MUSIC
December 15, 2022
Flamboyant, talented and proud, transgender electronic music DJ and producer Honey Dijon has become a queer icon, a nightlife icon and a fashion icon in almost three decades. Influenced by Sade and Grace Jones, the Chicago native who lived in New York before dividing her time between Berlin and London has imposed her style: hedonistic, eclectic – between house, techno and disco – and advocating open-mindedness. and the breaking down of gender boundaries. His feverish DJ sets and his stratospheric charisma make the crowds dance in the biggest clubs in the world and have won over major houses such as Louis Vuitton and Dior. Final signs of recognition? The former American dancer and performer is featured on Beyoncé’s latest album, Renaissance, and remixed Madonna. While she has just released her second opus, the aptly named Black Girl Magic, portrait of a visionary who changes mentalities while inflaming bodies.
-
Honey Dijon by Maxime Chermat © Courtesy of Defected Records
-
Honey Dijon by Ro Murphy © Courtesy of Defected Records
-
Honey Dijon by Michael Hunter © Courtesy of Defected Records
-
Honey Dijon in DJ set © Courtesy of Defected Records
-
Honey Dijon in DJ set © Courtesy of Defected Records
-
Honey Dijon by Haydon Perrior © Courtesy of Defected Records
-
Honey Dijon by Haydon Perrior © Courtesy of Defected Records
“You know how beautiful people are at night, it’s like Paris, Paris is very beautiful at night, stripped of the grease that is the cars. I had cut the world in two. I had fallen in love with the people of the night”, declaims the character played by Jean-Pierre Léaud in Jean Eustache’s cult film The Mother and the Whore (1973). The night is indeed, for a long time, with the tradition of the carnival in the Middle Ages, and even before that, at the time of the Saturnalia of Roman Antiquity, the place where the norms of the day are reversed and the conventions are dissipated. And this pleasurable freedom makes it even more exciting, subversive and sublime than daylight. Once the lights are off, we free ourselves from our complexes to make way for another “me.”
The unifying spirit of house
In the club theatre, everyone can become who they dream of being, invent another identity, another genre, another profession.… At night, beings are often more sparkling, adorned with clothes of light sublimated by the reflections of a disco ball or futuristic neon lights. The masks fall off or we put on one adorned with sequins. Such are the beautiful lessons of disco and house music, this trend born in the early 80s in Chicago, which is coming back into fashion thanks to rapper Drake and singer Beyoncé, who claim it. We owe the birth of house to shadow pioneers, gay and black DJs who officiated in the sweaty clubs of the city. It’s no coincidence that American transgender producer and DJ Honey Dijon was born in Chicago, as Honey Redmond (in 1968, according to legend because she refuses to reveal her age). The one that clubs, museums and fashion have been fighting for over ten years grew up in the cradle of a music that flamboyantly advocates the freedom to be oneself. Little is known of her childhood and her background, except that her parents (loving middle-class African-Americans who had her young), let her play records from a young age. in their evenings at home. For her, it’s a way to connect with people.
To adolescence, his parents also allow him to go to clubs. Armed with a false identity card, Honey Dijon, who is not even 13 years old, feels different and suffers harassment at school, discovers that the discotheques of the time are real “safe places” for people from minorities, often marginalized. Blacks, Latinos, gays and transgender people commune there without fear, to the sound of hypnotic electronic DJ sets. Here, everyone seems happy, the time of a sleepless night. As Honey Dijon put it in a recent press release: “The secret to great dance music is joy. That’s why disco has always resonated with me. Although it spoke to the realities of life, it was also uplifting and liberating. That’s what great dance music does. Uplift and liberate while making us think. She advocates affirmation.”
Honey Dijon © Courtesy of Defected Records
“A very good party is like sexHoney Dijon
In his nocturnal trips of youth that we imagine crazy, the American notably met house legend Derrick Carter, who was to become her mentor. After witnessing the power of music on bodies, hearts and minds in the clubs of Chicago, Honey Dijon first dedicated herself to a career as a dancer and performer, evolving in the drag-queen scene. But the one who collects vinyl records – she owns more than 30,000 today – very quickly began playing records at parties in the 90s, thanks to her numerous contacts as a dancer. At the end of the 90s, she moved to New York, another city known for its wild nights. His name then begins to attract attention. In the 2000s, Honey Dijon notably played at the gay New York bar The Cock, known for its decadent atmosphere, its exhibitionist clubbers and its very fashionable and popular crowd (Christina Aguilera, Boy George and George Michael went there). What more to talk about her… The strength of the DJ? Eclectic, unblinkered musical selections that spread the hedonistic spirit of house and disco while flirting with rock, pop (provided it’s emotionally deep) and techno. For the American who worships Grace Jones and Sade, the notion of musical genres is obsolete. The artist conceives his mixes as journeys at the end of the night which transport the dancers into a sort of saving trance. She explains : “What makes a very good party is the journey. It’s like sex: fast tempos, slow tempos, giving people a break to catch their breath, then bringing them back up.“
An artist close to Riccardo Tisci, Nicolas Ghesquière and Kim Jones
This orgasmic vision of music seduces. Honey Dijon very quickly becomes the fetish DJ of fashion. Hedi Slimane comes to see her play. The artist meets Riccardo Tisci, Nicolas Ghesquière and Kim Jones. With the latter, she maintains a privileged relationship. Soon, the artist imagined soundtracks for parades for the men’s collections of Dior and Louis Vuitton. She posed for Calvin Klein and we also saw her parade last February for Off-White (of which she was the muse) giving off a crazy presence in an oversized suit worn on a bare chest. Glasses from the future placed on her pretty nose give her the look of a mutant born to Beyoncé and Grace Jones. Accustomed to the front rows of Fashion Weeks, the artist with stratospheric charisma, between “big night” glamor and fierce sensuality, even launched her own clothing line, Honey Fucking Dijon, in 2019, in collaboration with Comme des Garçons. An accomplishment for the teenager who compulsively devoured fashion magazines, often stolen for lack of money. by Keith Haring, do not go unnoticed.
Honey Dijon’s DJ set “Boiler Room x Sugar Mountain 2018”
A remarkable collaboration with Beyoncé on her album “Renaissance”
Versatile, Honey Dijon strives to send all labels flying that we could stick to his skin. Claiming to be artists who, like David Bowie or Andy Warhol, have decompartmentalised the boundaries between disciplines, she defines herself as a plural artist, allowing herself all audacity. She even compares the DJ set to the practice of the painter creating a canvas. His mantra? “I refuse to think in terms of borders. People are always afraid that they will be told no, that they will not be accepted. But the question is: it is a question of being accepted by whom exactly?“Thus, the American can go from a DJ set for Rick Owens, Hermès, Burberry x Vivienne Westwood, Balenciaga, Narciso Rodriguez or Givenchy, to performances for the Met Gala after-party, the CFDA Awards or Art Basel When she is not playing records in a cult club in Berlin (the Panorama Bar) before continuing with speeches at King’s College in London or at MoMA PS1 in New York.
But this creative richness should not overshadow her work as an outstanding producer.. Honey Dijon features among the credits of Beyoncé’s impressive latest album, Renaissance (released July 2022), which celebrates the unifying spirit of house music and the African-American community. She also remixed Madonna. And after a remarkable first album, The Best of Both Worlds (published in 2017), the DJ has just released, in November, a second opus just as well named: Black Girl Magic. In the text accompanying this invigorating house record, Honey Dijon confides: “As an artist, especially as a trans woman of color working in music, I wanted the album to be cash, shameless, raw and honest. I have mostly collaborated with black and queer singer-songwriters and composers. These are songs about love, life, resistance, the fight against oppression.”
The video for “It’s Quiet Now” (2022) by Honey Dijon featuring Dope Earth Alien
Love of self, music and community is at the heart of this vibrant and shamanic disc, whose credo is thus summed up by the artist: “Be true to who you are despite everything and have the courage to love without fear. Don’t be afraid, stand up, love is a state of mind: these are words that I use in my everyday life and that are on the album. This record is my life.” At the same time as it induces a feeling of euphoria in the listener, Black Girl Magic encourages reflection on one’s own beliefs, choices and identity. To question yourself before asserting yourself. And that’s all the magic of Honey Dijon whose nickname evokes a mixture of sweetness and a more spicy, full-bodied flavor. The night belongs to him. But this is not the only playground of the one who has already sampled a speech by Martin Luther King against a backdrop of techno sounds in one of her sets. The agitator, who does not hesitate to speak out to raise public awareness of the reality of transidentity (far from clichés), also intends to change the world in her own way. So that those who listen to it also dare to be themselves. By night, as by day.