Wynter Gordon calling her own career shots

“One day,” Gordon says, “I was having dinner with Janet Jackson and Mary J. Blige, and they were sitting there talking about a movie.

“And then Janet Jackson walks in on me while I was peeing.

“And the next day, I was on the train (in New York), and I was just thinking, ‘Oh my God, I was eating dinner with Janet Jackson yesterday!’ ”

Ever since Gordon – who grew up singing gospel in South Jamaica, Queens – went to New York’s “Fame” school, her career trajectory has been on a steady rise.

Gordon, 27, co-wrote “Sugar” with Flo Rida in 2009, “Toyfriend” with David Guetta, and many songs for Lopez’s “Love?” album.

Lopez called on Gordon after hearing Gordon’s songs and enjoying the ways Gordon expressed her feelings musically.

“I think she thought I would be respectful of her,” Gordon says.

So then the two women sat and talked.

“I got a sense of her life – her day, her kids. I really just had to get inside her head and feel what she was feeling,” Gordon says.

“She was so into it. She likes things to be from her own life. I was really surprised with how candid and open she was with me.”

Gordon’s own big hit was 2010’s multiplatinum dance smash “Dirty Talk.”

She also has a new dance single, a collaboration with Deniz Koyu called “Follow You.”

“I am really proud of that song,” she says.

But she recently left her dance record music label because she wants to sing in as many musical styles as she’d like.

“I enjoy dance music as much as I enjoy hip-hop, as much as I enjoy R&B, as much as I enjoy rock, as much as I enjoy pop,” she says.

“If there’s ever a (dance) record I love, I’ll do it. But I’m not going to do something just because somebody else wants me to.”

Gordon, who sings at Palms pool dayclub today and then at Rain nightclub, acknowledges DJ-producers hit her up all the time to sing on dance records. But she’s selective about accepting offers.

Meanwhile, she just released the first of a series of four indie EPs. The inaugural EP, “Doleo,” is on her website, WynieMusic.com.

So Gordon is in an enviable position. She doesn’t answer to anyone but herself, and she’s happy, sleeps well, sees her family all the time in New York, and is in charge of her career.

“I answer to me, and I think that’s a really good place to be. I feel more myself than ever. I used to be afraid to be myself, and now I’m not.”

She was afraid until she found “my voice to say, ‘No, I don’t want to sing “these” songs, I don’t want to be “this” kind of artist.’

“I felt very much in a box. And now I don’t feel that way. I can just be myself. Realistically, nobody is one way. Everybody listens to different things and has different tastes. It’s frustrating to be put in a cage.”

She says it’s not easy to say no to a full-on career as a dance diva.

“It’s a hard thing to do, to not follow the money. Trust me, there’s a lot of money in dance music. There’s a lot of money in dance music.

“I had to say, ‘There are other things I want to do. I’m just going to do it.’ I’ve got my support group. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my fans.’

“You can do whatever you want.”

Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.