The night Janelle Monae time travelled to see David Bowie in the 1970s
All hail Janelle Monae, the true Archandroid of pop, who manages to do the impossible with their inimitable persona.
Monae is simultaneously a thrillingly unique vision of pop stardom that’s entirely their own, despite also showing off enough tributes to their influences to place them in a grand lineage of radical, era-defying pop trailblazers. Normally, it’s one or the other, but Monae does as the masters do, and in live shows or albums packed with nods to James Brown, Prince and Lauryn Hill, they still come off as entirely their own.
This is despite the fact that not only is the work of Monae often a tribute to their influences, but they’ve also worked with them directly on more than a few occasions. They say never to meet your heroes, but Janelle Monae has done so on several occasions with aplomb.
The beautiful harmonies that open their masterpiece Dirty Computer were provided by the ultimate one-man choir, Brian Wilson. Prince wasn’t just an influence on Monae, but a mentor and collaborator for years.
Hell, if their pop mastery wasn’t enough, they’ve even managed to link up with some of their acting heroes, charmingly getting into a dance-off with the dearly departed Chadwick Boseman at an Oscars after-party. Clearly, the star of Glass Onion and Hidden Figures sees their heroes as peers rather than untouchable figures of myth and legend.
This extends to one of the people whom Monae has cited as one of their all-time biggest inspirations, David Bowie, someone whom they claim to have seen live before they passed.
This might not sound like much, except that the ‘Tightrope’ singer said they’d seen him perform on the Ziggy Stardust tour, which ended in 1973, a good 12 years before they were born. How did they achieve this?
Well, time travel, obviously!
Monae made this spectacular claim in a video where Rolling Stone organised a conversation between them and Lucy Dacus. The majority of the video is a pretty compelling watch. Both artists are clearly fans of each other who are fascinated by their takes on making and performing music. Then the conversation turns to Halloween and the concept of transformation, which, naturally, leads Monae to bring up seeing David Bowie.
Dacus asks for clarification and, without a hint of irony, Monae replies, “I travelled back into the 1970s, and I saw him do Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and it was incredible.” “…You travelled back...?”
A deeply confused Dacus responds before Monae elaborates on their trip, saying, “Yes. I was backstage, and I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And so I jetted back to the 2000s, and I was like, ‘I can have the musical, make the music, create the lyrics,’ and create a community around transformation and being queer and, not even in sexuality but just in how we see the world.”
Perhaps this was also the same trip that Flight of the Conchords went on. Janelle, Bowie, Bret and Jermaine? Sounds like a party, sign me up!