Grace Jones: The Woman. The Icon. The Legend.
February 27, 2018
The amazing, iconic and incomparable Grace Beverly Jones was born in Jamaica on May 19, 1948…or was it 1952? THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW! (Grace, when asked, responded “I don’t keep track of my age.”) She first attended the Pentecostal All Saints School (She was raised Pentecostal) in Jamaica before being sent to the local public school. At the age of 13, she and her siblings moved to Syracuse, NY to be with her parents. Upon graduating from high school, Grace began classes at Onondaga Community College, where she majored in Spanish.
It was around this time that Grace began to rebel—against her parents and her religion. She began drinking, wearing makeup, and going to gay clubs with her brother.
Then, whilst taking a theatre class in school, her drama teacher was able to convince her to travel to Philly with him for a summer stock tour. And, when sis got there, she decided to stay. She got into the 1960s Counterculture, lived in hippie communes, worked as a go-go dancer for money, and partook in LSD and various other drugs. *As a sidenote, Grace said in an interview that her use of LSD was a very important aspect of her emotional growth……BUT ALSO, DON’T DO DRUGS, KIDS*
She moved back to NYC at the age of 18, signing on to be a model with Wilhelmina Modeling; she didn’t find the success she’d hoped for. So, in 1970, she went to Paris to further pursue her career.
And ya girl found success! Grace’s striking features and “exotic” (I hate that word used in the context of describing people) appearance were highly favored and appreciated. She was soon working for top names in the fashion industry, including Yves Saint Laurent and Helmut Newton. She was on the covers of Elle and Vogue magazines. She became friends with Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, Jerry Hall, and the ever talented Jessica Lange. (She shared an apartment in Paris with Jerry and Jessica.)
She landed parts in movies and then ya girl Grace signed a recording contract with Island Records. She released three albums over the course of three years: “Portfolio” (1977), "Fame” (1978), and “Muse” (1979). Now, none of these albums found real success, but Grace gave some spicy performances at notable nightclubs in NY and gathered a loyal fanbase in the city’s gay and art scenes.
As the world ushered in the 80s, music began to change and with it, Grace changed. She opted for a more androgynous look and left disco behind, adopting, instead, a more new wave influenced sound. The two albums that followed, “Leatherette” (1980) and “Nightclubbing” (1981) are her best known, each having singles that made the charts.
Grace took her talents to the big screen following her 1982 album “ Living My Life,” starring in Conan the Destroyer alongside Arnold ‘I’ll be back’ Schwarzenegger and then in the James Bond flick “A View to Kill” opposite Roger Moore and Christopher Walken. She received a Saturn Award nomination for both films for best supporting actress.
Ya girl went between singing and acting over the next 10 years, releasing “Slave to the Rhythm” in 1985 and then playing a model named Strangé in the Eddie Murphy comedy “Boomerang” opposite Halle Berry, Martin Lawrence, and David Alan Grier.
Grace Jones has worked with been names and been a crucial influence to the likes of Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Santigold. She’s been ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll by VH1. She released her first full length album in nearly 20 years in 2008, titled “Hurricane.” And, in 2015, she published a memoir titled “I’ll Never Write My Memoirs” (lol). She is also the subject of a BBC documentary “Grace Jones—The Musical of My Life,” directed by Sophie Fiennes.
