Whether you’re male or female, any Grace Jones sighting is a visual and sometimes emotional shock to the system; her strikingly outrageous and androgynous outfits made her a big hit with the pop culture, fashion and night club scene throughout the decade of the 80’s. Her major achievement during that era was her hit album “Nightclubbing,” a big hit on both continents; during this time Grace collaborated with Reggae, Rock and R&B stars, all creating the New Wave music of the times. She became known for the elaborate and outrageous costumes she wore at her performances, which in fact started fashion trends that have influenced performers like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Annie Lennox, Solange, Nile Rogers and many others.
One of the best glimpses of the Grace Jones persona can be seen in The Eddie Murphy movie “Boomerang,” in which Jones plays a petulant, obnoxious big time model Helen Strange; Grace could in fact be playing herself in that movie. I have news for you, Grace Jones father and brother are high profile pastors, and she was raised in the strictest of Pentecostal households, she sums up her upbringing this way, in a 2015 interview, “my childhood was all about the Bible and beatings. We were beaten for any little act of dissent, and hit harder the worse the disobedience. It formed me as a person, my choices, men I have been attracted to…It was a profoundly disciplined, militant upbringing, and so, in my own way, I am very militant and disciplined. Even if that means being militantly naughty and disciplined in the arts of subversion.”
Grace Jones was born and raised in Jamaica until age 13, when she rejoined her family in Lyncourt, Salina, New York. She enjoys the distinction of being a Jamaican pioneer who changed the face of modeling internationally, while lifting Jamaica’s status as a world contender on almost every level of competition.
