Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe/Photo: Janelle Monáe and Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a multi-hyphenate icon, influencing every cultural world she touches. Her fierce aesthetics are instantly recognizable from her modeling and acting career, with her high cheek bones and flattop hair creating striking geometries, honing an androgynous style in the public eye. Her voice is just as impressively prevalent, moving from disco to new wave—her covers bring a force that lifts the music to new highs, influencing almost every major art-pop musician since. This Pride Month, she embarks on a daring tour across North America, stopping just outside of Chicago at Ravinia on June 7 with support from Grammy-nominated Janelle Monáe and house legends Derrick Carter and Michael Serafini of Queen!
Gaining a bold reputation for her unwavering confidence in the New York arts scene, she moved to Paris in the 1970s, where her modeling career took off. She capped that decade by breaking and cementing herself in the charts, with her first four studio albums released annually starting in 1977. She was, and debatably still is, the moment. In her prime, her work brought her close to fashion photographers like Jean-Paul Goude and designers like Gaultier, and in the art world she ran with the likes of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, making a lasting mark on culture worldwide. A regular at Studio 54 with impeccable club-kid suave, she was the epitome of cool.
“Nightclubbing,” released in 1981, made her untouchable. While her previous disco albums drew on inspiration from musicals, most notably reworking the already popular “La vie en rose” into a bossa nova hit, the rise of the disc jockey and the dance music revolution necessitated a new type of sound. Jones delivered an answer in post-disco realness, her vocals lowered to the point where some lyrics are delivered in spoken word, while the tracks’ instruments flow along infectious synthesizers with a more industrial beat. Her pop stardom has only further crystallized since, between popular rankings and journalistic recognition as one of the most influential figures of all time in music. Her most recent albums, “Hurricane” and “Hurricane—Dub,” released in 2008 and 2011, respectively, follow up on her previous work to bring a smooth, almost darker soul that reformulates disco into a trip down tempo techno. Expect a career retrospective where Jones steals the moment once more, reminding each generation who built their scene.
Also on the lineup is Janelle Monáe, whose most recent album “The Age of Pleasure” features an interlude with Jones. She’ll take center stage to showcase the trajectory of disco to R&B. Similarly to Jones, Monáe’s sonic style is rooted in authenticity, with hypnotizing lyrics that weave through delicate melodies and a cradling drumline—most notably in her acclaimed concept album from 2018, “Dirty Computer.” Expect an evening that centers Black joy and timeless sounds.
Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe perform on Saturday, June 9, at Ravinia, 201 Ravinia Park Road, Highland Park, featuring Queen! at the Carousel in collaboration with Metro/smartbar. Event starts at 7pm. More information and tickets here.
