Janelle Monáe

Janelle Monáe is an American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress born December 1, 1985, and raised in Kansas City, Kansas. After studying performing arts and moving to Atlanta, she connected with Antwan «Big Boi» Patton of Outkast, whose mentorship helped launch her recording career. Her early work, including the 2007 EP Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase), introduced the Afrofuturist, android-themed concept that would define much of her output, blending funk, soul, pop, R&B and hip-hop with cinematic, sci-fi storytelling.

That concept reached its fullest expression on The ArchAndroid (2010) and The Electric Lady (2013), acclaimed albums built around her android alter ego Cindi Mayweather and rich with genre-hopping arrangements and guest features. She later stepped into a more overtly personal and political register with Dirty Computer (2018), whose singles «Make Me Feel», «Pynk» and «Django Jane» embraced funk-pop grooves and explicit themes of queerness, identity and empowerment, cementing her as one of the era's boldest pop innovators.

Beyond music, Monáe leads the Wondaland Arts Society, a collective supporting emerging artists, and has built a significant acting career with roles in films such as Hidden Figures and Moonlight. Openly part of the LGBTQ+ community, she is widely recognized for merging Afrofuturist aesthetics with sharp social commentary, making her one of contemporary pop and R&B's most distinctive and influential voices.