{"id":511097,"date":"2026-03-01T04:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511097\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T04:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:49:08","slug":"grace-jones-review-chaos-nudity-and-endless-costume-changes-the-disco-legends-show-has-it-all-grace-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511097\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace Jones review \u2013 chaos, nudity and endless costume changes: the disco legend\u2019s show has it all | Grace Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

From her island life as a young girl in Spanish Town, Jamaica, to her art groupie days in New York City, to the towering androgyne Bond villain who could turn La Vie en Rose into a disco hit: Grace Jones<\/a> is one of our greatest living performers \u2013 a disco legend and true party girl, with a penchant for fabulous hats.<\/p>\n

With the Sydney Opera House forecourt her dancefloor and the Monumental Steps her nightclub balcony, the mad hatter claimed dominion of the night on Saturday \u2013 even though her concert happened to coincide with the 48th annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras<\/a>, and the first of two Bad Bunny stadium shows in Sydney Olympic Park.<\/p>\n

Bathed in moonlight, she concluded her show by hula-hooping the duration of her abiding classic, Slave to the Rhythm, bringing new meaning to the song\u2019s familiar bridge: \u201cNever stop the action, keep it up, keep it up.\u201d And keep it up she did for her elaborate and shambolic 90-minute high-wire act.<\/p>\n

Jones hula-hooped the duration of her classic, Slave to the Rhythm. Photograph: Ken Leanfore<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for a consummate professional, you\u2019ve come to the wrong place. Jones is famously downright unprofessional. \u201cI just wanna have some fun, honey. I wanna have more than fun,\u201d she announces between songs. \u201cI wanna end up being dragged out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

After performing Private Life showered in a dazzling shawl of crystal droplets, she paused for a play-pretend cup of tea: \u201cCan you put some wine in it?\u201d When the paper cup was brought to her on stage by her overworked dresser Jane, Jones balked: \u201cSeriously, get me a wine glass darling.\u201d She quickly downed it, before resuming her spirited singing and swivelling. The only sure thing all night is that this exhibitionist will throw on another flamboyant accessory before the next song.<\/p>\n

\u2018Jones was having a ball.\u2019 Photograph: Ken Leanfore<\/p>\n

In fact, she wore something new for each unfolding track in her procession of night anthems. At points she refused to let the songs end, luxuriating in the moment, singing snippets of each song on repeat long after the band had stopped playing. Though Jones is less known for her vocal chops, it was her rich and redolent voice that was the true revelation in a night of surprises.<\/p>\n

Between sit-ups hanging off the edge of her gold throne and the bug-eyed barricade parade on the shoulders of her security \u2013 to the tune of Pull Up to the Bumper, no less \u2013 Jones was having a ball.<\/p>\n

The mad-hatter \u2026 Jones is famous for her headpieces by Philip Treacy. Photograph: Ken Leanfore<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t all just classics: somewhere between her Libertango and Love Is the Drug, Jones snuck in a crowd-pleasing new track, The Key to Funky, from her yet-to-be announced forthcoming record. Before long she disrobed, finally taking off the fitted pants to reveal her famous legs \u2013 the ones Jean-Paul Goude cut and pasted by hand for the artwork of her first greatest hits album, Island Life. \u201cFreedom! No pants! Can we take off some more?\u201d Jones teased \u2013 before momentarily flashing her breasts from beneath her black corset.<\/p>\n

Downing her third glass of red (her \u201ccommunion wine\u201d), the singer invited us to mass (\u201cWe need to go to church. We need to pray\u201d) with a stunning rendition of Amazing Grace. Shaking her tambourine and switching out the Philip Treacy headpiece for a Sunday best church-lady hat, she paid tribute to her roots as a minister\u2019s daughter. The Christian hymn served as the outro to her stirring late-career Williams\u2019 Blood, a gospel rock song that traces her family history through an attachment to her mother\u2019s maiden name. In the song Jones commiserates that she is beyond salvation (\u201cYou can\u2019t save a wretch like me\u201d) in a moment of rare self-admonition.<\/p>\n

\u2018At times, it feels as though she\u2019s on another planet.\u2019 Photograph: Ken Leanfore<\/p>\n

Yet on stage, she is beyond reproach. It\u2019s true, she may not always remember her setlist (\u201cNow which song are we doing?\u201d), or even know some words to the songs she\u2019s been singing for five decades.<\/p>\n

At times, it feels as though she\u2019s on another planet. Remarkably, six of them grace the night sky on the eve of her show. As they come into alignment, every blunder dissolves in the face of her blinding extraterrestrial light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From her island life as a young girl in Spanish Town, Jamaica, to her art groupie days in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-511097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}