Grace Jones & Janelle Monáe kicked off Pride & Celebrate Brooklyn! in wild style at @ Prospect Park (review, photos)

It was about as perfect a pairing as you could hope for.

Jun 11, 2025 - 02:35

Grace Jones & Janelle Monáe kicked off Pride & Celebrate Brooklyn! in wild style at @ Prospect Park (review, photos)

“Do y’all realize what’s about to happen,” Janelle Monáe asked the crowd at Prospect Park on Monday night. “Y’all gonna party with Grace Jones! She is the icon of all time!” Judging by how a large segment of the crowd was dressed, they did realize what was about to happen, but maybe not how wild of a party it would become.

This was not only the opening night of the 2025 BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, but also part of the Blue Note Jazz festival and one of the first big Pride Month events. (It was also one of a few shows Grace and Janelle are playing together around the country for Pride.) I can’t imagine a better kickoff party than this. Two amazing iconoclasts on one bill for an extremely fun night that just got crazier as it went. At 77 Grace Jones has lost none of her prowess and is as feisty as ever. “I like to stick my tongue out, don’t let it scare you,” Grace warned the crowd, which elicited only wild hooting and howling.

Grace’s headlining set began late with her appearing on a raised scaffolding platform behind her more than capable band, which includes her son Paulo on percussion, opening with her slinky, dubby cover of Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing.” It featured the first of many hats, a severe red plastic shield that was part Devo and part HR Giger, which covered half her face. At the end of the song she removed it slowly, revealing one of the most iconic faces of the last 50 years. The audience went nuts and was with her for the rest of the night as she lapped up the adulation. Grace stayed perched on her platform for her cover of The Pretenders “Private Life,” and then descended down the stairs to take center stage where the party really started.

“I ain’t got no filter…so I’ve been told,” Grace cracked to the crowd, and she did seem to be playing things fast and loose on Monday night while the band kept things tight, though it was also a bit of a crowd-pleasing act. She performed the (very good) new song “The Key,” telling the audience she hadn’t memorized the words yet, but it was clear she had it all down. Mid-set she asked for a stool and a glass of wine which she chugged and then sang a smoky, torch song version of “Amazing Grace.” The song takes on new meaning when Grace Jones is singing it.

Her setlist stuck mainly to her classic early-’80s era on Island Records when her band included Sly & Robbie, and that mixes of dub, electro and disco still sounds amazing, as does Jones’ voice. We got “My Jamaican Guy,” with Grace in a long natty dread wig, pulling flamenco moves on “I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango),” The Police-written “Demolition Man” (bashing the hell out of some cymbals along the way), the elegant “Williams’ Blood” from 2008’s Hurricane, and her cover of Roxy Music’s “Love is the Drug.”

The night crescendoed with Janelle Monáe coming out for “Pull Up to the Bumper,” a very saucy song that got extra spicy as the two crashed onto the floor and Grace’s pants somehow came off. It was controlled chaos — Janelle tried to pull them back on, declaring, “Grace, you are a naughty, naughty girl!”

With Grace running the show, things were running behind, blowing past the bandshell’s curfew — “Curfew? This is New York!,” Grace snorted (or something to that effect) — and it looked like “Bumper” would be the final song of the night, with the lights coming on and the crowd heading for the exits. But then the lights went back off and most people turned and went back in as the band took their places, and then Grace came out out in a corset and wielding a familiar hula-hoop as the synths of “Slave to the Rhythm” swelled. She hula-hooped through the whole song, including band introductions, and though “Hurricane” was supposed to close out the show, it’s hard to imagine it ending any other way than this.

Backing up a bit, Janelle Monáe’s opening set was fun, with a very similar setlist to what I saw at the Oya festival last year, though the production was definitely scaled down and costume changes stuck mainly to the hat and coat variety. But Monáe doesn’t really need the costumes as she’s a dynamo on stage, part James Brown, part Prince, and part Tina Turner, with a dash of Michael Jackson, yet wholly original. The night included an on-stage audience dance-off with a few participants who were ready to stay up there all night, and a nice interlude where she encouraged everyone to speak out against transphobia, homophobia, the babies being killed in Gaza, the restriction of reproductive rights and more. On just about any other night she would be the star of the show, but it’s hard to compete with Grace Jones, and it made for an ideal pairing and a just about perfect night of music.

Check out photos of the whole night by Amanda M Hatfield below.