*Janelle Monáe delivered a musical performance at Ralph Lauren’s virtual spring 2021 fashion show Thursday night.
“Believe it or not this is the first time that I’ve performed with a full band, orchestra strings and horns since the 2020 Oscars. Can you believe it?” Monáe tells PEOPLE. “I was super geek to get dressed up and fluidly perform again.”
Lauren’s virtual experience was held inside the designer’s Beverly Hills store on March 25, and featured Monáe performing her interpretation of Frank Sinatra’s “All or Nothing at All.”
“I loved getting dressed up. I felt like I teleported back to the old Hollywood era wearing a navy double-breasted Ralph Lauren suit,” she says. “I think with this collection, even with the way it’s shot in black-and-white like film noir, it feels very cinematic, like I was a walking movie.”
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Monáe’s relationship with the fashion label goes all the way back to when she dropped her first album, “The ArchAndroid,” in 2010.
“Right when my first album was being released and maybe months before then, they had reached out and asked me to perform at their New York Fashion Week show. You remember the people who, when you were not as famous as you are now, that were there in the early beginning of your career,” the singer says.
She adds: “I think they were the first fashion brand to gift me a suit. I didn’t have a lot of money when I first came into the industry to buy suiting that was tailored and that fit my body. I didn’t have a stylist and I was doing it myself. To have the support of the Ralph Lauren team always means the most to me and at this point we’re family.”
Monáe’ says “being a part of this show made me want to host parties and be at parties.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the singer dishes about the benefits of having a therapist during the ongoing COVID pandemic.
“I have an amazing therapist that I talk to because your plate can get really full even at home,” she says. “In order for me to stay creative, I need to stay present and allow myself time in the mornings to exercise, journal, work on music production and go finish the short film that I’m trying to write. I have to stay present. That’s a muscle that I started to really use while being in quarantine.”
Check out Monáe’s performance at the Ralph Lauren show via the clip above.
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