Grace Jones–the trailblazing icon of music, fashion, and film–takes the Ravinia stage for the first time this summer, delivering a mesmerizing performance that defies genre and expectation. Throughout her career, the multi-talented artist has woven music across styles, bringing together disco, new wave post-punk, art pop, industrial, reggae, and gospel, creating “a tight sound that is distinctly hers” (Vice). Rolling Stone celebrates her remarkable influence, writing, “So many performers are said to be larger than life, but the show biz cliché has never been truer than it is for Grace Jones.”

Jones is joined by Janelle Monáe–a trailblazer in her own right, making her own Ravinia debut–whose innovative spark has led to success in music and film, with ten Grammy nominations and performances in Glass Onion, Harriet, and Hidden Figures. NPR described her 2015 protest song “Hell You Talmbout” as “visceral” and “blistering,” highlighting its powerful message against racial violence, and Rolling Stone praised her 2013 album The Electric Lady, highlighting Monáe’s “sheer force of freakadelic will and a radical feminist’s sense of self-exploration.”

QUEEN! at the Carousel Stage at 4:30 p.m. Queen! is a cornerstone of Chicago’s vibrant house music scene and a pioneering LGBTQ+ dance party, celebrating over 13 years of unrelenting energy and inclusivity. Hosted every Sunday at the legendary Chicago club smartbar, Queen! is one of the nation’s longest-running weekly events of its kind, renowned for its rotating lineup of house music icons alongside captivating performances by kings, queens, and artists across the spectrum. Join smartbar sweethearts and musical contortionists Derrick Carter and Michael Serafini for the rawest Chicago house music, served up by the pros. And the Queen! hosts are as stellar and stunning as ever: the renowned but never-replicated Lucy Stoole and Nico are poised to take center stage, stealing the show, per usual.

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