Last week (May 2), Madonna made history on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when 1.6 million people came out to see the final concert of her ‘Celebration Tour’, prompted by Roc Nation and sponsored by Itaú, Latin America’s largest bank.
The concert culminated a 40-year career for the pop diva, known for hits like “Like A Virgin” and “Material Girl,” and for pushing sexual boundaries on stage and with sexually driven albums like as her 1992 set “Erotica.”
In 2022, the pop star posted a reflection on the 30th anniversary of her “Sex” book, a scandalous exploration of her sexual fantasies and same-sex relationships, which was released alongside her 1992 album, saying other pop stars didn’t give her credit for the inspiration she provided with “Erotica.”
“30 years ago I published a book called S.E.X. In addition to photos of me naked there were photos of Men kissing Men, Woman kissing Woman and Me kissing everyone,” Madonna wrote. “Now Cardi B can sing about her “WAP.” Kim Kardashian can grace the cover of any magazine with her naked a— and Miley Cyrus can come in like a wrecking ball.” She closed with, “You’re welcome b–es.”
Years before Madonna, Jamaica’s Grace Jones was a symbol of boundary-pushing aesthetics in fashion, music, and films, but although she had her fair share of success, she was never promoted as a leader in pop music.
Former Senior Label Manager Disco / Black Music at CBS Records Canada Dominique Zgarka, who first signed both Grace Jones and years later Madonna to a one-album deal said that Jones was an inspiration to Madonna. “All I can really say is she was most probably an inspiration for artistic freedom like Madonna and Lady Gaga. Freedom of expression physically through fashion as well as through music,” he told World Music Views.
Reflecting on how he met Jones, Zgarka said, “I was at a conference in New York called the New Music Conference, which was owned by Tom Silverman, who owns Tommy Boy Records, and I got a call from this gentleman who was managing Grace Jones. I had no idea who Grace Jones was.”
This was before Jones met and signed with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records. “That was when Grace Jones did La Vie En Rose,” her first song which was originally written and sung by French singer Édith Piaf in 1945.
“So I made a deal, a one-record deal. Being so young, I didn’t know the difference,” Zgarka said.
He said there were many similarity’s with Madonna’s career choices following Jones, and he also made the same corporate mistake when he signed Madonna; it was also a one-record deal.
“So we fell in love with her (Grace Jones’) version of ‘La Vie En Rose,’ and we had a huge hit, but we were so young and naive, and we didn’t have any options for future records, and Chris Blackwell being the genius that he was and is, signed her and did ‘Pull Up To My Bumper’ and everything else,” he said.
Being in a one-record deal prevents the label from collecting on future earnings of the artist if they blow up, and both Grace and Madonna became cultural figures.
“It was similar with Madonna, some hip chick that used to hang around clubs and lip-synced and all that. We signed her to a record, and we didn’t take any future rights on the record.”
Blackwell first learned of Grace Jones through a New York music journalist, then he saw the iconic picture of Grace Jones, captured by her then-partner, Jean-Paul Goude, in 1977. At the time, she was putting on disco shows in the city and was just transitioning from fashion into music. “We eventually met at the Russian Tea Room, which is adjacent to my office at the Carnegie Hall building,” Blackwell said in his memoir, ‘The Islander.’
“What won me over and took me by surprise was how Jamaican she was,” Blackwell said. “A Jamaican that came from everywhere, a Jamaican that had absorbed hippie, LSD, disco, punk, New York, Paris, Japan, London, you name it, she was an orgy of hybrids,” the Island Records founder stated.
In the music and fashion creations of Kanye West, Rihanna, Amber Rose, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Lil Kim, Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, and just about every modern pop icon, there are remnants of Grace Jones’ eccentricity and boundary pushing pop culture performance art.
Often without the proper credit and to the displeasure of Jones who publicly blasted Kanye and Madonna in the past. “Kanye has been ripping off stuff from me and Jean-Paul Goude for a long time, so it was no surprise to me.”
Fans have responded to the use of Jones for inspiration without her involvement over the years.
One person tweeted, “This alone ended everyone back then and till this day people still try to recreate. Grace Jones is that girl!”
Another blamed her blackness for the reason she is not often properly credited for her influence.
“I believe wholeheartedly the flowers Madonna received were meant for Grace!” another fan said.
I’m a firm believer that since Grace Jones was a darker skinned black woman she did not properly receive the accolades that she rightfully deserves.
I believe wholeheartedly the flowers Madonna received were meant for Grace!
I wish we saw more of GJ, but I get why we don’t.
— Susie SZA-Hands🖖🏾 (@bittersweetluvn) October 24, 2022
Grace said in 2015, that the work she did in the 1970s was considered racist, according to the Huff Post “The work (Jean-Paul and I) did together, people were calling it racist,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t racist at all. It was him basically putting me on a pedestal.”
“There was no one as weird and brilliant as Grace,” Blackwell said.
