She is Black, beautiful and bodacious. She is not in the business of conforming. She revels in rebelling. She defied gender norms long before it was deemed acceptable. And to this day, she knows no boundaries. She is Grace Jones, and she is as different as they come, darling.
In sharing my sentiments about Jones, I’ll do my best to refrain from words she loathes, like “diva” or “icon.” But the latter is hard to avoid, simply because she’s one of our original icons, long before the word was used ad nauseam. Even so, it’s hard to imagine Jones intentionally setting out to be an icon when all she’s ever been is herself — unabashedly.
Whether it’s because of my appreciation for avant-garde aesthetics or my steady fascination with disco culture — and all the free spirits that gyrated on the dance floors — Jones has always been intriguing to me. Some would attribute her mass appeal to her androgynous style (flat top fade and all) or so-called shock antics. But to understand what makes Jones so special is to know where she’s been.
Throughout her music career, Jones experimented with a slew of genres, including disco, funk, reggae, new wave and pop. Gems like “La Vie en Rose” and “I Need a Man” put Jones on the music map. But tracks like “Pull Up to the Bumper” and “Slave to the Rhythm” proved her ability to transcend time — all while remaining Grace Jones.
Born Beverly Grace Jones in Spanish Town, Jamaica, her flamboyant persona and forthright demeanor is rooted in repression. Jones was raised in a Pentecostal family in which donning trousers, wearing straight hair and even listening to the radio was beyond her realm of reality. She told the Los Angeles Times in 1985: “I didn’t even have a sense of who I was except the daughter of this person and the niece of that one. Even when I moved to Syracuse to live with my parents when I was 13, I had to go by strict rules. I decided when I left home I was going to completely freak out and find out who I am.”
And that she did.
Using her idiosyncrasies as assets and opting for a life of liberation, Jones was well on her way to stardom. After studying theater in college, she eventually dropped out and moved to Philadelphia, where she pursued acting before leaving for New York City. There, Jones frequented auditions and was signed by a modeling agency — merely to pay the rent. Her steadfast path to fame led her to Paris, where her distinctive look gave her an edge on the runway.
No stranger to the stage, Jones found that a swift transition to music was inevitable. Upon returning to New York City, Jones immersed herself in the disco scene and became synonymous with the iconic Studio 54. In 1977, she partnered with producer Tom Moulton and released her debut studio album, Portfolio. Throughout her music career, Jones experimented with a slew of genres, including disco, funk, reggae, new wave and pop. Gems like “La Vie en Rose” and “I Need a Man” put Jones on the music map. But tracks like “Pull Up to the Bumper” and “Slave to the Rhythm” proved her ability to transcend time — all while remaining Grace Jones.
Beyond music, Jones enjoyed time on the big screen, taking on memorable roles in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985) and Boomerang (1992), just to name a few. More recently, she’s recounted her illustrious life and career in her book, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs (2015), and documentary, Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (2017). And now — 75 and ever so fly — she’s still strutting her stuff on the stage and spawning new music.
What I admire most about Jones is how she turned oppression into power, creating a world outside of her reality, where she could not only dream but turn those dreams into a new reality. “I grew up using my imagination to make reality work for me,” she said in her memoir. “In order to make a connection with reality, I made up a world where I could live.”
As one of the first artists in mainstream media to embody Black queerness and master the art of sexual expression — not knowing whether she’d be met with public embrace or backlash — this sister deserved her flowers a long time ago. And in a sense, her emancipation liberated like-minded individuals. In other words, she emerged at the right place, at the right time — for the right people. Those who sought freedom, acceptance and representation could look to Jones in a time when being anything but “conventional” was often rejected.
Regardless of my personal reflections of Jones, her legacy speaks for itself. Much of what we see in mainstream music today is reminiscent of her remarkable style and mindset, proving that her influence spreads far and wide. But nostalgia is something she’s nonchalant about, which comes as no surprise. As she once famously told the Daily Mail, “I only move forwards, never backwards, darling.”
