Janelle Monáe has spent a large part of her career playing roles. Her early music, exciting though it was, laboured under an confusingly elaborate dystopian sci-fi concept that sometimes found her giving interviews in character as an android called Cindi Mayweather. Recently she has been more visible as an actor, taking serious roles in the films Hidden Figures, Harriet and Antebellum, and stealing the show playing twins in the Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion.
Last month she sported one of the more remarkable looks at the Met Gala, arriving in a large dress which was slowly disassembled on the red carpet by two assistants. It seems the unravelling has continued. In videos and pictures to promote this fourth album, as well as on the cover, she’s often wearing very little, or nothing. She’s never been so exposed, and looks like she’s having a fantastic time going about it.
