Janelle Monáe says anonymous benefactor funds her Halloween costumes

If Cinderella can have a fairy godmother, then Janelle Monáe can have a fairy Halloween mother. Let’s just hope there’s no midnight caveat for her elaborate costumes.

If you ever wondered how Monáe came up with her epic spooky looks — from the Diva from The Fifth Element to The Grinch to (rather on-the-nose) a chameleon — turns out she’s got an anonymous benefactor who just wants to make people believe in imagination. Sounds like Willy Wonka.

And because that person is a big believer in imagination, they’re “absolutely not” in the entertainment industry.

Monáe recently discussed her “fairy Halloween mother” without, of course, naming any names, and why Halloween for her is “performance art.”

“My job is to make people believe in their imagination. That is a job, that is my purpose. Imagination inspires nations,” Monáe said in The Hollywood Reporter‘s cover story on the HalloQueen. “It is important to the committee of imagineers that I go out and I do that good work. There’s a fund that is set aside to make people believe in art, and again, believe in performance art.”

What I’m doing is performance art, and it is drawing attention to the need for money in the arts, for more grants for schools,” she continued. “We must tap into the imaginations of our kids. These are the people that are going to be the innovators of the future. I’m so happy to have support of people that believe in performance art and believe in me as the person to get that message out.”

Monáe certainly is the person for that message. Not since Heidi Klum has a celebrity committed so fully and intricately in their Halloween costumes, leaving one to wonder if this anonymous benefactor has been funding other famous Halloweenies.

But when asked if her fairy Halloween mother is a “Hollywood person,” someone who might work in “entertainment, music, or filmmaking,” Monáe responded, “Absolutely not.”

That could just be a deflection, to throw any Scooby gang kids off the track and keep them from unmasking the benefactor at the end of the episode, but it’s also kind of weird, creepy, and cool (very Halloween) that there’s some shadowy individual with a deep, abiding love for shenanigans and the deep, abiding pockets to fund them.

As for how much all this pure imagination costs, you’re asking the wrong giant insect.

“Well, we pay people in jellybeans,” Monáe claimed. “We pay in dandelions, we pay people in orchids, and we also pay them in sorbet. It’s a whimsical version like Burning Man where there is no currency.”

Okay, so this is sounding more and more like it actually is Willy Wonka, but like a Halloween version, and not the Johnny Depp one either.

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Now, with Oct. 31 just around the corner, expectations are high and Monåe does not intend to disappoint. This year’s costume will be “an iconic movie character,” the singer/songwriter/actress hinted to PEOPLE.

“I’m going to have multiple costumes,” she said. “So, last year I couldn’t be the costume that I’m going to be this year because of the strike. And I was standing in solidarity with my fellow actors and writers. And they asked us not to be any movie characters. So, the only hint I can give is it’s a movie character.”