Born in Stockholm, Neneh Cherry dropped out of school at 14 and moved to London, where she became involved with the punk movement, joining several bands including Rip Rig and Panic and a stint in the Slits. Her debut solo album, Raw Like Sushi, which fused pop, hip-hop and R&B, was released in 1989. The single Buffalo Stance reached No 3 in the charts, and Cherry performed it on Top of the Pops while seven months pregnant. Since then Cherry has released three more albums, the most recent of which is 2014’s Blank Project, produced by Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden. Cherry makes her acting debut in Stockholm My Love, documentary-maker Mark Cousins’s first dramatic feature, in cinemas from 16 June.

1 | Festival
Notting Hill carnival

I literally live in the middle of this. I’ve been going since I moved to England in the 1980s, and I think it’s one of the most important celebrations our city has. I love the way the community comes together – everyone’s sitting outside even if it’s raining, drinking a rum punch at 10 in the morning. There’s amazing food, curried goat, rice and peas, and I usually venture down to listen to old school dub at the Aba Shanti-I sound system. I love the spirit and the energy, and the fact that this joyous, spirited tradition can take over our streets. All this talk about stopping it really upsets me, this kind of dialogue that it has to stop. More than ever we need to come together and share space and love with each other.

2 | Album
A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service

I’ve been blasting this continually ever since it came out. I’d like to give thanks to A Tribe Called Quest for all the joy and wit and inspiration they’ve given me, and this final album was just a testament to that. Phife [Dawg] passed away but they managed to finish it. All the collaborations I think are genius, with Kendrick Lamar and Busta Rhymes. Lyrically too – the humour, and the fact they’re not taking themselves too seriously but still being serious where it matters, which I think is beautiful. I remember I met them when they were making their first album, and how inspiring it was, because of the freedom and air of possibility and glorious rebellion. It makes me happy, and those moments are extra valid right now.

3 | Documentary
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliche

I haven’t seen this yet – I think it’s coming out next year – but I’m very excited. I’ve watched the clip on YouTube about four times. It’s a crowd-funded documentary about Poly Styrene made by her daughter [Celeste Bell]. I found my voice listening to [her band] X-Ray Spex. She made me feel that I could sing. She was a really important woman and human being and a great songwriter and she still resonates so much vitality. I think many people will see the film and fall in love with her. There was something in her voice that pierces its way into the centre of my heart – there’s an honesty and a kind of brutality, and every time I hear her I get goosebumps and shivers up and down my spine.

4 | Art
Niki de Saint Phalle’s The Tarot Garden

I’ve loved her celebration of women ever since I was a kid – we used to have inflatable versions of the round figures she made that I used to play with. Last year I went with two of my daughters to see this in southern Tuscany. It’s her life’s work: she put all of her money into building it over 30 years. Every tile was made on site. Each sculpture in the park is one of the tarot symbols, and it’s just absolutely breathtaking. I actually cried when I walked in there, from the sheer beauty of it, but also her commitment and passion. She made a huge figure of a sphinx called The Empress, and she lived inside it for 10 years; one of the breasts was her living room.

5 | Fashion
Judy Blame

I don’t really follow fashion, but I love, when I put the right things on my body, what they do for me. I think sometimes clothes are kind of like armour, or if you’re feeling edgy, something might soften you. Judy is a great inspiration and a true artist. I constantly wear his jewellery – I have pieces that I could wear to a tea party with the Queen, and other bits I will just wear when I go down the market. There’s always an activist side to where Judy’s coming from – without it ever being pretentious, he’s saying something about what’s happening around him, whether it’s pollution or poundshops or waste. There’s always a message in there, but since he’s very much an artist there’s also a playfulness, a fearlessness.

6 | Restaurant
Andi’s in Stoke Newington

My best and dearest sister [Andi Oliver] has opened her own place: we’ve known each other for a lifetime and we’d get together and play music and dance and cook. We used to sit around fantasising about what our favourite eating place would look like, with a little garden in the back with wisteria, and now she’s done it. I tried to go there recently but it was full, we couldn’t get a table. It’s not a huge space, which makes it really cosy, and it’s light and elegant. The menu’s always changing – it’s adventurous but also soulful. They do brunches, really nice salad bowls with tofu, prawns or chicken, and an amazing squid dish. It’s really welcoming and the food is just gorgeous.

7 | Place
Alhaurin el Grande, Andalucia, Spain

I’m here right now. We lived here for four years as a family. Mabel [her daughter Mabel McVey, also a musician] was actually made here and born here. When we moved back to London we were all kind of shellshocked. The kids didn’t forgive me, especially the younger one was horrified. I came back three weeks ago and I felt like I came home. It’s a small town near Malaga, and I’m always very conscious that I’m near to Africa when I’m here, which is quite a powerful feeling. It’s a really perky place, there’s always something going on, there’s a vibrancy and a vitality to it. At the minute there’s a fiesta, so we’re going to go later. There will be people on horseback and flamenco dresses and polka dots – fabulous.