Angélique Kidjo is one of the legends of Beninese song. “First African diva”, in the eyes of the Times, “icon of the African continent” for the BBC, singer at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020… the influence of the Franco-Beninese is no longer in doubt.
Her music, halfway between zinli (traditional Beninese music), African pop, zouk, rumba, Latin music, jazz and gospel, has already spanned the ages. Last year, the polyglot celebrated her forty-year career by giving a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, alongside Youssou N’Dour and Ibrahim Maalouf, accompanied by the Chineke! Orchestra, the first predominantly black and ethnically diverse European orchestra.
Ambassador for UNICEF and Oxfam
Because, beyond art, Angélique Kidjo is driven by her commitments, as evidenced by her desire to challenge negative perceptions of Africa and Eurocentrism. The five-time Grammy Award winner is also an ambassador for UNICEF and Oxfam, as well as a major supporter of girls’ education in Africa with her own charity. Her influence, which earned her a place on the prestigious list of Times in 2021, is also measured by its proximity to high international authorities.
In 2012, Kidjo gave a concert at the request of the United Nations to encourage African leaders to sign a resolution banning female genital mutilation. And she did not hesitate to call them out: “I grew up in Benin, my father was an African. He fought for us, his children, boys and girls, to have our right to choose respected, and any traditional ceremony that could harm us, he opposed. If my father could speak out against his society, none of you sitting here can tell me that you do not have the power to stop the stupid and painful practice that you are inflicting on your daughters.”
A tribute to his grandmother, a healer
In 1994, one of his greatest hits, cup, was inspired by the amount of waste she and her husband produced when they lived in the French countryside. A tribute to her grandmother, a healer who taught her to appreciate nature, and an environmental commitment to “Mother Earth,” which gives its name to her latest solo album: Mother Nature (2021).
Alongside that of the Franco-Senegalese Omar Sy, the name of Kidjo will be included in the dictionary in 2025 Larousse. An exceptional humanist woman, already remembered for her work, Kidjo is nonetheless an immense artist who, at 63, continues to thrill audiences with her phenomenal energy.
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