Janelle Monae Launches TD Toronto Jazz Fest

June 28, 2012

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She brought an entire audience down to its knees, after tearing up Toronto Star Stage at Nathan Phillips Square last week! The tuxedo wearing dancing machine we know and love as Janelle Monae did not disappoint.

Janelle’s gorgeous, versatile voice lasted through the entire show, not missing a note, and her energy only seemed to grow as the show went on. An artist known as Roman GianArthur opened the night dressed in black & white, top hat and scarf! His music is very reminiscent to Prince, Lenny Kravtiz and Jimi Hendrix, so yes, we loved his music! After the opening set, we were entertained by a ‘hype’ man, who got everyone shouting Monae, before a full band with 3 cloaked strangers danced on to the stage! From the moment the band broke into Dance or Die, we noticed the cloaked stranger in the middle was the one and only Ms. Monae dancing and grabbing everyones attention.

Throughout the night you can see her inspiration in dance (James Brown), vocals (a mixture of soul songstresses from the past), dress (classic tuxedo style with a 1940’s pompadour), and performance art (David Bowie, Prince, Grace Jones, Madonna). At one point, Janelle had full command of her band and audience, asking, with the movement of her hands, for everyone to get down on the floor, while she danced to the beat of the bass and drums! Check out the pictures we captured with a short video to give you a taste of what Monae brought to the stage. We have SO much more on our Facebook page, so check that out for more!