Joan Jett in Panama: the tale of the first American to breach the brave new world
When you manage to make it as a successful rock star, one of the great benefits to the new lifestyle you’re able to follow is playing shows across the globe and getting to travel to countries that you never thought you’d enter while you were plying your trade at the lower levels of the ladder. Joan Jett, having started her band, The Runaways, at the age of only 16, must have been thrilled at the prospect that this would come for her eventually, but she knew that she’d have to work hard to be able to reach that point in her career.
However, things began to look up for the singer and guitarist from early on in her career, and throughout the 1970s, she travelled to far-flung places on a regular basis, managing to amass a following in Europe and Japan while touring as a support act for bands such as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Cheap Trick. Despite this, the group weren’t quite as successful on home soil, and by the end of the ‘70s, The Runaways had disbanded due to creative differences within their ranks.
Jett took this as a sign to pursue a solo career, and shortly after, in 1979, she formed the Blackhearts alongside producer Kenny Laguna. Quickly returning to a rigorous touring schedule, it would be the release of their 1981 debut album, I Love Rock ‘n Roll and the album’s title track that propelled Jett back into the spotlight. With this cover of the Arrows’ minor 1975 hit, she had finally achieved some measurable success in the US, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks.
With this, one might presume that the Blackhearts were being invited to more obscure corners of the planet to perform, and while this was true, they were also receiving some more unusual offers to play in some less-than-hospitable locations. In 1984, Panama was added to the Blackhearts’ touring itinerary, although the political climate in the country at the time was in turmoil. Following a coup d’état in 1968, the Central American nation saw the National Guard assume control over the country, and after several changes in leadership, Manuel Noriega became the de facto leader of the country in 1983.
Despite this uncertainty, Jett became the first artist from an English-speaking country to perform in the nation, a remarkable feat considering their strained relationship with the US at the time. The US had troops in the country at the time, and a large portion of the audience was expected to be from her home country, but when they arrived to perform on a local Panamanian television show, things turned out to be different.
Thousands of locals were gathered outside the television studio where the group had performed, and when they attempted to leave the premises, the crowd began to mob Jett and the rest of the band, causing a riot to break out. Noriega instructed the National Guard to get involved and rescue her from the brawl, and he sent along a private jet to transport her back to his presidential residence. However, the thought of spending the night in solitude with the country’s dangerous leader didn’t excite Jett in the slightest, and rather unsurprisingly, she demanded that US troops come to pick her up and transfer her back home.
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts played in a number of other unusual places during the ‘80s, including a remote jungle location in the nearby Dominican Republic, but nothing can quite top having become the first artist from an English-speaking nation to perform in one of the most troubled countries during the decade.
