As I enter the prodigious Southbank Center, home to 26 years of Meltdown Festivals previous, stray whispers float around the filling auditorium, with a steward rather animatedly informing me that her majesty is “expected to appear at 8:30”, inferring there are no degrees of certainty when it comes to the inimitable Grace Jones. A loose piece of conversation floats over to me, with a readied attendee sharing they once waited two hours for her to appear. Suffice to say, I sip my drink conservatively and prepare to embrace the building tension of the sold-out room.

But patience was not on the agenda tonight, not for Jones’ seminal performance at her personally curated Meltdown Festival. After 2 years of postponement and numerous line-up changes, Jones has finally been given the steering wheel back to curate this historic event. So, as ‘This Must Be The Place’ by the Talking Heads fades out, a light feedback-driven rumble joins the now cacophonous applause that awaits Jones’ presence. Always one to subvert preconceptions, she appears at 9 pm on the dot — fashionably late, but surprisingly early.

As inquisitive eyes search for the Jamaican-born superstar on the dimly lit stage, a previously hidden curtain whips up, revealing Jones atop a 10 meter tall podium, shrouded in a flowing monochrome gown adorned in Keith Haring’s signature runic imagery (she later professes her love and emphasises her friendship with the New York-based cult artist). Erupting into the strict, trip-hop beat of ‘This Is’ from 2008’s Hurricane, all eyes are stuck on the Amazonian spectacle that sits atop the flowing, gossamer thrown. The sudden appearance sets the tone for the remainder of the unfolding evening; always unexpected and teeming with grandeur.

As she launches into a sprechgesang Pretenders cover (Private Life), she steps down from her dais and joins the sprawling band at centre stage, owning her 4-inch heels and leaving no doubt in our minds she has still got it. She proceeds to strut through her decade-spanning set, stepping side stage after each track to receive a costume change that leads to some ad hoc comedy moments because no one had the gusto to take the mic from her hand. She narrates the entire ceremony, near screaming “We’re going to Church!” before launching into the orchestral spectacular ‘William’s Blood’, and occasionally verbalising her thrumming heartbeat for extended periods of time.

The career-spanning set however doesn’t use the 1981 trendsetting record ‘Nightclubbing’ as a crutch. Sitting somewhere in her 70s (her age has always been a titular, elusive subject), Jones is by no means afraid to continue running through her covers of Roxy Music's steaming ‘Love Is The Drug’, or showcase her newest track, ‘War No More’ (the supposed working title), and is most certainly not afraid to behave exactly as she did in her heyday. An impressive Hula Hoop routine is paired with the venerable and bouncy ‘Slave To The Rhythm’, whilst a gleaming vertical silver pole in the stormy quasi-finale ‘Hurricane’ acts as a touchstone for the performance, followed only by a striking acapella rendition of ‘La Vie En Rose’.

Tonight Jones is a prop, comedy and costume queen, bringing the glitz of 80s New York to the London waterfront, and languishing every opportunity to soak up the crowds rallying cries of “I love you Grace”, or the heartwrenching “Take your time Grace” during one of her many costume changes. Her welcome pantomime presence is only usurped by her tapping the head of a lean security guard during the sultry funk number ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’, and riding on his shoulders on a tour of the auditorium, quite literally “riding down those city streets”.

Following a deserved standing ovation, Meltdown 2022 is over, and Jones has by far delivered the most memorable and surreal performance of the whirlwind last two weeks. Having indulged in a lifelong career encircling acting, modelling, Bond Girl-ing, and ‘musing’, this is not a victory lap for the multi-hyphenate, simply another feather to her boa. Jones is a head above the rest when it comes to innovation, and her hotly teased ‘African hybrid influenced’ record may have her witness a resurgence in youth popularity, not dissimilar from the likes of Kate Bush and Fleetwood Mac in recent years. Icons are forever, and Jones shows no signs of slowing down.