When Justin Timberlake was announced as halftime entertainment for February’s Super Bowl LII in October, the most frequent question the announcement raised was “what part will Janet Jackson play?”

To be clear, Jackson is not officially confirmed to be taking part in any way. But the music world feels that it’s time for some poetic justice for the “Nipplegate” scandal of the 2004 Super Bowl, when Jackson’s breast was exposed in an infamous “wardrobe malfunction.”

Already, critics and commentators have argued strongly that Jackson deserves a piece of Timberlake’s show — if only a public apology. But that does her a slight disservice.

Jackson deserves to be a part of proceedings because she’s still an exhilarating performer, as demonstrated by her current “State of the World” tour, which stopped at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Wednesday night. Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s last Super Bowl performance is infamous.

Even though the 51-year-old recently became a mother, the set is driven by the kind of sensational dance routines that leave everyone in the arena — except Jackson herself — breathless.

With a 35-year back catalog of pioneering funk, soul and R&B cuts to cull from, the singer is generous with hits. She often compresses them into blistering medleys (one contained “Escapade,” “When I Think of You” and “All for You” — all of which reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts).

Considering that the halftime show is usually just 12 minutes long, Janet’s ability to pack her classics in tightly would lend itself perfectly to Super Bowl Sunday.

The “State of the World” tour leans heavily on her 1989 classic “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814” — an album that saw her addressing social and racial injustices, and which feels scarily relevant almost three decades later. The NFL is famously wary of Super Bowl halftime shows being used as a pulpit or platform, but with the help of her backdrop and video screens, Jackson again shows that she has honed that rare skill of letting a message disseminate through the music, rather than overpowering it.

As she puts it herself, “Get the point? Good. Now let’s dance.”

The tour features one sequence we definitely won’t be seeing on network TV anytime soon: During the album track “What About” (from 1997’s “The Velvet Rope”), Jackson’s dancers play out scenes of domestic abuse.

At one point, Jackson — who recently separated from her husband, businessman Wissam Al Mana — stopped and, fighting back the tears, said “this, right here, is me.” Segueing from that harrowing moment to more expert football analysis from Tony Dungy might be a little jarring.

But that number aside, Jackson is currently producing the kind of show that has a unifying warmth and energy that the best Super Bowl shows have. Think Lady Gaga (2017), Prince (2007) and, of course, Janet’s brother Michael, who essentially created the modern, pop-star driven Super Bowl halftime show in 1993.

She doesn’t need sympathy, apologies or Timberlake’s charity. She just needs three minutes to slay the stage in Minneapolis next year and show the world that she is still a top-tier performer.