Janelle Monáe apparently went to great lengths to see David Bowie live. During a “Musicians on Musicians” conversation for Rolling Stone, Monáe told Lucy Dacus that she traveled back in time to see Bowie live in concert.
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The topic came up when the singer and actress revealed that her perspective on being an artist changed after she saw David Bowie perform.
“I traveled back into the 1970s and I saw him do Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, and it was incredible,” Monáe claimed. “I was backstage and I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’”
After having that realization, Monáe said she “jetted back to the 2000s” to make it happen.
“I was like, ‘I can have the musical, make the music, create the lyrics, and create community around transformation and being queer.’ And not even just in sexuality, in how we see the world,” she said. “Let’s go outside the mundane and what people know us as every day. Leave room to allow yourself to transform.”
Monáe later said that she can “absolutely feel my DNA in the future.”
“Cindi [Mayweather] is that,” Monáe said of alter ego from her 2010 album, The ArchAndroid. “And we are helping each other.”
Monáe also said she believes in speaking things into the future. At the end of her and Dacus’ conversation, for example, Monáe said, “I feel like we’re supposed to make movies, too, and we will. I am speaking that into the future. As a futurist.”
Janelle Monáe’s Career
Monáe has had career success in both music and film. The 10-time Grammy nominee has released four LPs, most recently The Age of Pleasure in 2023.
On the acting side, Monáe has starred in films including Hidden Figures, Harriet, and Glass Onion. She’s won Critics’ Choice Awards and a SAG Award for her onscreen work.
Next up, Monáe is set to star in Is God Is, which is due out in 2026. She’s also set to host Wondaween, a Halloween festival, in Los Angeles in Oct. 30.
Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images
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