Grace Jones came to sing in Ibiza

I met Grace Jones in Formentera when she was a model. And we saw each other again during the 17 consecutive autumns I spent in New York.

In 1979 I interviewed and photographed her at the Sudio 54 nightclub, for Lecturas magazine. We saw Andy Warhol and his fun group at Studio 54. And a year later I played him as an interpreter on the television show Monica Randall's Things.

When, in 1985, Cinzano hired her to film a commercial in Barcelona, ​​Grace called me and I took her to dinner and dancing at the Up&Down nightclub.

During his performance I was glued to Pacha's stage and, suddenly, he bent down and shook my hand. I got excited.

On stage she changed her look several times, with big hats and headdresses. And at three thirty in the morning she received me in her dressing room and I showed her all the photos I have with her in the past. There was Paul, the son he had with Jean Paul Goude. Paul has made her a grandmother and accompanies him at all his keyboard concerts.

He performed several songs suitable for the disco style, so he did not sing La vie en rose, which I would have liked to hear.

Grace is staying at the Pacha Hotel. And he told me that he would like to rent a boat to go swimming in Formentera, the only day he has left in Ibiza.

Grace was born in Spanish Town, British Jamaica. And in America they call it 'The Jamaica Hurricane'.

He had a very free and a little wild childhood. Her parents left Grace and her siblings in the care of her grandparents. On her mother's side she was the niece of a bishop and her father was a politician, so Grace told me that I should be leading a totally different life.

As a child she was fascinated by costumes and shows. And at the age of nine he wanted to be a bullfighter. She had a feeling that one day she would be famous.

The most important person in his life, in his adolescence, was Christian, his late older brother. And he told me: «Something must have happened to my mother during her pregnancies. Because while I was playing with fire he was having fun with my dolls. "I was the older brother and he was my little sister".

At 15 years old they went to America to reunite with their parents. And they took Grace to a school.    In her report card they wrote: «Socially maladjusted» due to her terrible behavior. He left school and fled to Philadelphia, where he studied drama and sang with some soul groups.

She told me that in Philadelphia a bishop fell in love with her and had to leave. With her brother they traveled through Japan and Brazil, where Christian fell in love with a bodybuilder and Grace had to continue the trip alone.

At the age of 22 she moved to live in Paris to be a model. And, as a Yves Saint Laurent model, he went to a nightclub wearing boxing shorts and a bare chest, covered in glitter. And it was his best advertising campaign.

Due to his androgynous appearance, some thought he was a man and others that he was transsexual. And he became a gay icon.

Obsessed with singing and filmmaking, she abandoned her successful modeling career in Paris and Milan and settled in New York. Tom Moulton offered to produce his music and that's how That's the trouble, I need a man and the fantastic La vie en rose were born.

He has worked for television and in several film films. The costumes for their shows are impressive. I remember some where it looked like a snake or a black demon. And a show at Studio 54 in which he landed on a UFO with the head of a cobra snake and Grace came out tasting through the snake's mouth.

He told me: «I create my own costumes to express my strength and energy. And achieve an aggressive and provocative image. And, for that reason, they say that I am like a goat.

His haircut, so masculine, is very fashionable today among men. She admits that she went too far with drugs, alcohol and sex, but that she has come out pretty well.

For Grace, the most exciting thing is singing in public. «I don't see them because the lights prevent me from doing so. But I feel they are very attentive.

He gives himself so much when he sings that he almost loses consciousness. In one performance, dressed as Cleopatra, she had planned to feign a faint at the end of the act, to be carried by some white slaves, but there was no fiction and she lost consciousness.

In Japan, dressed as a bride, she sang I need a man in front of 20,000 people and ended up on the floor on the verge of a heart attack.

From Spain he only knows Barcelona, ​​Ibiza and Formentera. In 1989, the famous producer Pino Sagliocco brought her to Ibiza to sing at the KU nightclub. I remember her wearing a black leather outfit, similar to the one she wore in Pacha.

In the book El Baile de Pacha, which I did with Toni Riera, we put a good photo of Grace Jones.

He likes to write his lyrics and has written his autobiography, titled I will never write my memoirs, published by the Ségnier publishing house.

Grace is an icon of disco music and has received many awards. He currently lives in Jamaica. And it is an honor that he has come to sing in Ibiza again. At the end of his performance, microphone in hand, he said: "Ibiza is a magical island."

During the day this Sunday, we went to eat at Jondal with his son and his two singers.