Janelle Monáe Celebrates Women Loving Women in New Music Video “Lipstick Lover”

Janelle Monáe turns up the heat in their new music video about their love of lipstick covered kisses. 

The 37-year-old nonbinary singer, rapper, and actor told the world to give into pleasure with their new song “Lipstick Lover” and the following music video for it. In the visual, Monáe essentially hosts a sex-positive pool party filled with Black queer people, specifically women, giving into pleasure. From a room that rains sex toys, to dancehall whine lines, to a pool orgy, Monáe’s latest musical creation is a celebration of hedonism, Black joy, and queer women and femmes of color. 

The eclectic superstar had already released their song “Float” in February and “Lipstick Lover” comes as their second single for 2023. Monáe previously announced “Lipstick Lover” with a social media video of them coming out of a pool in a revealing, wet, white t-shirt with the word “pleasure” plastered on the front of it, while their reggae-inspired track plays in the background. Monáe captioned the post with “tomm.” and tomorrow (May 11) couldn’t have come soon enough. One eagle-eyed fan commented on the steamy post, informing folks that Monáe’s promo references a 1970s Jamaican tourism ad. 

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A post shared by Janelle “Jane” Monáe (@janellemonae)

Coinciding with the release of “Lipstick Lover”, Monáe also announced their fourth album The Age of Pleasure, scheduled for a summer release on June 9. Their upcoming album is their first one in five years, since the release of their Grammy-nominated Dirty Computer.  In an interview with interviewer Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, Monáe discussed how they wanted to make people feel with their new record.

“All the songs were written from such an honest space,” Monáe told Lowe. “So I hope that people feel that when they listen to the music, that they feel that when they come and, you know, counter with me when I’m around. I definitely have had an opportunity to evolve and grow and to tap into the things that bring me pleasure, the things that perhaps I should rethink and rework.”

While away from music, Monáe has kept busy with different movie and TV projects over the years. They starred in the 2020 thriller Antebellum and narrated Netflix’s docuseries Sex, Explained in the same year. In 2022, they starred in Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and offered voice talent to the streaming giant’s animated TV show Human Resources. Just recently, they turned heads at the Met Gala in a stunning Thom Browne outfit that revealed multiple outfits underneath it. 

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Monáe is full of surprises, but there should be no surprise that their new music is hot. Fans are sure to tap into what brings them pleasure when they watch the music video for “Lipstick Lover”, as well as when they listen to Monáe’s new album The Age of Pleasure in June.