ENTERTAINMENT
Dannielynn Birkhead Pays Tribute to Janet Jackson by Wearing Her 2003 Outfit to 2022 Barnstable Brown Gala
Dannielynn Birkhead is channeling her inner Janet Jackson.
The daughter of Larry Birkhead and the late Anna Nicole Smith attended the 33rd annual Barnstable Brown Kentucky Derby Eve Gala on Friday evening, where she wore the exact outfit that Jackson, 55, wore to the same event almost two decades ago.
Larry, 49, revealed that the attire Dannielynn, 15, was wearing once belonged to the “Escapade” singer in an Instagram post on the joint account that he shares with his teenage daughter.
“Off to the Barnstable-Brown Gala with Dannielynn,” the photographer captioned a series of posts, before revealing that her outfit was the same one worn by Jackson in 2003.
Noting that her ensemble “was purchased as a part of Janet’s @juliens_auctions benefitting charity,” Larry continued, “Ironically, Janet is expected to attend tonight.”
“Next up the @kentuckyderby then taking Dannielynn to her first @janetjackson concert,” the proud dad concluded his post.
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At the event, Dannielynn and Jackson posed together for photographs alongside Larry. The father-daughter duo has long attended the event, which is where Larry first met Smith.
Chris Barnstable-Brown, one of the event’s organizers, tells PEOPLE that Dannielynn “looked gorgeous” while wearing her “homage” to Jackson. “She is getting so tall,” he adds of the teen. “She’s almost as tall as her dad now.”
Jackson, meanwhile, Barnstable-Brown says, looked like a “goddess in the flesh.” He adds: “Janet Jackson came in and when just absolutely couldn’t be any sweeter.”
“She was so sweet and down to earth, and she was mingling with guests,” Barnstable-Brown says. “She was talking to everybody.”
Jackson, Dannielynn, and Larry were just some of the guests to attend the star-studded gala, which raises money for the Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center at the University of Kentucky.
Over the past thirteen years, the event has raised and donated approximately $17 million to aid the medical center.
Other guests at the event included Jason Aldean, Sam Hunt, Justin Hartley, Sofia Pernas, Richie Sambora, and Morgan Wallen, to name a few.
The members of New Edition — Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill, Ronnie DeVoe, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ralph Tresvant — were also in attendance as well.
Barnstable-Brown tells PEOPLE that many of the singing celebrities in attendance jumped onstage for “impromptu” performances.
Among them included Aldean, 45, who performed a “10-minute rendition” of his song “Little Pink Houses” — which Barnstable-Brown says, “Had the crowd all chanting.”
Hootie and the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker also performed onstage, and Barnstable-Brown notes that his son Jack was in attendance at the event recording his set during what marked a father-son getaway for the duo.
Sambora, 62, also performed, and he later donated the guitar he was using during his set to charity. The instrument, which was signed by a bunch of the other celebrities, started a bidding war and sold for $70,000.
“Seeing them all jamming and doing their dances and stuff like that was just totally spontaneous, but it was a ton of fun,” Barnstable-Brown tells PEOPLE.
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