Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe perform live at The Anthem on Thursday, June 5, for World Pride 2025!
This spectacular show is not to be missed. Read on for details.
Grace Jones as singer, actress, author, traveller, artist, and revolutionist has been a shape-shifting troublemaking meta-presence in the entertainment universe since her emergence as a model in New York City and Paris in the early 1970s. Relishing the dangerous possibilities of late 1970s New York, her highly provocative often riotous shows in downtown lofts and nightclubs saw her crowned as Disco Queen with attitude and celebrated as an ultimate Gay Icon. Grace became one of the most audacious and unforgettable characters to emerge from the legendary Studio 54 nightclub in Manhattan, creating pioneering disco classics such as “I Need a Man” and the enduring “La vie en rose.”
In 1980s, craving new territory, Grace escaped a crowded and degraded disco scene, pursuing her more extreme theatrical interests. Her music also broke free, inspired by maverick impresario Chris Blackwell of her label Island Records, using his newly built Compass Point studios in Nassau to put Grace at the vivid centre of a new kind of mysterious, eruptive soul music. This radiant dream and bass Grace Jones sound blended house, reggae, new wave, R&B, and electronica into a timeless, influential hybrid showcased on three majestic albums, Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing, and Living My Life. Songs by Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Chrissie Hynde, Joy Division, The Normal, and Sting were interpreted as deviant modern standards, and highly charged original songs like “Pull Up to The Bumper” and “My Jamaican Guy” became instant classics. Post-Compass Point music in the 1980s with supreme pop producers Trevor Horn and Nile Rogers introduced transcendent Grace anthems “Slave to the Rhythm” and “I’m Not Perfect.” She ended the 20th century as Bond villain, screen vampire, post-modern celebrity, international scandal, wild, all-seeing comedian, and transformative avant-garde pop star, and Grace kept coming in the 21st Century.
Watch the official music video for “Slave to the Rhythm” by Grace Jones on YouTube:
A singer, songwriter, producer, and actress, Janelle Monáe has been electrifying audiences with her hybrid brand of Afrofuturist funk, soul, and R&B since her 2010 debut LP, The ArchAndroid. The Kansas City native and Wondaland label head has starred in a string of terrific films — including Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Antebellum, Moonlight, and Hidden Figures — and released 2018’s critically acclaimed audiovisual piece Dirty Computer. A fierce activist in her public life, Monáe uses science fiction and sonic elements from various styles and genres to explore themes of race, class and sexuality — which has established her as one of the most forward-thinking creative voices of her generation.
With multiple celebrated albums, The ArchAndroid (2010), The Electric Lady (2013), Dirty Computer (2018), and The Age of Pleasure (2023), and her unwavering activism for social justice and the LGBTQIA+ community, Monáe continues to be one of the most compelling and important artists of this generation.
Watch the official music video for “I Like That” by Janelle Monáe on YouTube:
Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe
The Anthem
Thursday, June 5
Doors @ 6:30pm
$170.65 GA/$288.15 Seated
All ages
