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Janelle Monáe Is Unrecognizable in Elaborate ‘E.T.’ Halloween Costume

"You finally came home," the singer wrote in her caption.

Janelle Monáe performs at Sziget Festival 2024 at Óbuda Island on August 11, 2024 in Budapest, Hungary.

Janelle Monáe performs at Sziget Festival 2024 at Óbuda Island on August 11, 2024 in Budapest, Hungary.

Joseph Okpako/WireImage

When Janelle Monáe sang that she was “an alien from outer space” on 2008’s “Violet Stars Happy Hunting,” she meant it — she so committed to the bit, in fact, that her lyric is paying off 16 years later.

On Wednesday (Oct. 30), Monáe showed off her photo-realistic costume for Halloween 2024, where she dressed up as the lovable alien E.T. from the 1982 film of the same name. Dressed in a full-body recreation of the original puppet from the film, Monáe modeled a number of iconic looks from the movie, including the famous dress-up scene between the alien and Drew Barrymore’s character. In one final photo, Monáe even posed as protagonist Elliott in order to show the famous flying bike moment from the film.


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“You finally came home. Welcome back E.T. Thank you Google Maps,” Monáe wrote in the caption. “Starring yours truly as both E.T. & Janellllliott.”

For anyone who wanted to see the costume in action, Monáe is set to appear as a guest on The Jennifer Hudson Show on Thursday (Oct. 31), and the host posted a clip of her entrance. Dressed in her full E.T. getup with a blanket wrapped around her, Monáe gave a spot on impersonation of the alien’s voice as she said Hudson’s name over and over again. “I never would have guessed I got to meet E.T.,” a shocked Hudson declares in the clip.

Monáe recently cemented her title as the Queen of Halloween when she appeared on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter in full monster drag. “What I want people to see and to remember about me is that I wasn’t afraid to look silly,” she said in her interview. “I wasn’t afraid to investigate my fears and turn it into a costume. I’m not afraid to transform. I’m a transformative motherf—er.”

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Check out Monáe’s full Halloween costume here.

This article was originally published by Billboard U.S.

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Mariah Carey kicks off the 2025 holiday season.
Courtesy Photo

Mariah Carey kicks off the 2025 holiday season.

Pop

In This Season of Giving, Mariah Carey Shares Throwback Clip From 1994 Manifesting a Potential Christmas Classic One Day: ‘So Grateful’

MC only had to wait 25 years for her all-time holiday classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You" to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Mariah Carey is the undisputed Queen of Christmas. The pop singer has lorded over the holiday charts for the past six years with her ubiquitous wintertime classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” It seems hard to believe it now if you’ve been anywhere near a store since Halloween, but the yuletide favorite that was released in 1994 did not chart until 2000 and did not hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 until 2019, fully 25 years after it first hit our ears.

Now, as the holidays really ramp up, the best-selling Christmas song of all time in the U.S. seems like a no-brainer to top the charts every year. But on Tuesday (Dec. 9), MC gave thanks for how it all started in a throwback video she re-posted from a fan feed of an interview she did in 1994 in which she was asked if she hopes one of the songs from her first holiday album, that year’s Merry Christmas, might some day be as ubiquitous as such standards as “White Christmas” or “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.
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