Grace Jones has been selected as the next artist to curate London’s Meltdown Festival. The event’s 27th edition will take place June 12th-21st, 2020 at London’s Southbank Centre, the arts complex covering 21 acres and including venues like the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and The Hayward.
Jones follows in the footsteps of past Meltdown curators like Nile Rodgers, The Cure’s Robert Smith, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, and M.I.A. The 71-year-old new wave icon has played the festival twice before, first as part of Jarvis Cocker’s 2007 lineup, and again when Massive Attack led the event the following year. Her own lineup will be revealed in the new year.
“Year after year, the festival continues to spread its colourful wings, allowing its curators to bring together an array of diverse talent not seen anywhere else,” Jones said in a statement. “It’s about time I was asked to curate Meltdown darling, don’t you think?!”
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The Southbank Centre’s head of contemporary music Bengi Ünsal added, “Grace Jones is unlike anybody else. She was the first artist who made me feel that I could express myself, be whatever I wanted to be, and not be afraid of what the world might say.”
Jones’ last album was 2008’s Hurricane, which she followed with a dub version in 2011. She also appeared as a guest on Gorillaz’s 2017 record Humanz. After over a decade in the making, she released her documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami last year.