Janelle Monáe has announced a shared concert with New Zealand’s Kimbra in Auckland next month. Janelle Monáe and Kimbra: The Golden Electric Tour will be at Vector Arena on 24 May. It will be Monáe’s first New Zealand show, and comes after she met Kimbra at the Montreux Jazz Festival last year, and formed a friendship, bonding over a shared love of Prince and jamming. Monáe’s latest album The Electric Lady continues the futuristic themes of her 2010 debut The ArchAndroid with a mix of funk, soul, jazz, and pop plus cameos from Prince and Erykah Badu. The album contains lyrics about woman-on-woman love, and while a glbti community advocate and favourite, Monáe has always been openly vague about her own sexuality, leaving her fans to interpret her lyrics how they wish. She’s told the Dallas Voice “A lot of my work always comes from an authoritative stance, so it may not be about me; it may just be about a story, or something that I’ve witnessed, or my imagination. You just never know.” Monae added she is fine with people reading into her lyrics. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being gay or lesbian or straight or black or green or purple, so I’m OK with that.” She also made it clear she is influenced by drag, and is happily part of the queer community, saying it “means everything”. “I feel like I have a community to continue to write music for and inspire and empower. There are so many people in the queer community who have committed suicide for being shunned by their families, there have been hate crimes — and I’m just about love. I’m ready to unite. I want to make sure that I’m living on Dr. King’s dream. I feel like it is my job as a descendant of that dream to stand up for other civil rights and human rights.” Tickets go on sale on Thursday 17 April, however Live Nation is hosting a pre-sale on Monday.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 11th April 2014 - 12:31pm