To culminate the three days of Rosendal Garden Party you needed an artist that goes above and beyond and in 2024 this artist was no other than Grace Jones. With her extravagant show, unmatched vocals, enchanting charisma and loaded sensuality, Grace Jones dominated the stage and captivated festival goers for a whole one and a half hours.
If you haven’t seen Grace Jones live, it is hard to explain how boundless her stage presence is. At 76 years old she is powerful and captivating, moving and singing in her outrageous outfits and masks that make her look like an enigmatic goddess.
She delivered hits such as My Jamaican Guy, Private Life, Love Is The Drug, I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango) a song that she couldn’t start performing because she was missing a beret. Luckily one of her backup singers, whom they call ‘her left’ arm had one on and when Grace got to borrow it from her, the show could continue.
A hypnotic spell was cast on the audience and no one could take their eyes off the goddess of the night, Grace Jones; especially not when she jumped off the stage onto the shoulders of one of the security guards that were diligently standing by the stage, to be carried around by the guard. He definitely hadn’t signed up for such a task but didn’t really mind taking on the extra duties of parading Jones around. When she was returned to the stage, Grace thought she still hadn’t had enough of the Swedish audience, so she jumped back down and made it all the way to the front walking it in its full length hugging everyone she could reach and taking selfies with the lucky ones in the front row.
The encore was substituted by occasional escapades Grace took from the stage to go change outfits and to bring one or two glasses or wine from backstage.
With Slave to the Rhythm the show came to a draw and the hypnotic dance Grace Jones had danced with us was over. Our last vision of the goddess was that of her spinning the hula hoop around her waist for the entire song, and just as she was done presenting the members of her talented band, she left the stage.
All photos by Karen Lundquist.
