After releasing her fourth studio album The Age of Pleasure last year and appearing in Netflix’s hit mystery film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, vocalist and actor Janelle Monáe has cemented herself as a bona fide pop-cultural force. Ready to embark on a UK tour, she will join us to answer your questions about her expansive career which you can post in the comments below.
Born in Kansas as Janelle Monáe Robinson, the musician and actor has now been in the entertainment business for almost two decades. She began singing at church during childhood and got involved with local theatre in her teens. Monáe then went to New York City on a scholarship to study musical theatre – and was the only African American woman in her classes.
After independently releasing her demo mixtape The Audition in 2003, Monáe signed to Bad Boy and released the EP Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase) following by albums The ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady – breakthrough projects that took strong influences from jazz and psychedelic pop.
Monáe’s screen acting endeavours began in 2016 with a supporting role in Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning drama Moonlight. Since then she has appeared in biopic Hidden Figures, and is preparing to play the legendary Josephine Baker in the forthcoming TV series De La Resistance.
2018 album Dirty Computer explored themes of gender, sexuality and personal discovery – she’s described her gender identity as “beyond the binary” – and the ambitious project was partnered with a short film of the same name which follows Monáe’s character, Jane 57821, attempting to break free from a futuristic totalitarian society riddled with bigotry. The Age of Pleasure meanwhile drew inspiration from multiple Black diasporic dance sounds including dancehall and Afrobeats – and it narrates her journey to a point of self-love and confidence. Across their career Monáe has also collaborated with the likes of Grimes, Outkast and Solange.
Monáe’s tour kicks off on 1 June in California, with UK dates later that month at Glastonbury festival, Brixton Academy (29 June) and Manchester’s Factory International (2-4 July). Ahead of these shows, she will be answering your questions – perhaps you want to hear about her working with inspiration-and-now-collaborator Grace Jones, being mentored by Prince, getting 10 Grammy nominations, or stories from her various film sets? Post them in the comments below before 8pm BST on Tuesday 28 May, and we’ll publish her answers on Friday.
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