Happy birthday Grace Jones! Her 10 most incredible moments
By Ben Kelly
As she marks her 67th birthday today (we can’t believe it either) we decided to take a look back at some of the most wacky moments in her colourful career. It was hard to whittle down…
1. Slapping Russell Harty
In 1983, while appearing on Russell Harty’s talk show on UK TV, Grace decided she wasn’t getting enough attention from the host, who was briefly talking to one of his other guests. She reacted with her most legendary moment: by slapping him round the head.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpWo15Jc2JQ[/youtube]
2. Her turn as a Bond villain
Starring in 1985’s A View To A Kill, she was possibly the most terrifying baddie of them all – as evidenced in this scene where she coolly ejects a dissenter from an airship.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmQnEyiGdGQ[/youtube]
3. Pull Up To The Bumper
This 1981 pop hit uses parking a limousine as an extended metaphor for penetration. We couldn’t have managed it better ourselves. Iconic.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc1IphRx1pk[/youtube]
4. Her infamous Studio 54 antics
Seriously, google them. Here she is on a motorbike next to Divine lying on a bed of roses. Them were the days…
5. This cover of ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie
In what appears to be the dress of a Buddhist monk, here she is performing a disco version of the little orphan’s 11 o’clock number at some point in the 70s. We’re not sure why.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZZCIRqGI-g[/youtube]
6. “No man can turn down this pussy”
At least that’s what she tries to tell Eddie Murphy in this scene from 1992 movie Boomerang. She then lifts her leg to show him what he’s missing.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VH8LKDnr0[/youtube]
7. At least she didn’t grab him and take him…
Which is how she describes her seduction methods in 1984’s Conan The Destroyer. Again, terrifying.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPkhh5JytYE[/youtube]
8. Her version of Piaf’s La Vie En Rose
It’s 7 minutes long, she plays an accordion in it, speaks in French and the video is a bat shit piece of amazing art, but it’s mostly worth it for the bit where she screams ‘looooovely’ at 3.55.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYkVtz6ozJE[/youtube]
9. The time she let Keith Haring paint her all over
10. Her performance of Slave To The Rhythm at the Diamond Jubilee Concert
We’ll never know what the Queen thought of her 4-minute, non stop hula hoop-a-thon, but our money is she’s been trying to do it herself ever since. Stay tuned to the final seconds where Grace yells, “We love you! Happy Birthday our Queen!” – hinting that she hadn’t quite got the ‘jubilee’ memo.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSa5EvWqB7g[/youtube]