Grace Jones’ love affair with Italian TV in the late 70s.
A pioneer and icon in the international disco music culture scene, Grace Jones contributed to some of the most iconic moments in Italian TV.
It’s October 15, 1978, and, within a medieval tableau replete with Hieronymus Bosch-inspired set-design elements and clunky animatronics, Grace Jones appears clad in a leopard pelt, which she soon ditches to reveal an off-the-shoulder peach-colored tunic, paired with leopard-print opera gloves. As she makes her way to a gilded Chaise, she sings her hit “Fame,” from the 1978 album of the same name. This is the first episode of cult TV show Stryx, one of the first productions of the newly-minted second channel of Italy’s own RAI. On Stryx, Jones would appear alongside international divas such as Asha Puthli, Gal Costa, Amanda Lear, and Italian singers such as Patty Pravo, Anna Oxa, and Mia Martini.
So, how on earth did Grace Jones end up on a witchcraft-themed TV show filmed in Italy?
The popularity of Grace Jones in Italy makes for an interesting story, one that is indicative of the country’s fashion and sex-oriented visual culture, its fascination with the concept of exoticism, and the escapism of late 1970s variety shows.
Upon signing with Wilhelmina modeling agency in New York, she moved to Paris in 1970. While in Paris, she was a patron at “Le Sept,” one of the city’s most notable gay clubs, and, as a sought-after fashion model in France, she socialized with the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent.
As a model, she had a look that combined androgyny and high-femme glam, with a penchant for theatricality. Her long-time creative and romantic partnership with designer, illustrator, photographer, and director Jean-Paul Goude solidified her persona as someone at the intersection of fashion, music, and the visual arts.
Her first foray into disco music actually happened in France, when the label Orfeus published her debut single “I Need a Man,” a combination of funk and disco. Originally released in 1975, alongside its B-side “Again and Again,” this eventually became her first club hit.
Right across the border, Italy also got wind of her. In 1975 Grace modeled for an ad campaign for lingerie brand La Perla.
She was also one of the regular dancers at the disco club Baia Degli Angeli, opened by local tycoon Giancarlo Tirotti, who introduced in Italy the idea of the disco club as a place for individual freedom, two years before Studio 54 and Paradise Garage opened in New York. It is perhaps through Tirotti, who had many connections with the movie industry, that Jones got hired in the production of the 1976 Euro-crime movie Colt 38 Special Squad. In it, she plays the role of the night-club singer, and sings the original song “I’ll Find My Way To You,” written by Italian composer Stelvio Cipriani, which was released as a single the same year. Once she signed with Island Records in 1977, she rearranged “I’ll Find My Way To You,” which ended up being included in her 1979 album Muse.
Around that time, she also released a series of disco versions of international standards, including “Autumn Leaves,” “La Vie en Rose,” and the disco version of the Neapolitan standard “Anema e Core.” Grace Jones’ version of “Anema e Core” is part of the trend that sees Italian classic songs rearranged in 4/4 beat, with other examples being “Disco Quando” by Tony Renis, and “Resta Cu’mme” performed by Marcella Bella.
Grace Jones exemplified the way Italy changed its perception of Blackness. “Blackness was made into an object of consumption,” writes Gaia Giuliani in Race, Nation, and Gender in Modern Italy. Examples Giuliani listed in the book include toys such as the Black Cicciobello, the Sioux Winnetou Doll, and then Oliviero Toscani’s campaigns featuring Naomi Campbell. “Racialized bodies and cultures went from being relegated to adult cinema to being popular objects of erotic/exotic consumption.” This happened not only with women but also with male artists, such as Sterling Saint Jacques (more about him in one of our future articles).
There’s also another analogy that can help us understand Jones’s popularity in Europe and Italy. When talking about Studio 54, Martin James, author of French Connections, described Jones as “‘Dietrich of the new decade, whose androgynous looks gave her instant status as a gay icon.” Another performer who often got compared to Dietrich was Amanda Lear, who not only shared the stage with Jones in Stryx, but enjoyed her highest popularity in Italy, of all other countries. Italian variety shows love high-glam combined with androgyny.
With all these premises, it’s no surprise to see her on an Italian variety show that sought to combine couture, art, sex, and music. During Stryx, other than “Fame,” she performed “Anema e Core” “Do or Die,” “Am I Ever Gonna Fall in Love in New York City” “All On A Summers Night”. The costuming choices played up the magnetic sensuality her character was meant to convey: in “Do or Die,” a flowy, black cape gives way to a red, Moulin-Rouge-style bodice. In her rendition of “Anema e Core,”she wears a bedazzled bikini while showering under a rain-like shower and standing in what looks like a coupe. Bubbles blow in her direction. In “Am I Ever Gonna Fall In Love In New York City,” she wears a tiger-striped catsuit complete with a whip. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats was still a couple of years away.
In the 1980s, even after she had abandoned disco in favor of new wave, Grace Jones returned to Italian television. One notable case is the 1983 edition of the summer variety show Sotto le stelle, where, throughout several episodes, she sang several songs of her repertoire preceded by interviews with the show host Carlo Massarini. Those include the reggae number “The Apple Stretching,” which describes New York City early in the morning; “Unlimited Capacity for Love” and “Nipple to the Bottle” from the album Living My Life, and “La Vie en Rose” from the album Portfolio.
In the 1980s, it became fully apparent that Jones was a full-fledged performance artist. In addition to the genre-defining performances she gave on Stryx, she continued in that vein in the 1980s. Take her 1986 single “I am not perfect,” produced by Nile Rodgers. Its music video features Grace Jones toying with body horror, as she undergoes invasive beauty-enhancement procedures. What’s notable, however, is that the video also saw the participation of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, who not only painted a canvas that was featured in the video, but had that canvas turned into a skirt.
She appeared on the most important Italian stage in terms of music in 1991, when she collaborated with Renato Zero and his critically-acclaimed “Spalle al Muro,” which she sang in English as “Still Life,” making it more anthemic and solemn than its Italian counterpart.
The rise to fame in Italy of Jones is the result of a magic cultural and social combination unfolding in a very specific historical moment. The exploration of sexual taboos definitely played a role - not only for Jones but for everyone in those years playing with androgyny, blurred lines, make up, styling, and sex. It was a new world to discover, especially for a country still recovering from the political, social and financial damages of World War Two. Such exploration (that today would be seen by most people as extremely not politically correct) touched all fields of art and creativity including music, film, art, fashion, design and architecture. We have just scratched the surface.
Bravo! Your post was more to the point, interesting and informative than at least 1/4th of Grace’s autobiography (which is interesting in itself).
My question is obvious. Musically speaking, which Grace Jones era do you prefer? The Disco years or the Island / Reggae / New Wave years? “La vie en rose” or “Pull up to the bumper”? “Autumn leaves” or “Love is the drug”? “Anema e cuore” or “Walking in the rain”?
Thank you!