Grace Jones: The Original

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After reading this article and watching the video... all I kept thinking is that 'I want to wear a mask like she is wearing during the interview for carnival' lol. She must have inspired Rhianna and Lady GaGa.


Vogue Italia is featuring a video with Grace Jones. She helped define the 1980s aesthetics. Disco Queen and fashion muse, this graceful "panther" has never been tamed. She has been recently honored at the Grand Ball Cavalchina in Venice, receiving an award for her career

Name
Grace Jones.

Birthday
May 19th.

Born in
Spanish Town, Jamaica.

Lives in
London, UK.

Famous for
Being a living legend. Model, actress, singer, writer.

Special features
Her androgynous, impressive body - part feline, part robot. She has a vocal range of two and a half octaves, easily passing from contralto di soprano.

Things to know
Among her nicknames, she's been called the panther and the queen of gay discos. She's become an inextricable part of '80s iconography. "I know that people are intimidated by me, but that's just theatrics. I'm a fun person, I promise".

Career
She began working as a model in the early 1970s, and quickly became a key figure in the club scene - making the crazy nights at Studio 54 even more memorable, along with her friend Andy Warhol. She moved to Paris where she became a muse for Paco Rabanne (and where she lived with Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange). She appeared in her first movie, Gordon's War, in 1973 and later appeared in other films like Conan the Barbarian and as a nemesis of James Bond in View to a Kill.  But it's music that she's best known for, leading the way in the disco genre, and still now putting out electronic dance-pop albums like the recent  Hurricane. Her version of La vie en rose from the LifeIsland album is a standout. Her music defined an era.

Good causes
She has leant her voice to many benefit concerts, including Pavarotti and friends.

Hobbies
Vices. Smoking, drinking, sex. She loves dressing up like a man. But as she always says, "Use, don't abuse."

Favorite food
Or more accurately, her favorite drinks. Wine, whiskey and even Sambuca (a double, after dinner). In an interview she calls herself "the Tequila queen".

Personal style
Sexual ambiguity. Her short, asymmetric haircut has gone down in the history books, as have several of her stage costumes. Even today she favors structured jackets, futuristic hats, leather accessories, bustiers. Preferably in black.

She hates
Rules.

Quote
"A legend is someone who's died". (The Sunday Times)

Relationship status
Among her famous partners: the actor Dolph Lundgren and the French photographer Jean-Paul Goude, the father of her son Paolo. She married a wedding singer, Atila Altaunbay, younger than her by 28 years, in 1996.

Pets
Onstage she's appeared with leopards and lions...


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