THE avant garde world was blessed with its share of characters in the 1970s: Andy Warhol, Lou Reed and Jamaican Grace Jones.

The Spanish Town-born singer was a big part of global pop culture in the late 1970s into the late 1980s. After relocating to Syracuse, New York as a pre-teen, Jones become a model and was later immersed in the punk/new wave music scene.

She is best known for club hits including That’s the Trouble, Sorry, Pull Up to the Bumper, Slave to the Rhythm, My Jamaican Guy and Sex Drive.

This year marks 30 years since Jones released Slave to the Rhythm, her seventh studio album. It was distributed by Island Records and has sold over one million copies worldwide.

It is among Jones’ most successful albums in terms of sales, doing well in Europe. Slave to The Rhythm reached number 12 on the UK Albums Chart in November 1985, peaked at number 73 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and number 25 on the R&B Album Chart.

The title song was a major hit and is Jones’ biggest chart success. It went number 20 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and number one on the Dance Music Club Play Chart.

Jones also made an impact in Hollywood, starring in films such as the James Bond flick, A View to a Kill, the comedy Boomerang which also starred Eddie Murphy and Halle Berry and Conan the Destroyer.

Her last studio album was 2008’s Hurricane. Last year, she recorded the song, Original Beast, for the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 soundtrack.

BBC Films, the film arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation, recently announced that it is backing a documentary on Jones. Titled Grace Jones… The Musical of My Life, the project is being co-financed by BFI Film Fund and the Irish Film Board. It has been in the pipeline for seven years.

James Wilson and Katie Holly are co-producers of the documentary.