Listening Party
Janelle Monae, Singer / Songwriter
CATEGORY: MUSIC TAG: POP
Sensibility started early at the age of nine when Janelle Monáe decided that the world should be a different color: “preferably purple.” Thinking back on it now, Monáe says, “I was different. Of course, I did the normal, little-diva-in-training things like running up phone bills by dialing 1-800-Be-A-Star and singing Anita Baker’s ‘Sweet Love’ for anyone that would listen…but I was also on some different stuff…there was a lot of confusion and nonsense where I grew up so I reacted by creating my own little world…I began to see how music could change lives, and I began to dream about a world where every day was like anime and Broadway, where music fell from the sky and anything could happen…”
In pursuit of this world, Janelle Monáe moved to New York from high school with her best friend NoNamee so that she could attend The American Musical and Dramatics Academy, a musical theatre conservatory program. In this program, she fell in love with the soaring melodies and harmonic possibilities of classical music, as well as labored endlessly onstage and off to perfect her vocal instrument. Deciding to change the world beyond Broadway, she soon headed to Atlanta, the home of progressive soul and hip hop music to start her music career. “Musically, I was ready to do something big, wild and adventurous. And I knew if Atlanta was big enough for the vision of Outkast, it’d be big enough for me.”
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