LIVE REVIEW + GALLERY: Grace Jones – Sydney Opera House

The word “icon” gets thrown around a lot in pop culture, but Grace Jones is truly the definition and pure embodiment of what that word means. The 77 year old musician has returned to Australia for the first time in 8 years, and the opening night of the tour at Sydney Opera House Forecourt was one of the most chaotic and brilliant live shows that people will witness all year.

As someone who has seen Grace Jones live twice before (2011 + 2018), I knew that the 7:30pm start time was more-so going to be 8:15pm or later. With the black curtain finally dropping to reveal Grace sitting on a throne at the top of the stage structure for the first song “Nightclubbing”, she made her way to the front of the stage and addressed the excited Mardi Gras night crowd. Explaining that she’s getting old and doesn’t remember all of her songs she had print out lyrics for “This Is” on a stand where she stood and sang before getting changed.

For the rest of the evening after every song Grace would walk off stage and have a costume change while talking in the mic to the crowd giving one of the funniest commentaries you will ever hear during a live show. Great quotes that came from these in-between song moments included:

“I wanna be able to have more than one orgasm”
“I need to have some tea. Can I have some wine in it”
“I haven’t seen people in a long time”
“Be it, love it”
“I’ll fuck myself to sleep”
“My cousins always said to me – you were the one we were worried about”

But my two favourite moments was when she clearly hadn’t rehearsed the show, or sound checked and she looked behind and saw her band members and got excited and said “it’s so good to see you, its been so long” and embraced them. While the other was when she asked for a doctor from the crowd and got this guy to come over the barrier and come up to the stage to only get tackled by security and whisked away and she goes “oops, that was my fault”.

There was this absurdity to her persona on stage that was classic Grace Jones, unfiltered, and totally unexpected. I found myself hanging onto every word she spoke, and my eyes constantly fixated on everything she did. There was a moment where she changed into the wrong outfit and came out to play “I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)” when she was meant to perform “My Jamaican Guy”. But while there was all this chaotic energy, it’s important to note that she was on top of her game. Her vocals were flawless, and her star power couldn’t have been more perfect.

The setlist was filled with Grace Jones classics like “Private Life”, “Williams Blood”, “Love Is The Drug” and “Slave To The Rhythm”. But she also previewed a brand new song called “The Key” which would be her first new song since 2010’s “Love You To Life”. For the legendary “Pull Up To The Bumper” she got onto security guards shoulders and got up close and personal with fans in the front row, and before you knew it she was closing out an unforgettable night in the middle of Sydney’s harbour.

This is one of those show’s I’m going to be thinking about for a long time, and randomly find myself smiling about. I really hope I get to see Grace Jones live at least one more time in this lifetime, because there really is no one else like her.

Check out the full gallery captured by Jazmin Pezzano BELOW: