Sydney Opera House has delivered its ultimate summer flex, announcing that Grace Jones will headline the Forecourt on Saturday 28 February 2026 — a booking so monumental it instantly reframes the entire season. Joining a line-up that already includes Ludovico Einaudi, Alex G, Lucy Dacus, The Streets, BADBADNOTGOOD, Basement Jaxx and more, Jones arrives as not just an artist, but a cultural event. A seismic presence. A living manifesto of art, glamour and glorious disruption.
Jones has been rewriting the rules of performance for nearly five decades. Emerging first as a model in New York and Paris, she became a fixture of the Studio 54 era before shattering boundaries with a sound that fused new wave, reggae, post-punk and avant-pop into something entirely her own. Those early albums — Portfolio, Fame, Muse — set her loose on the international club scene, but it was the daring visual iconography she developed with Jean-Paul Goude that transformed her into a myth: a cyborg-priestess of the downtown underground, armed with impossible cheekbones and a command of theatricality that made other performers look underdressed.
By the 1980s, she had made the Compass Point trilogy — Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing, Living My Life — records that fused icy electronic sophistication with lascivious funk and a kind of emotional minimalism that still sounds cutting-edge. Collaborators ranged from Iggy Pop to Chrissie Hynde, from Roxy Music to Sting. Later, she teamed up with Trevor Horn and Nile Rodgers to create Slave to the Rhythm and I’m Not Perfect, proving once again that she doesn’t chase eras — she invents them.
“You don’t get to stay famous for long unless you’re always switching. Grace Jones is an example of this.” – Andy Warhol
Her reach extends beyond music, into film (Bond villainy and sword-wielding in Conan the Destroyer), fashion, contemporary art and festival curation, most recently overseeing the 2022 Meltdown Festival in London. Even now, she’s still in the bloodstream of pop culture, appearing on Beyoncé’s Renaissance like a spectral transmission from the future she helped architect.
Seeing Grace Jones beneath the illuminated Opera House sails feels less like a concert and more like a ritual Sydney has been preparing for. As Ben Marshall, the Opera House’s Head of Contemporary Music, puts it, “Can you picture it? A radiating Grace Jones prowls the stage and unleashes that sonorous voice under moonlight and the glistening Sails.” It’s the sort of night that turns a city into a cultural hotspot, if only to prove it always was one.
A history-making performance is coming. And only Grace Jones could make the Forecourt feel like it was built for her.
WHO: Grace Jones
WHEN: Saturday 28 February 2026, gates 6pm
WHERE: Forecourt, Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: $179.90 + booking fee
ON SALE
Insiders pre-sale: 10am AEDT, Tuesday 16 December
What’s On pre-sale: 10am AEDT, Wednesday 17 December
Promoter pre-sale: 10am AEDT, Thursday 18 December
General Public on sale: 9am AEDT, Friday 19 December
sydneyoperahouse.com // +61 2 9250 7777
