”
Major-label machinery sought to mould, to tame, and to make palatable what was meant to be unbound. She would soon strike out on her own, releasing a string of independent hits and records that would win her not only a devoted American audience, but an international one on four continents. That struggle, the push against industry-defined femininity, against the softening and silencing of her voice, led her to pen an anthem: a rallying cry for power, defiance, and self-sovereignty.
Now Janita has dropped a new video for I Want You I Warn You, the second single from her tenth studio album, Mad Equation, out in May via ECR Music Group.
The message of I Want You I Warn You is a personal one from a female artist in a man’s business, and a woman in a man’s world: “Sometimes you write a song about something specific and personal, and it winds up being about something larger because of the moment the song finds itself in,” Janita says. “This is a song of a woman telling someone ‘I want you, watch out.’ The song isn’t a threat––in fact, it’s a love song––but it seems now that women simply saying what they want and how they want it is threatening to some. To many, actually…The song’s meaning isn’t just in the lyric, it’s in the impact of the guitars, the arrangement, and the production. This is me as a woman, taking charge, and owning my place in this world. And that act—right now—is not just personal. It’s political.”
The video unfolds in a New York City rehearsal space, a setting where the air hums with possibility, yet the weight of exclusion lingers. For countless women, being sidelined, spoken over, or dismissed outright is a battle waged daily. The clip transforms that frustration into defiance: no shouting, no spectacle, just the quiet force of presence.
This is a declaration, a reclaiming of space, a playful yet pointed act of standing firm. The video refuses erasure, making itself undeniable through sheer confidence. Love, whether bound by romance or rising in its purest, unconditional form, becomes both a shield and a weapon, a force wielded with unwavering intent. Strength here is not found in aggression, but in the audacity to embrace, to care, to remain open despite the world’s insistence on hard edges. It’s a reminder that power often lies in what is most vulnerable, and that presence alone can shift the room.
“Being in lust or in love can be such a deliciously un-peaceful and volatile feeling. Inside you’re going absolutely batty, but outside you’re trying to keep it cool as a cucumber,” says Janita. “The director of this video, Alice Teeple, is a dear friend of mine and also a free spirit– fearless with her artistry. Her mere presence egged me on to let loose and express the mania and mayhem that goes on in the mind. Truth be told, it’s not just love or lust that drives me bonkers these days. I think that this video works on a number of different levels, not the least of which is this: I’m a woman—passionate, opinionated, rebellious, in a world that would prefer me to be humble and docile. The video shows that this woman is not about to be held down by anything.”
Watch below:
Janita continues to demonstrate that much like contemporaries PJ Harvey and St. Vincent, the only formula she’s interested in following is her own. “The title Mad Equation is about trying to do the math to figure someone out. Trying to size someone up. There’s actually a mathematical formula called ‘the mad equation’ which physicists use to measure the unpredictability of something…I think it’s fair to say that over the course of my career, people have been trying to figure me out too. Am I the long-haired blonde soul singer? Am I the Finnish teenage star? Am I the American alternative rock ’n’ roller? Gosh, I’m just such a problem. So, maybe I’m a mad equation for some. Well, with this new record, problem solved.”
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