Grace Jones
Encyclopedia
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.
Jones secured a record deal with Island Records
in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous
look with square-cut hair and angular, padded
clothes. In 1981, her "Pull Up to the Bumper
" spent seven weeks at #2 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play
chart, and became a Top 5 single on the U.S. R&B
chart.
Jones's musical output is popular in American clubs as many of the singles were hits on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play
and Hot Dance Airplay
charts. Jones was able to find mainstream success in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, scoring a number of Top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart
.
Jones's most notable albums are Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing
and Slave to the Rhythm
, while her biggest hits (other than "Pull Up to the Bumper") are "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
", "Private Life", "Slave to the Rhythm
" and "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
".
During the 1970s, she also became a muse to Andy Warhol
, who photographed her extensively. During this era she regularly went to the New York City nightclub Studio 54
.
Jones is also an actress. Her acting occasionally overshadowed her musical output in America; but not in Europe, where her profile as a recording artist was much higher. She appeared in some low-budget films in the 1970s and early 1980s. Her work as an actress in mainstream film began in the 1984 fantasy-action film Conan the Destroyer
alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger
, and the 1985 James Bond
movie A View to a Kill
. In 1986 she played a vampire in Vamp
, and both acted in and contributed a song to the 1992 film Boomerang with Eddie Murphy
. In 2001, she appeared in Wolf Girl
alongside Tim Curry
.
, the daughter of Marjorie and Robert W. Jones, who was a politician and Apostolic clergyman. Her parents took Grace and her brothers, Chris and Noel Jones, and relocated to Syracuse
in 1965. Before becoming a successful model in New York City and Paris, Jones studied theatre at Onondaga Community College
. In the 1973 film Gordon's War
, Jones played the role of Mary, a Harlem
drug courier
.
Jones secured a record deal with Island Records
in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits and a large gay
following. The three disco
-oriented albums she recorded – Portfolio (1977), Fame
(1978), and Muse (1979) – generated considerable success in that market. These albums consisted of pop melodies set to a disco beat, such as "On Your Knees
" or "Do or Die
" and standards such as "What I Did for Love" from musical A Chorus Line
, Jacques Prévert
's "Autumn Leaves
", "Send in the Clowns
" from Stephen Sondheim
's A Little Night Music
and Édith Piaf
's signature tune "La Vie en rose
". During this period, she also became a muse to Andy Warhol
, who photographed her extensively. Jones also accompanied him to New York City nightclub Studio 54
on many occasions. The colourful artwork and design for Jones' three first albums and accompanying single releases were created by another of Warhol's longtime collaborators, Richard Bernstein, arguably best known for his many cover illustrations for Interview Magazine
in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1978, she appeared with French model and singer Amanda Lear
in the controversial six-episode Italian TV series Stryx
.
to create a different style for herself. Still with Island, and now working with producers Chris Blackwell
, Alex Sadkin
and the Compass Point All Stars
, and recording at Blackwell's Compass Point Studios
in Nassau, Bahamas
, she released the acclaimed album Warm Leatherette in 1980. This included re-imaginings of songs by The Pretenders
("Private Life"), Roxy Music
("Love Is the Drug
"), Tom Petty
("Breakdown"), The Normal
("Warm Leatherette
") and Smokey Robinson
("The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game
"). The record met with even greater success than her previous disco albums and the song "Private Life" was her first to enter UK Singles Chart
, still remaining one of her highest-charting singles in that country. Parallel to her musical shift was an equally dramatic visual makeover, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude
. Jones adopted a severe, androgynous
look, with square-cut hair and angular, padded
clothes. The cover photographs of Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing exemplified this new identity.
1981 saw the release of Nightclubbing
, a rapid follow-up to Warm Leatherette. Jones chose a number of well-known hits to reinterpret, including The Police
's "Demolition Man", Iggy Pop
's and David Bowie
's "Nightclubbing" and Ástor Piazzolla
's "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
". The latter would become one of the Jones's most recognisable tunes and the self-penned, post-disco dance track "Pull Up to the Bumper
", which spent seven weeks at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play
chart, and became a Top 5 single on the U.S. R&B
chart when released as a single in the fall of 1981. However, both Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing albums also included a few tracks co-written by Jones herself, such as "A Rolling Stone
" and "Feel Up". In the UK, Nightclubbing claimed the number one slot on music magazine New Musical Express
' Album of the Year
listing. In 1981, Jones, appearing alongside noted psychotherapist Sonja Vetter, caused a controversy slapping chat show host Russell Harty
across the face live on air after he turned to interview other guests and she felt she was being ignored. This topped a 2006 BBC poll of the most-shocking British TV chat show moments.
In 1981 and 1982, Jones toured the UK, Continental Europe, Scandinavia and the US with her One Man Show
, a performance art
/pop theatre presentation devised by Jean-Paul Goude and Jones herself, in which she performed tracks from the albums Portfolio, Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing dressed in elaborate costumes and masks – in the opening sequence as a gorilla – and alongside a series of Grace Jones lookalikes. A video version, filmed live in London and New York City and completed with some studio footage, was nominated for a Grammy Award
for Best Long-Form Music Video next year. Her collaboration with Blackwell, Sadkin and the Compass Point All Stars continued with the dub reggae
-influenced album Living My Life
(1982), which featured the self-penned "My Jamaican Guy
", sung in patois and a cover of "The Apple Stretching
" by Melvin Van Peebles
. In 1984, Jones's work as an actress in mainstream film began, with the role of Zula, the Amazon
, in Conan the Destroyer
alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger
and former NBA
player Wilt Chamberlain
. She next landed the role of May Day in the fourteenth James Bond
movie A View to a Kill
(1985).
and Bruce Woolley
for the conceptual
musical collage Slave to the Rhythm
, which was released in the fall of 1985. The well-received album consisted of several re-workings of the title track
, which is arguably the most popular song ever delivered by Grace Jones. Although never charted in the Hot 100,the single did well on the R&B charts,Dance charts and in the UK, peaking at number 12. Slave to the Rhythm, together with Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing albums, is now recognised as one of Grace Jones's best works. In December, her first retrospective album was released. Island Life
collected most of the singles from her 1977 debut up to recent 1985 hits. It included new versions of "Love Is the Drug" and "Pull Up to the Bumper," which were re-issued and charted again. Her next studio release, the first album after leaving the Island Records label, was Inside Story (1986), on which she worked with Nile Rodgers
. It produced her last Billboard Hot 100
hit to date, "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
", one of several songs she co-wrote with Bruce Woolley
.
She sang vocals along with Simon Le Bon
in the international top 10 dance-pop hit "Election Day
", which Le Bon's then band Arcadia
released in October 1985. She appeared in the 1986 vampire film Vamp
where she played a queen vampire
.
Her ninth studio album, Bulletproof Heart
(1989), spawned the Number 1 U.S. Hot Dance Club Play hit "Love on Top of Love (Killer Kiss)
", produced by C+C Music Factory
's David Cole
and Robert Clivillés
. The second and the final single, "Amado Mio
", was a cover version of the song used in 1946 film Gilda
and originally performed by Rita Hayworth
. Bulletproof Heart met with lukewarm reception. In 1992 Jones appeared in Eddie Murphy
film Boomerang, for which she also contributed the song "7 Day Weekend
" to its soundtrack
, and released two more singles in 1993: "Evilmainya
", recorded for the film Freddie as F.R.O.7
, and "Sexdrive". She recorded two albums during the 1990s, but they remain unreleased thus far. In 1994, she was due to release an electro
album titled Black Marilyn with artwork featuring the singer as Marilyn Monroe
; in 1998, she was scheduled to release an album entitled Force of Nature, on which she worked with trip hop
musician Tricky
. The release of Force of Nature was cancelled due to a disagreement between them and only a white label
12" single featuring two dance mixes of "Hurricane (Cradle to the Grave)
" was issued; a slowed-down version of this song became the title track of her comeback album released ten years later. In 1999 she appeared in an episode of the Beastmaster
television series as the Umpatra Warrior.
in Wolf Girl
(also known as Blood Moon), as a transvestite circus performer named Christoph/Christine. On 28 May 2002, she performed onstage in Modena, Italy with Italian opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti
during his annual Pavarotti and Friends concert to support the UN refugee agency's programs for Angola
n refugees in Zambia. Together they performed the aria
"Pourquoi me réveiller?" from Jules Massenet
's opera Werther
. In November 2004, Jones sang her hit "Slave to the Rhythm" at a tribute concert for record producer Trevor Horn
at London's Wembley Arena
. In April 2005 Jones raised a controversy, when she was accused of verbally abusing a Eurostar
train manager in a quarrel over a ticket upgrade, and she either was escorted off the train or left of her own accord, later saying that she had been mistreated. In February 2006, Jones was the celebrity runway model for Diesel's show in New York.
Producer Ivor Guest confirmed that he and Jones had completed recording her new album in 2007. Other participants on the album included the original Compass Point All Stars
line-up, including Sly and Robbie
, Mikey Chung
and Wally Badarou
, joined by Brian Eno
, Bruce Woolley
, Tricky
and Tony Allen
. The Hurricane
album (initially to be titled Corporate Cannibal) was released on 27 October 2008, on Wall of Sound
/PIAS Records, meeting with positive reviews. "Corporate Cannibal
" became the album's lead single, with its music video directed by Nick Hooker. Jones embarked on a concert tour at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009, and appeared at Secret Garden Party
and Latitude Festival
to promote the new album. The video for the second single, "Williams' Blood
", used live footage from the Hurricane Tour.
Grace Jones also collaborated with the avant-garde poet Brigitte Fontaine
on a duet named " Soufi" from Fontaine's album 'Prohibition' released in autumn 2009, and produced by Ivor Guest. On 26 April 2010 Grace Jones performed at Royal Albert Hall
, receiving rave reviews.
A One Man Show was released on DVD, as Grace Jones – Live in Concert, in 2010 with 3 bonus videoclips ("Slave to the Rhythm", "Love Is the Drug" and "Crush"). "Love You to Life
", the third single off Hurricane, was released on 2 May 2010.
Grace Jones collaborated again with the French avant-garde poet Brigitte Fontaine
on two tracks (Dancefloor and La Caravane) on Fontaine's 2011 release entitled "L'un n'empêche pas l'autre". (This album also produced by Ivor Guest). Jones performed at the opening ceremony of the 61st FIFA Congress
.
Jones is currently recording her follow up album to Hurricane for a 2012 release and has collaborated with Boy George on an as yet unreleased track.
style and adopted a severe, androgynous
look, with square-cut hair and angular, padded
clothes, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude
. She would also exemplify the so-called "flat top
" hairstyle in many of her concerts in the 1970s, which would become popular among black men in the 1980s. Her first album cover to feature this hairstyle was 1980's Warm Leatherette. Her strong visual presence was an advantage for her music videos and concert tours. In her concert performances, she adopted various personas and wore outlandish costumes, particularly during her years with Goude. One such performance was at the Paradise Garage
in 1985, for which she collaborated with visual artist Keith Haring
for her costume. Haring painted her body in tribal patterns and fitted her with wire armour. The muralist also painted her body for the video to "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
" and the 1986 vampire film Vamp
. Grace Jones's striking appearance, height (5'10½" or 1.79 m), and manner influenced the cross-dressing
movement of the 1980s. To this day, she is known for her unique look at least as much as she is for her music and has been an inspiration for numerous other artists, including Annie Lennox
and Lady Gaga
.
Jones is a contralto
. Although her image became equally as notable as her voice, she is a highly stylised vocalist.
Jean-Paul Goude
, with whom she has a son, Paulo. Jones has been married twice; her first husband was producer Chris Stanley whom she married in 1989. She married second husband, bodyguard Atila Altaunbay in 1996. The couple later divorced.
nominee, a Grammy
nominee, an MTV Video Music Awards
nominee, a Razzie Award nominee and a Q Awards
winner. She has also ranked 82nd on VH1
's 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll.
Saturn Awards
Grammy Awards
MTV Video Music Award
Razzie Awards
Q Music Award
Jones secured a record deal with Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous
Androgyny
Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...
look with square-cut hair and angular, padded
Shoulder pads (fashion)
Shoulder pads are a type of fabric-covered padding used in men's and women's clothing to give the wearer the illusion of having broader and less sloping shoulders....
clothes. In 1981, her "Pull Up to the Bumper
Pull Up to the Bumper
"Pull Up to the Bumper" was the second single released by Grace Jones from her critically acclaimed 1981 album Nightclubbing and has since come to be one of Jones' signature tunes. The song was co-written by Jones herself, Sly Dunbar, Dana Mano and Robbie Shakespeare.Upon its release, the song...
" spent seven weeks at #2 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...
chart, and became a Top 5 single on the U.S. R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
chart.
Jones's musical output is popular in American clubs as many of the singles were hits on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...
and Hot Dance Airplay
Hot Dance Airplay
Dance/Mix Show Airplay is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is featured weekly in Billboard magazine. The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic dance music on the radio in the United States and the stations that program it...
charts. Jones was able to find mainstream success in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, scoring a number of Top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
.
Jones's most notable albums are Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing
Nightclubbing
Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Grace Jones, released in 1981. It is the second of three post-disco albums that Jones made at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and became Jones' commercial breakthrough and also formed the basis of her groundbreaking concept tour A One Man Show...
and Slave to the Rhythm
Slave to the Rhythm
Slave to the Rhythm is the seventh album by Grace Jones. It was produced by Trevor Horn and released in 1985. The album was written by Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn...
, while her biggest hits (other than "Pull Up to the Bumper") are "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
"I've Seen That Face Before " is the third single from Grace Jones' album Nightclubbing. The song juxtaposes "Libertango", an Argentine tango classic, written by bandoneonist Ástor Piazzolla and first recorded by the composer himself in 1974, against a reggae arrangement and new lyrics penned by...
", "Private Life", "Slave to the Rhythm
Slave to the Rhythm (song)
"Slave to the Rhythm" was the first single from Grace Jones' album of the same name, which was released in 1985. The song and the album was written by Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn and was produced by Horn...
" and "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
"I'm Not Perfect " is the first single from Grace Jones' album Inside Story. The song was co-written by Bruce Woolley and produced by Nile Rodgers of Chic fame.-Chart performance:...
".
During the 1970s, she also became a muse to Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, who photographed her extensively. During this era she regularly went to the New York City nightclub Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
.
Jones is also an actress. Her acting occasionally overshadowed her musical output in America; but not in Europe, where her profile as a recording artist was much higher. She appeared in some low-budget films in the 1970s and early 1980s. Her work as an actress in mainstream film began in the 1984 fantasy-action film Conan the Destroyer
Conan the Destroyer
Conan the Destroyer is a 1984 American action fantasy film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter and Olivia d'Abo. It is...
alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
, and the 1985 James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movie A View to a Kill
A View to a Kill
A View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...
. In 1986 she played a vampire in Vamp
Vamp (film)
-Plot:Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper for their college initiation party, so they go to a dark, seedy part of town to look for a good candidate. They visit a nightclub in a barren, desolate, no-mans land section where the police rarely patrol...
, and both acted in and contributed a song to the 1992 film Boomerang with Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
. In 2001, she appeared in Wolf Girl
Wolf Girl
Wolf Girl is a 2001 Canadian/American horror thriller about a girl who travels with a freak show because of her rare genetic disorder, hypertrichosis.-Plot:...
alongside Tim Curry
Tim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
.
Background and early career
Grace Jones was born in Spanish TownSpanish Town
Spanish Town is the capital and the largest town in the parish of St. Catherine in the county of Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the former Spanish and English capital of Jamaica from the 16th to the 19th century...
, the daughter of Marjorie and Robert W. Jones, who was a politician and Apostolic clergyman. Her parents took Grace and her brothers, Chris and Noel Jones, and relocated to Syracuse
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
in 1965. Before becoming a successful model in New York City and Paris, Jones studied theatre at Onondaga Community College
Onondaga Community College
Onondaga Community College is an accredited two-year educational institution that services Onondaga County, New York at three campuses. Onondaga Community College is a college of the State University of New York system and one of 30 locally sponsored community colleges throughout New York...
. In the 1973 film Gordon's War
Gordon's War
Gordon's War is a 1973 action film written by Howard Friedlander and Ed Spielman, and directed by Ossie Davis. It stars Paul Winfield as Gordon Hudson.-Synopsis:...
, Jones played the role of Mary, a Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
drug courier
Mule (smuggling)
A mule or courier is someone who smuggles something with him or her across a national border, including bringing in to and out of an international plane, especially a small amount, transported for a smuggling organization. The organizers employ mules to reduce the risk of getting caught...
.
Jones secured a record deal with Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits and a large gay
Gay community
The gay community, or LGBT community, is a loosely defined grouping of LGBT and LGBT-supportive people, organizations and subcultures, united by a common culture and civil rights movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality...
following. The three disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
-oriented albums she recorded – Portfolio (1977), Fame
Fame (album)
-Charts:-References:*[ Allmusic]...
(1978), and Muse (1979) – generated considerable success in that market. These albums consisted of pop melodies set to a disco beat, such as "On Your Knees
On Your Knees (Grace Jones song)
"On Your Knees" was the first and in most parts of the world the only single release from Grace Jones' third album Muse in 1979, in most territories credited as a double A-side with "Don't Mess With The Messer" as the second track...
" or "Do or Die
Do or Die (Grace Jones song)
"Do or Die" was the first and in most parts of the world the only single release from Grace Jones' album Fame, her second disco album. On Fame it made up the first part of the A-side non-stop medley "Do or Die"/"Pride"/"Fame"...
" and standards such as "What I Did for Love" from musical A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch....
, Jacques Prévert
Jacques Prévert
Jacques Prévert was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain very popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. Some of the movies he wrote are extremely well regarded, with Les Enfants du Paradis considered one of the greatest films of all time.-Life and...
's "Autumn Leaves
Autumn Leaves (song)
"Autumn Leaves" is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song "Les Feuilles mortes" with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. Yves Montand introduced "Les feuilles mortes" in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit...
", "Send in the Clowns
Send in the Clowns
"Send in the Clowns" is a song by Stephen Sondheim from the 1973 musical A Little Night Music, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night. It is a ballad from Act II in which the character Desirée reflects on the ironies and disappointments of her life. Among other things, she...
" from Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
and Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
's signature tune "La Vie en rose
La vie en rose
"La Vie en Rose" was the signature song of French singer Édith Piaf.-Signature song of Édith Piaf:Édith Piaf first popularized La Vie en Rose in 1946. The lyrics were written by Piaf and the melody of the song by "Louiguy" . Initially, Piaf's peers and her songwriting team did not think the song...
". During this period, she also became a muse to Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, who photographed her extensively. Jones also accompanied him to New York City nightclub Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
on many occasions. The colourful artwork and design for Jones' three first albums and accompanying single releases were created by another of Warhol's longtime collaborators, Richard Bernstein, arguably best known for his many cover illustrations for Interview Magazine
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1978, she appeared with French model and singer Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear is a French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist....
in the controversial six-episode Italian TV series Stryx
Stryx
- Description :Stryx thematically referred to Hell, devils and underworld. The scenography featured elements resembling Middle Ages-like gloomy castles and caves....
.
Early 1980s: Compass Point Studios period
At the beginning of the 1980s, Jones adapted the emerging New Wave musicNew Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
to create a different style for herself. Still with Island, and now working with producers Chris Blackwell
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...
, Alex Sadkin
Alex Sadkin
Alex Sadkin is best remembered as a record producer in the early 1980s, but actually got his start in the music industry as a saxophonist for the Las Olas Brass in Fort Lauderdale, Florida....
and the Compass Point All Stars
Compass Point All Stars
The Compass Point phenomenon was designed to be to reggae-based pop/rock music of the 80s, what Nashville was to country music, or the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was to soul and R&B in the 60s: a recording facility animated by in-house sets of artists, musicians, producers and engineers, all...
, and recording at Blackwell's Compass Point Studios
Compass Point Studios
Compass Point Studios were founded in 1977 by Chris Blackwell, the owner of Island Records.In the late 1970s and mid-1980s, many musical artists from across the world came to the Bahamas to record music at its facilities. Many producers, including Chris Blackwell himself, used the studio to produce...
in Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
, she released the acclaimed album Warm Leatherette in 1980. This included re-imaginings of songs by The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
("Private Life"), Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
("Love Is the Drug
Love Is the Drug
"Love Is the Drug" is a 1975 single from Roxy Music . Taken from the album Siren it omits the gravel footstep sound effects at the start...
"), Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
("Breakdown"), The Normal
The Normal
The Normal is the recording artist name used by English music producer Daniel Miller, a film editor at the time, who is best known as the founder of the record label Mute Records.-Background:...
("Warm Leatherette
Warm Leatherette
"Warm Leatherette" is a song by Daniel Miller.-Overview:"Warm Leatherette" was released as the B-side to "T.V.O.D.", the only single by Miller's musical project The Normal. It was the very first release on his Mute Records label, and an early example of the then-burgeoning industrial music genre....
") and Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...
("The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game
The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game
"The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" is a 1966 song recorded by The Marvelettes for the Motown label, from their self-titled album released that year....
"). The record met with even greater success than her previous disco albums and the song "Private Life" was her first to enter UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, still remaining one of her highest-charting singles in that country. Parallel to her musical shift was an equally dramatic visual makeover, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude
Jean-Paul Goude
Jean-Paul Goude is a French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and advertising film director. He created several well-known campaigns for brands such as Perrier, Citroën and Chanel....
. Jones adopted a severe, androgynous
Androgyny
Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...
look, with square-cut hair and angular, padded
Shoulder pads
Shoulder pads are a piece of protective equipment used in many contact sports such as American football, Canadian football, lacrosse and hockey. Most modern shoulder pads consist of a shock absorbing foam material with a hard plastic outer covering. The pieces are usually secured by rivets or...
clothes. The cover photographs of Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing exemplified this new identity.
1981 saw the release of Nightclubbing
Nightclubbing
Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Grace Jones, released in 1981. It is the second of three post-disco albums that Jones made at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and became Jones' commercial breakthrough and also formed the basis of her groundbreaking concept tour A One Man Show...
, a rapid follow-up to Warm Leatherette. Jones chose a number of well-known hits to reinterpret, including The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
's "Demolition Man", Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
's and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's "Nightclubbing" and Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...
's "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
"I've Seen That Face Before " is the third single from Grace Jones' album Nightclubbing. The song juxtaposes "Libertango", an Argentine tango classic, written by bandoneonist Ástor Piazzolla and first recorded by the composer himself in 1974, against a reggae arrangement and new lyrics penned by...
". The latter would become one of the Jones's most recognisable tunes and the self-penned, post-disco dance track "Pull Up to the Bumper
Pull Up to the Bumper
"Pull Up to the Bumper" was the second single released by Grace Jones from her critically acclaimed 1981 album Nightclubbing and has since come to be one of Jones' signature tunes. The song was co-written by Jones herself, Sly Dunbar, Dana Mano and Robbie Shakespeare.Upon its release, the song...
", which spent seven weeks at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...
chart, and became a Top 5 single on the U.S. R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
chart when released as a single in the fall of 1981. However, both Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing albums also included a few tracks co-written by Jones herself, such as "A Rolling Stone
A Rolling Stone
"A Rolling Stone" is a song recorded by Grace Jones on her 1980 album Warm Leatherette, her first post-disco album. The track was released as the first single from the album in the U.K., but didn't garner much attention. It was quickly followed by "Love Is The Drug" and "Private Life"...
" and "Feel Up". In the UK, Nightclubbing claimed the number one slot on music magazine New Musical Express
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
' Album of the Year
NME album of the year
Every December, British music magazine NME compiles a list of what it considers the best albums of the year. It was started in 1974. The list is usually published in one of the issues sold before Christmas – in 2006 it was published in the issue for December the 9th...
listing. In 1981, Jones, appearing alongside noted psychotherapist Sonja Vetter, caused a controversy slapping chat show host Russell Harty
Russell Harty
Russell Harty was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat shows.-Early life:Born Frederick Russell Harty in Blackburn, Lancashire, he was the son of a fruit and vegetable stallholder on the local market...
across the face live on air after he turned to interview other guests and she felt she was being ignored. This topped a 2006 BBC poll of the most-shocking British TV chat show moments.
In 1981 and 1982, Jones toured the UK, Continental Europe, Scandinavia and the US with her One Man Show
A One Man Show
A One Man Show is a music documentary featuring American singer Grace Jones, filmed in 1981–1982. The film was first released in 1982 to promote the album Living My Life and was re-issued on VHS and laserdisc by Island Records, PolyGram and Spectrum Music through the 1980s and early 1990s...
, a performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
/pop theatre presentation devised by Jean-Paul Goude and Jones herself, in which she performed tracks from the albums Portfolio, Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing dressed in elaborate costumes and masks – in the opening sequence as a gorilla – and alongside a series of Grace Jones lookalikes. A video version, filmed live in London and New York City and completed with some studio footage, was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Long-Form Music Video next year. Her collaboration with Blackwell, Sadkin and the Compass Point All Stars continued with the dub reggae
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
-influenced album Living My Life
Living My Life (album)
-Charts:AlbumSingle...
(1982), which featured the self-penned "My Jamaican Guy
My Jamaican Guy
"My Jamaican Guy" was the lead single to Grace Jones' 1982 album Living My Life, her third and last album recorded in the Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. The single was released in January 1983....
", sung in patois and a cover of "The Apple Stretching
The Apple Stretching
"The Apple Stretching/Nipple to the Bottle" is the second and last single from Grace Jones' album Living My Life, her 3rd and last album recorded in the famous Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas....
" by Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin "Block" Van Peebles is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist and composer.He is most famous for creating the acclaimed film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which heralded a new era of African American focused films...
. In 1984, Jones's work as an actress in mainstream film began, with the role of Zula, the Amazon
Woman warrior
The portrayal of women warriors in literature and popular culture is a subject of study in history, literary studies, film studies, folklore and mythology, gender studies, and cultural studies.-Archaeology:...
, in Conan the Destroyer
Conan the Destroyer
Conan the Destroyer is a 1984 American action fantasy film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter and Olivia d'Abo. It is...
alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
and former NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
player Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain was an American professional NBA basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; he also played for the Harlem Globetrotters prior to playing in the NBA...
. She next landed the role of May Day in the fourteenth James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movie A View to a Kill
A View to a Kill
A View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...
(1985).
Late 1980s and 1990s
In the mid-1980s, she worked with Trevor HornTrevor Horn
Trevor Charles Horn CBE is an English pop music record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring in north-east England....
and Bruce Woolley
Bruce Woolley
Bruce Woolley is an English writer, performer, record producer and composer.- Early years :Bruce Woolley was born in Loughborough, England on 11 November 1953 and was educated at Loughborough Grammar School where he learned electric guitar, began to write songs and where he met his future wife,...
for the conceptual
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
musical collage Slave to the Rhythm
Slave to the Rhythm
Slave to the Rhythm is the seventh album by Grace Jones. It was produced by Trevor Horn and released in 1985. The album was written by Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn...
, which was released in the fall of 1985. The well-received album consisted of several re-workings of the title track
Slave to the Rhythm (song)
"Slave to the Rhythm" was the first single from Grace Jones' album of the same name, which was released in 1985. The song and the album was written by Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn and was produced by Horn...
, which is arguably the most popular song ever delivered by Grace Jones. Although never charted in the Hot 100,the single did well on the R&B charts,Dance charts and in the UK, peaking at number 12. Slave to the Rhythm, together with Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing albums, is now recognised as one of Grace Jones's best works. In December, her first retrospective album was released. Island Life
Island Life
Island Life was Grace Jones' 1985 compilation album, featuring songs from her Island Records albums Portfolio, Fame, Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing, Living My Life, and Slave to the Rhythm. No tracks from Muse were included...
collected most of the singles from her 1977 debut up to recent 1985 hits. It included new versions of "Love Is the Drug" and "Pull Up to the Bumper," which were re-issued and charted again. Her next studio release, the first album after leaving the Island Records label, was Inside Story (1986), on which she worked with Nile Rodgers
Nile Rodgers
Nile Gregory Rodgers is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.-Biography:...
. It produced her last Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
hit to date, "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
"I'm Not Perfect " is the first single from Grace Jones' album Inside Story. The song was co-written by Bruce Woolley and produced by Nile Rodgers of Chic fame.-Chart performance:...
", one of several songs she co-wrote with Bruce Woolley
Bruce Woolley
Bruce Woolley is an English writer, performer, record producer and composer.- Early years :Bruce Woolley was born in Loughborough, England on 11 November 1953 and was educated at Loughborough Grammar School where he learned electric guitar, began to write songs and where he met his future wife,...
.
She sang vocals along with Simon Le Bon
Simon Le Bon
Simon John Charles Le Bon is an English musician, best known as the lead singer, lyricist and musician of the band Duran Duran and its offshoot, Arcadia.-Early life:...
in the international top 10 dance-pop hit "Election Day
Election Day (song)
"Election Day" was the first single released by the Duran Duran off-shoot band, Arcadia. It was released by Parlophone Records in October 1985 and subsequently hit the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic, peaking at #6 in the US and #7 in the UK, but was the most successful in Ireland, peaking at...
", which Le Bon's then band Arcadia
Arcadia (band)
Arcadia were the pop group formed in 1985 by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran, during a break in that band's schedule. However, Roger Taylor appeared in only a few band photographs and in none of the music videos, and stated he was only to be involved in the recording side...
released in October 1985. She appeared in the 1986 vampire film Vamp
Vamp (film)
-Plot:Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper for their college initiation party, so they go to a dark, seedy part of town to look for a good candidate. They visit a nightclub in a barren, desolate, no-mans land section where the police rarely patrol...
where she played a queen vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
.
Her ninth studio album, Bulletproof Heart
Bulletproof Heart
Bulletproof Heart is the ninth studio album by Grace Jones and was released in 1989. Singles from the album were "Love on Top of Love" and "Amado Mio"...
(1989), spawned the Number 1 U.S. Hot Dance Club Play hit "Love on Top of Love (Killer Kiss)
Love on Top of Love
"Love on Top of Love " is the first single from Grace Jones' album Bulletproof Heart. It was produced by C+C Music Factory's David Cole and Robert Clivilles...
", produced by C+C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory is a dance-pop and hip hop group formed in 1989 by David Cole and Robert Clivillés which stopped recording 1996, following Cole's death...
's David Cole
David Cole (producer)
David Cole was a songwriter and record producer, and was one half of the dance-music duo C+C Music Factory, which he founded with musical partner Robert Clivillés....
and Robert Clivillés
Robert Clivillés
Robert Clivillés is a record producer, songwriter, arranger, music video director most noted for his work with C+C Music Factory, a group he founded with musical partner David Cole...
. The second and the final single, "Amado Mio
Amado Mio
"Amado Mio" is a song from the classic 1946 film noir Gilda, written by Allan Roberts & Doris Fisher. The piece was mimed by Rita Hayworth and sung by Anita Kert Ellis....
", was a cover version of the song used in 1946 film Gilda
Gilda
Gilda is a 1946 American black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor. It stars Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale. The film was noted for cinematographer Rudolph Mate's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis' wardrobe for Hayworth , and...
and originally performed by Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
. Bulletproof Heart met with lukewarm reception. In 1992 Jones appeared in Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
film Boomerang, for which she also contributed the song "7 Day Weekend
7 Day Weekend (song)
"7 Day Weekend" is a song recorded by Grace Jones in 1992 for the soundtrack for the Eddie Murphy movie Boomerang, in which Jones played the character Helen Strangé....
" to its soundtrack
Boomerang (soundtrack)
-Album:-Singles:"—" denotes releases that did not chart.-Personnel:Information taken from Allmusic.*bass – Kayo, Debra Killings*composing – Jonathan Davis, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Malik Taylor*coordination – Constance Armstrong, Sharliss Ashbury...
, and released two more singles in 1993: "Evilmainya
Evilmainya
"Evilmainya" is a song by Grace Jones, released as a single in 1993. It was used in the soundtrack of the animated film Freddie as F.R.O.7.-Track listings:Italy CD, Maxi-Single # Evilmainya...
", recorded for the film Freddie as F.R.O.7
Freddie as F.R.O.7
Freddie as F.R.O.7 is a 1992 British animated film written and directed by Jon Acevski. It is a parody of James Bond. The film was inspired by bedtime stories Acevski told to his son about his favourite toy frog working as a secret agent. -Plot:...
, and "Sexdrive". She recorded two albums during the 1990s, but they remain unreleased thus far. In 1994, she was due to release an electro
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
album titled Black Marilyn with artwork featuring the singer as Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
; in 1998, she was scheduled to release an album entitled Force of Nature, on which she worked with trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
musician Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...
. The release of Force of Nature was cancelled due to a disagreement between them and only a white label
White label
White label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...
12" single featuring two dance mixes of "Hurricane (Cradle to the Grave)
Hurricane (Cradle to the Grave)
"Hurricane " is a song recorded by Grace Jones in 1997 and intended for an album by the title Force of Nature. The song was a collaboration with Trip-Hop artist Tricky but due to heavy disagreements between Jones and Tricky, the album was never completed, and only "Hurricane" with the subtitle...
" was issued; a slowed-down version of this song became the title track of her comeback album released ten years later. In 1999 she appeared in an episode of the Beastmaster
BeastMaster (TV series)
BeastMaster is a Canadian television series that aired from 1999 to 2002. It was loosely based on a 1982 MGM movie The Beastmaster. The series aired for three complete seasons...
television series as the Umpatra Warrior.
Recent career
In 2000, Jones cut "The Perfect Crime"(to the show "Crime Perfeito"), an up-tempo song for Danish TV written by the composer duo Floppy M. aka Jacob Duus & Kåre Jacobsen. A year later, she appeared alongside Tim CurryTim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
in Wolf Girl
Wolf Girl
Wolf Girl is a 2001 Canadian/American horror thriller about a girl who travels with a freak show because of her rare genetic disorder, hypertrichosis.-Plot:...
(also known as Blood Moon), as a transvestite circus performer named Christoph/Christine. On 28 May 2002, she performed onstage in Modena, Italy with Italian opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
during his annual Pavarotti and Friends concert to support the UN refugee agency's programs for Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
n refugees in Zambia. Together they performed the aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
"Pourquoi me réveiller?" from Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's opera Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
. In November 2004, Jones sang her hit "Slave to the Rhythm" at a tribute concert for record producer Trevor Horn
Trevor Horn
Trevor Charles Horn CBE is an English pop music record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring in north-east England....
at London's Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium.-History:...
. In April 2005 Jones raised a controversy, when she was accused of verbally abusing a Eurostar
Eurostar
Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
train manager in a quarrel over a ticket upgrade, and she either was escorted off the train or left of her own accord, later saying that she had been mistreated. In February 2006, Jones was the celebrity runway model for Diesel's show in New York.
Producer Ivor Guest confirmed that he and Jones had completed recording her new album in 2007. Other participants on the album included the original Compass Point All Stars
Compass Point All Stars
The Compass Point phenomenon was designed to be to reggae-based pop/rock music of the 80s, what Nashville was to country music, or the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was to soul and R&B in the 60s: a recording facility animated by in-house sets of artists, musicians, producers and engineers, all...
line-up, including Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie is the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production team of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare who joined in the mid 1970s after having established themselves separately in Jamaica as professional musicians...
, Mikey Chung
Mikey Chung
Born Michael Chung in 1954, Mikey "Mao" Chung is a keyboard, guitar and percussion player, arranger and record producer of Jamaican music.-Biography:...
and Wally Badarou
Wally Badarou
Wally Badarou is a musician from Benin.-Biography:A synthesiser specialist, Badarou was the longtime associate of the British band Level 42, known for its blend of funk, pop, soul and rock...
, joined by Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Bruce Woolley
Bruce Woolley
Bruce Woolley is an English writer, performer, record producer and composer.- Early years :Bruce Woolley was born in Loughborough, England on 11 November 1953 and was educated at Loughborough Grammar School where he learned electric guitar, began to write songs and where he met his future wife,...
, Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...
and Tony Allen
Tony Allen (musician)
Tony Oladipo Allen is aNigerian drummer, composer, and songwriter who currently lives and works in Paris. He is currently writing his autobiography "Tony Allen: Master Drummer of Afrobeat" with author/musician Michael E...
. The Hurricane
Hurricane (Grace Jones album)
Hurricane is the tenth studio album by singer Grace Jones and her first album of new material in nineteen years.-Creation:Jones had decided not to do another album again before meeting music producer Ivor Guest by mutual friend Philip Treacy. After becoming acquainted Guest played Jones a track he...
album (initially to be titled Corporate Cannibal) was released on 27 October 2008, on Wall of Sound
Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, California, during the early 1960s...
/PIAS Records, meeting with positive reviews. "Corporate Cannibal
Corporate Cannibal
"Corporate Cannibal" is the lead single from Grace Jones' 10th studio album Hurricane released on Wall of Sound records in 2008.-Song information:...
" became the album's lead single, with its music video directed by Nick Hooker. Jones embarked on a concert tour at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009, and appeared at Secret Garden Party
Secret Garden Party
The Secret Garden Party is an annual independent arts and music festival which takes place in Abbots Ripton near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Part of the grounds of a Georgian farm house, the location has its own lake, river and landscaped gardens...
and Latitude Festival
Latitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006....
to promote the new album. The video for the second single, "Williams' Blood
Williams' Blood
"Williams' Blood" is the second single from Grace Jones' tenth studio album Hurricane.-Song information:"Williams' Blood" is an autobiographical song, written by Jones and Wendy & Lisa, explaining how Jones takes after her mother's, Marjorie Jones née Williams, musical side of the family rather...
", used live footage from the Hurricane Tour.
Grace Jones also collaborated with the avant-garde poet Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine, born in 1939 in Morlaix in the Brittany region of France, is a singer of avant-garde music. During the course of her career she has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry and world rhythms...
on a duet named " Soufi" from Fontaine's album 'Prohibition' released in autumn 2009, and produced by Ivor Guest. On 26 April 2010 Grace Jones performed at Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, receiving rave reviews.
A One Man Show was released on DVD, as Grace Jones – Live in Concert, in 2010 with 3 bonus videoclips ("Slave to the Rhythm", "Love Is the Drug" and "Crush"). "Love You to Life
Love You to Life
Love You to Life is the third single from Grace Jones' tenth studio album Hurricane.Originally scheduled for release on March 30, 2009, it would however be postponed for more than a year, finally being released on May 4, 2010.-Track listing:...
", the third single off Hurricane, was released on 2 May 2010.
Grace Jones collaborated again with the French avant-garde poet Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine, born in 1939 in Morlaix in the Brittany region of France, is a singer of avant-garde music. During the course of her career she has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry and world rhythms...
on two tracks (Dancefloor and La Caravane) on Fontaine's 2011 release entitled "L'un n'empêche pas l'autre". (This album also produced by Ivor Guest). Jones performed at the opening ceremony of the 61st FIFA Congress
61st FIFA Congress
The 61st FIFA Congress was held between 31 May and 1 June 2011 at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland. FIFA is the governing body of world association football, and the congress is the annual meeting of FIFA's supreme legislative body. This is the eighth congress to be held in Zurich, and the...
.
Jones is currently recording her follow up album to Hurricane for a 2012 release and has collaborated with Boy George on an as yet unreleased track.
Style, image and voice
In the late 1970s, Jones adapted the emerging New Wave musicNew Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
style and adopted a severe, androgynous
Androgyny
Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...
look, with square-cut hair and angular, padded
Shoulder pads
Shoulder pads are a piece of protective equipment used in many contact sports such as American football, Canadian football, lacrosse and hockey. Most modern shoulder pads consist of a shock absorbing foam material with a hard plastic outer covering. The pieces are usually secured by rivets or...
clothes, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude
Jean-Paul Goude
Jean-Paul Goude is a French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and advertising film director. He created several well-known campaigns for brands such as Perrier, Citroën and Chanel....
. She would also exemplify the so-called "flat top
Flattop
A flattop is a type of very short hairstyle similar to the crew cut, with the exception that the hair on the top of the head is deliberately styled to stand up and is cut to be flat, resulting in a haircut that is square in shape...
" hairstyle in many of her concerts in the 1970s, which would become popular among black men in the 1980s. Her first album cover to feature this hairstyle was 1980's Warm Leatherette. Her strong visual presence was an advantage for her music videos and concert tours. In her concert performances, she adopted various personas and wore outlandish costumes, particularly during her years with Goude. One such performance was at the Paradise Garage
Paradise Garage
The Paradise Garage was a discotheque notable in the history of modern gay and nightclub cultures and in dance and pop music. It was founded by Michael Brody, its sole proprietor, and was located at 84 King Street, in the Hudson Square neighborhood of New York City. It operated from 1976 to 1987...
in 1985, for which she collaborated with visual artist Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
for her costume. Haring painted her body in tribal patterns and fitted her with wire armour. The muralist also painted her body for the video to "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)
"I'm Not Perfect " is the first single from Grace Jones' album Inside Story. The song was co-written by Bruce Woolley and produced by Nile Rodgers of Chic fame.-Chart performance:...
" and the 1986 vampire film Vamp
Vamp (film)
-Plot:Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper for their college initiation party, so they go to a dark, seedy part of town to look for a good candidate. They visit a nightclub in a barren, desolate, no-mans land section where the police rarely patrol...
. Grace Jones's striking appearance, height (5'10½" or 1.79 m), and manner influenced the cross-dressing
Cross-dressing
Cross-dressing is the wearing of clothing and other accoutrement commonly associated with a gender within a particular society that is seen as different than the one usually presented by the dresser...
movement of the 1980s. To this day, she is known for her unique look at least as much as she is for her music and has been an inspiration for numerous other artists, including Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...
and Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
.
Jones is a contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
. Although her image became equally as notable as her voice, she is a highly stylised vocalist.
Personal life
At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, Jones was in a relationship with a French graphic designerGraphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
Jean-Paul Goude
Jean-Paul Goude
Jean-Paul Goude is a French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and advertising film director. He created several well-known campaigns for brands such as Perrier, Citroën and Chanel....
, with whom she has a son, Paulo. Jones has been married twice; her first husband was producer Chris Stanley whom she married in 1989. She married second husband, bodyguard Atila Altaunbay in 1996. The couple later divorced.
Discography
- Portfolio (1977)
- FameFame (album)-Charts:-References:*[ Allmusic]...
(1978) - Muse (1979)
- Warm Leatherette (1980)
- NightclubbingNightclubbingNightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Grace Jones, released in 1981. It is the second of three post-disco albums that Jones made at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and became Jones' commercial breakthrough and also formed the basis of her groundbreaking concept tour A One Man Show...
(1981) - Living My LifeLiving My Life (album)-Charts:AlbumSingle...
(1982) - Slave to the RhythmSlave to the RhythmSlave to the Rhythm is the seventh album by Grace Jones. It was produced by Trevor Horn and released in 1985. The album was written by Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn...
(1985) - Inside Story (1986)
- Bulletproof HeartBulletproof HeartBulletproof Heart is the ninth studio album by Grace Jones and was released in 1989. Singles from the album were "Love on Top of Love" and "Amado Mio"...
(1989) - HurricaneHurricane (Grace Jones album)Hurricane is the tenth studio album by singer Grace Jones and her first album of new material in nineteen years.-Creation:Jones had decided not to do another album again before meeting music producer Ivor Guest by mutual friend Philip Treacy. After becoming acquainted Guest played Jones a track he...
(2008)
Movies
- 1973: Gordon's WarGordon's WarGordon's War is a 1973 action film written by Howard Friedlander and Ed Spielman, and directed by Ossie Davis. It stars Paul Winfield as Gordon Hudson.-Synopsis:...
- 1976: Let's Make a Dirty Movie
- 1976: Colt 38 Special Squad
- 1979: Army of Lovers or Revolution of the Perverts (documentary)
- 1981: Deadly Vengeance
- 1984: Made in France (documentary)
- 1984: Conan the DestroyerConan the DestroyerConan the Destroyer is a 1984 American action fantasy film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter and Olivia d'Abo. It is...
- 1985: A View to a KillA View to a KillA View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...
- 1986: VampVamp (film)-Plot:Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper for their college initiation party, so they go to a dark, seedy part of town to look for a good candidate. They visit a nightclub in a barren, desolate, no-mans land section where the police rarely patrol...
- 1987: Straight to Hell
- 1987: SiestaSiesta (film)Siesta is a 1987 film directed by Mary Lambert, and starring Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne and Jodie Foster. It also stars Martin Sheen, Isabella Rossellini, Grace Jones, Julian Sands and Alexei Sayle....
- 1990: Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (documentary)
- 1992: Boomerang
- 1995: Cyber BanditsCyber BanditsCyber Bandits is a 1995 science fiction film directed by USC graduate Erik Fleming, with Visual Effects by fellow USC graduate Steven Robiner, and starring Alexandra Paul, Robert Hays along with lead Martin Kemp of the rock group Spandau Ballet; also featuring other British rock personalities Adam...
- 1998: McCinsey's Island
- 1999: Palmer's Pick Up
- 2006: No Place Like Home
- 2008: Falco – Verdammt, Wir Leben Noch!
- 2008: Chelsea on the Rocks
Television work
- 1978: StryxStryx- Description :Stryx thematically referred to Hell, devils and underworld. The scenography featured elements resembling Middle Ages-like gloomy castles and caves....
- 1982: A One Man ShowA One Man ShowA One Man Show is a music documentary featuring American singer Grace Jones, filmed in 1981–1982. The film was first released in 1982 to promote the album Living My Life and was re-issued on VHS and laserdisc by Island Records, PolyGram and Spectrum Music through the 1980s and early 1990s...
- 1988: Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas SpecialPee-wee's PlayhousePee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
- 1999: BeastmasterBeastMaster (TV series)BeastMaster is a Canadian television series that aired from 1999 to 2002. It was loosely based on a 1982 MGM movie The Beastmaster. The series aired for three complete seasons...
- 2001: Wolf GirlWolf GirlWolf Girl is a 2001 Canadian/American horror thriller about a girl who travels with a freak show because of her rare genetic disorder, hypertrichosis.-Plot:...
- 2001: Shaka Zulu: The Citadel
Awards and nominations
Jones is a three-time Saturn AwardSaturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
nominee, a Grammy
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nominee, an MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...
nominee, a Razzie Award nominee and a Q Awards
Q Awards
The Q Awards are the UK's annual music awards run by the music magazine Q. Since they began in 1990, the Q Awards have become one of Britain's biggest and best publicised music awards, helped in no small part by the often boisterous behavior of the celebrities who attend the event...
winner. She has also ranked 82nd on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll.
Saturn Awards
- 1985: Best Supporting Actress for Conan the DestroyerConan the DestroyerConan the Destroyer is a 1984 American action fantasy film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter and Olivia d'Abo. It is...
(Nomination) - 1986: Best Supporting Actress for A View to a KillA View to a KillA View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...
(Nomination) - 1987: Best Supporting Actress for VampVamp (film)-Plot:Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper for their college initiation party, so they go to a dark, seedy part of town to look for a good candidate. They visit a nightclub in a barren, desolate, no-mans land section where the police rarely patrol...
(Nomination)
Grammy Awards
- 1983: Best Long Form Music Video for her A One Man ShowA One Man ShowA One Man Show is a music documentary featuring American singer Grace Jones, filmed in 1981–1982. The film was first released in 1982 to promote the album Living My Life and was re-issued on VHS and laserdisc by Island Records, PolyGram and Spectrum Music through the 1980s and early 1990s...
(Nomination)
MTV Video Music Award
- 1986: Best Female Video for "Slave to the RhythmSlave to the Rhythm (song)"Slave to the Rhythm" was the first single from Grace Jones' album of the same name, which was released in 1985. The song and the album was written by Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn and was produced by Horn...
" (Nomination)
Razzie Awards
- 1987: Worst Supporting Actress for SiestaSiesta (film)Siesta is a 1987 film directed by Mary Lambert, and starring Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne and Jodie Foster. It also stars Martin Sheen, Isabella Rossellini, Grace Jones, Julian Sands and Alexei Sayle....
(Nomination)
Q Music Award
- 2008: Q Idol (Winner)