Grace Jones
Date of birth
19th May, 1948
Occupation
Actor
Sex
1st January, 1970
Height
1.75
Grace Jones (born 19.5.1948) Grace Jones is a Jamaican / American singer, as well as an actress and a model.
Childhood: Grace Jones was born in Jamaica. Her mother was Marjorie Jones and her father, Robert Jones, was a politician and a member of the clergy for the Apostolic faith.
In 1965, Marjorie and Robert moved to New York with their two children, Grace and Randy. Grace studied theatre at Onondaga Community College and then became a model, working mainly in New York and Paris.
Music Career: In 1977, Grace Jones signed to Island Records. Her debut album, Portfolio was released the same year and included the singles 'Sorry' and 'I Need a Man'. The following year, she released Fame, and released the singles 'Fame', 'Am I Ever Gonna Fall In Love In New York City' and 'Do Or Die'. Grace Jones' third album was entitled Muse and was released in 1979. It was the third album on which Jones worked with disco producer Tom Moulter and it spawned the singles 'I'll Find My Way To You' and 'On Your Knees'.
Andy Warhol adopted Grace Jones as his artistic muse and the pair were often spotted together at the infamous New York nightclub, Studio 54.
Grace Jones began to move away from her original disco-pop sound and began to take influence from the New Wave music that was emerging from the New York underground scene. In 1980, Jones released the Warm Leatherette album, working with Alex Sadkin and Chris Blackwell on production duties. This was followed by Nightclubbing, on which she continued her trend of re-working songs by artists such as Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Tom Petty and The Pretenders.
To coincide with this shift in musical direction, Jones also changed her image to a more androgynous look, with a severe, angular haircut and sharp-cut outfits. In 1985, Grace Jones released her iconic album Slave to the Rhythm on ZTT Records. From this album, Jones released the singles 'Slave to the Rhythm' and 'Jones The Rhythm'.
Jones continued to collaborate with Sadkin on her next album Living My Life, which carried a heavy dub and reggae influence. In 1989, Jones released Bulletproof Heart, which contained the single 'Love on Top of Love'.
Grace Jones contributed vocals to the huge Arcadia hit, 'Election Day' is 1985.
Jones was always keen to add visual spectacle to her live shows. In 1985, the artist Keith Haring painted her body with tribal designs and designed her a wire suit of armour to wear. It has been reported that Grace Jones is a musical influence on modern day acts such as Santogold and TV on the Radio.
In 2002, Grace Jones and Luciano Pavarotti performed together in Italy, for a fundraising concert for the United Nations.
2006 saw the release of a 3-CD retrospective of Grace Jones' musical output, entitled The Ultimate Collection.
During 2007, Grace Jones worked with Ivor Guest on her album Corporate Cannibal, which was then released in 2008. The album featured contributions from a number of artists, such as Sly & Robbie, Tricky and Brian Eno. That year, she performed as a part of London's Meltdown festival, which was curated by Massive Attack.
Film Career: Grace Jones has appeared in a number of mainstream movies, including 1973's Gordon's War and 1984's Conan the Destroyer - which also featured Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then, in 1986, she starred in Vamp, a vampire movie. In 1992, Jones played an eccentric supermodel named Helen Strange in Eddie Murphy's Boomerang.
Reputation: In 1981, Grace Jones shocked TV audiences when she slapped the chat show host, Russell Harty across the face when she felt that he was ignoring her.
Personal Life: In the 1980s, Grace Jones dated two Scandinavian bodybuilder / actors. The first was Dolph Lundgren and the second was Sven-Ole Thorsen.
Grace then married Chris Stanley in 1989 but they divorced the next year.
Six years later, Jones married a Belgian named Atila Altaunbay.
Grace has a son, Paulo, from a previous relationship with Jean-Paul Goude.
More recently, Jones became engaged to the music producer Ivor Guest but the relationship is reported to have been called off.
‘Whip My Hair’ Off: How Shaving Their Heads Empowered These Women In Music
By Holly Mosley in Music / Festivals on 21 July 2021
Willow Smith and more rocked a buzzcut for so many reasons.
For a lot of women, their hair is their crowning glory, but for others it’s nothing more than society-dictated bonds that sap women of their money, their energy and their confidence. Fear instils many who attend hairdressers; the dread that one may leave with a much shorter do than they had intended. After all, long hair is so often seen as traditionally beautiful. Losing it can feel like losing one’s beauty.
It’s no wonder that so many modern women have opted to brave the shave instead, reclaiming their identities along the way and discovering an easier way of living, while simultaneously discovering that their hair was never the determining factor in their beauty.
Continue reading: ‘Whip My Hair’ Off: How Shaving Their Heads Empowered These Women In Music
Grace Jones Thinks She'd Be Dead If She Was Modelling
By Clive King in Music / Festivals on 23 October 2017
Grace Jones has claimed she'd ''be dead'' if she was still modelling, and admitting she was ''glad'' to be focusing on her career as a musician
Grace Jones is glad she's left modelling behind for a career as a musician.
The 'Slave to the Rhythm' hitmaker started her career as a model in the 1970s before she embarked on a career in the music business, and while fashion is a big part of her live performances, she doesn't feel she missed out by changing her career path.
Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, she wrote: ''I'm glad I'm not doing [modelling] now. I'd probably be dead. Everybody's so skinny. Size zero is like the walking dead. Not sexy at all.
Continue reading: Grace Jones Thinks She'd Be Dead If She Was Modelling
Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami Trailer
Grace Jones remains one of the most important figures in the world of fashion, music and art, altering the world's perception of beauty and style with her androgynous and highly eccentric aesthetic. She was one of the most influential style icons of the 1980s and released ten studio albums in her career as a singer.
She is the voice of such hits as 1985's 'Slave to the Rhythm', 1989's 'Love on Top of Love', 1993's 'Sex Drive' and 1981's 'Pull Up to the Bumper'. But more than that, she was also a human being in every sense of the word; not just a figure in a magazine that inspired a new generation of fashion lovers, she is a daughter, a mother, a grandmother and a lover in many high profile relationships.
We may have gotten to know her a little better with her 2015 memoir 'I'll Never Write My Memoirs', but 'Bloodlight and Bami' - name for the Jamaican patois words for a 'red light' in recording, and bread - is one of the most immersive experiences a fan can have learning about her life.
Continue: Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami Trailer
Grace Jones, Mary J. Blige And Others Shine At North Sea Jazz Festival 2017
By Holly Williams in Music / Festivals on 12 July 2017
This year's Rotterdam event was definitely one to remember.
Last weekend saw another North Sea Jazz Festival come and go, with a string of performances from some of the greatest soul singers alive including Grace Jones, Solange and Mary J. Blige. The big event took place in Rotterdam across a number of stages at the Ahoy arena.
At the top of the list were gospel veteran Mavis Staples and new wave legend Grace Jones - who are still rocking arenas at 69 and 78-years-old respectively. The former released her most recent studio album 'Livin' on a High Note' last year, and has since made guest appearances on songs like Arcade Fire's 'I Give You Power' and Gorillaz's 'Let Me Out'. Grace, meanwhile, hasn't released anything since her 2015 70s 'Disco' box set, though she did also appear on Gorillaz's 'Humanz' album.
Continue reading: Grace Jones, Mary J. Blige And Others Shine At North Sea Jazz Festival 2017
Gorillaz Have No Agenda
By Clive King in Music / Festivals on 02 May 2017
Damon Albarn insists he has ''no agenda'' with Gorillaz and loves that they can record anything and make it work.
Damon Albarn has ''no agenda'' with Gorillaz.
The 49-year-old singer loves the fact his animated band are able to adapt to whatever he is writing or whatever musical direction he is keen to explore and insists it doesn't matter if their songs don't match up with collaborator JAMIE HEWLETT's drawings of band members 2D, Murdoc, Russel and Noodle.
He said: ''I don't think that matters.
Continue reading: Gorillaz Have No Agenda
Grace Jones performing on the second day of Way Out West Festival 2016 held in Gothenburg, Sweden - Friday 12th August 2016
Grace Jones Hits Out At Unoriginal Modern Pop Artists
By Ed Biggs in Music / Festivals on 10 September 2015
She hit out at Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Lady Gaga in an excerpt of her new autobiography in Time Out.
Grace Jones has unleashed a tirade of criticism at all manner of modern pop stars, from Minaj to Miley, by describing them as “middle of the stream” and lamenting the current state of the music industry, in her new autobiography.
‘I’ll Never Write My Memoirs’ is released on September 29th, but as a taster she has published a few excerpts from the new book via Time Out. In one of them, Jones complains that a whole host of pop stars have copied her style but have no “long-term vision”, coming off as unoriginal and therefore easily replaceable.
“Trends come along and people say, ‘follow that trend’,” she writes. “There’s a lot of that around at the moment: 'Be like Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady GaGa. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna.’ I cannot be like them – except to the extent that they are already being like me.”
Continue reading: Grace Jones Hits Out At Unoriginal Modern Pop Artists
Grace Jones - BST Hyde Park: Barclaycard British Summer Time Hyde Park - Performances at Barclaycard British Summer Time - London, United Kingdom - Sunday 21st June 2015
Various Artists - Walls Have Ears: 21 Years Of Wall Of Sound Album Review
By Andy Peterson in Music Reviews on 10 June 2015
Label retrospectives are not without a degree of risk: it's easy for compilers to fall into the self-indulgent trap of looking after your pet projects, with the line by extension between vanity exercise and faithful cataloguing dangerously a thin one.
They've got the sense to start with two stone cold killers as well; it's been donkey's years since we heard the Propellerheads' 'Take California' or Royksopp's 'Poor Leno', but we're happy to report that both are still headphone gold. There are also selections from the respective acts at their peak, which is less than can be said, however, for some of the other choices strewn across the first disk. The problem here isn't a lack of the quality in the contributors - we've got stuff from the likes of Zoot Woman, The Bees and Les Rythmes Digitales - but they've all produced better material than that featured here, a point best illustrated via The Bees on the jazzy, underwhelming scat of 'A Minha Menina'.
Continue reading: Various Artists - Walls Have Ears: 21 Years Of Wall Of Sound Album Review
Metronomy Round Off Their Album Tour As Festival No. 6 Headliners
By Holly Williams in Music / Festivals on 23 April 2015
More acts have been announced for the Wales festival.
All headliners for Wales' Festival No. 6 have now been announced, with Metronomy now heading the bill with Grace Jones and Belle & Sebastian. Further new acts have also been added to the line-up, while many more acts are yet to be announced.
British electronic collective Metronomy head the bill with Jamaican crooner Grace Jones and Glasgow pop group Belle & Sebastian as a host of other new bands are added to the festival line-up. The fourth instalment of this uniquely cultured festival is set to hit Portmeirion from September 3rd to 6th, bringing with it some fine artists such as Catfish & The Bottlemen, Jame Bay, Stornoway and Blossoms to name but a few.
Continue reading: Metronomy Round Off Their Album Tour As Festival No. 6 Headliners
Boy George and Grace Jones - Snaps of guests including Boy George at the modern Italian restaurant and bar Gigi's of Mayfair Pre-launch party in London, United Kingdom - Thursday 25th September 2014
Grace Jones - Wimbledon Tennis Championship 2013 - Day 9 - Celebrity Sightings - London, United Kingdom - Wednesday 3rd July 2013
Grace Jones - Daddy G aka Grantley Marshall of Massive Attack Bristol, England - leaving the Grace Jones concert at the Colston Hall Sunday 25th January 2009
Grace Jones, Hurricane Album Review
By Tareck Ghoneim in Music Reviews on 28 October 2008
Album review of Hurricane by Grace Jones.