Angélique Kidjo
Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo[1][2][3] (/ˌɒ̃ʒəˈliːk ˈkɪdʒuː, - ˈkɪdʒoʊ/;[4][5][6] born July 14, 1960) is a Beninese-French singer-songwriter, actress and activist noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Kidjo was born into a family of performing artists. Her father was a musician, and her mother worked as a choreographer and theatre director.[7] Kidjo has won five Grammy Awards. She is a 2023 Polar Music Prize laureate.[8]
Angélique Kidjo
- Singer
- songwriter
- actress
Vocals
1982–present
In 2007, Time magazine called her "Africa's premier diva."[9] She performed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony on July 23, 2021.[10] On September 15, 2021, Time included her in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[11]
Angelique Kidjo has collaborated with many artists including Bono, John Legend, Jimmy Buffett, Peter Gabriel, Alicia Keys, Carlos Santana, Josh Groban, Philip Glass, Sting, Ziggy Marley, Yemi Alade, Burna Boy and Davido.
Her album Logozo is ranked number 37 in the Greatest Dance Albums of All Time list compiled by Vice magazine's Thump website.[12]
Kidjo is fluent in five languages: Fon, French, Yorùbá, Gen (Mina) and English.[13] She sings in all of them, and she also has her own personal language, which includes words that serve as song titles such as "Batonga". "Malaika" is a song sung in the Swahili language. Kidjo often uses Benin's traditional Zilin vocal technique and vocalese.
Early life[edit]
Kidjo was born in Ouidah, French Dahomey, in what is now Benin.[14] Her father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people. She grew up listening to Yoruba and Beninese traditional music, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Fela Kuti, Stevie Wonder, Osibisa and Santana. By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother's theatre troupe,[15] giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance.
She started singing in her school band, Les Sphinx, and found success as a teenager with her adaptation of Miriam Makeba's "Les Trois Z," which was played on national radio. Kidjo recorded the album Pretty with the Cameroonian producer Ekambi Brilliant and her brother Oscar. It featured the songs "Ninive," "Gbe Agossi", and a tribute to the singer Bella Bellow, one of her role models. The success of the album allowed her to tour all over West Africa. Continuing political conflicts in Benin prevented her from being an independent artist in her own country and led her to relocate to Paris in 1983.
Paris[edit]
Due to political conflicts, Kidjo had to leave her home country and moved to Paris in the 1980s.[16] She initially planned to become a human rights lawyer, but ended up studying music.[16] While working various day jobs to pay for her tuition, Kidjo studied music at the CIM, a reputable jazz school in Paris,[17] where she met musician and producer Jean Hebrail, with whom she has composed most of her music and whom she married in 1987.[18] She started out as a backup singer in local bands. In 1985, she became the front singer of Jasper van 't Hof's Euro-African jazz/rock band Pili Pili. Three Pili Pili studio albums followed: Jakko (1987), Be In Two Minds (1988, produced by Marlon Klein) and Hotel Babo (1990). By the end of the 1980s, she had become one of the most popular live performers in Paris and recorded a solo album called Parakou for the Open Jazz Label. She was then 'discovered' in Paris by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who signed her in 1991.[19] She recorded four albums for Island until Blackwell's departure from the label. In 2000 she was signed in New York by Columbia Records, for whom she recorded two albums.
Albums[edit]
Parakou[edit]
Kidjo's first international album Parakou, first released in 1989, was the beginning of a series of collaborations with producer and composer Jean Hébrail and featured Jasper van't Hof.
Logozo[edit]
Her first album for Island Records was recorded between Miami and Paris and produced by Miami Sound Machine drummer Joe Galdo and features Branford Marsalis and Manu DiBango on saxophones. It was released worldwide in 1991 and reached number one on the Billboard World Albums chart. Music videos for the singles "We We" and "Batonga" were released and Kidjo made her first world tour, appearing at many festivals and headlining the Olympia Hall in Paris on October 31, 1992. Logozo is ranked number 37 in the Greatest Dance Albums of All Time list compiled by the Thump website.[20]
Ayé[edit]
Released in 1994, the album Ayé was produced by David Z at Prince's Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis and by Will Mowat at Soul To Soul studio in London. It includes the single "Agolo", a song that addresses the issue of the environment, of which the video directed by Michel Meyer gave Kidjo her first Grammy nomination. Ayé does not focus on traditional African instrumentation such as using the kora or the balafon, but still has an overtly African undertone to it with Kidjo singing in Yoruba, a Nigerian language, as well as in her native Fon, often using the Beninese traditional zilin vocal technique.[21]
Fifa[edit]
Kidjo and Jean Hebrail traveled all over Benin in 1995 to record the traditional rhythms that would form the base for the Fifa album. Carlos Santana appears on "Naima", a piece Kidjo wrote for her daughter. The single "Wombo Lombo" and its video directed by Michel Meyer was a big success all over Africa in 1996. Recording: Benin, Paris (Guillaume Tell), London, Los Angeles, Sausalito Plant (Carlos Santana).
Trilogy[edit]
In 1998, she started a trilogy of albums (Oremi, Black Ivory Soul and Oyaya) exploring the African roots of the music of the Americas.
Memoir: Spirit Rising, My Life, My Music[edit]
With Rachel Wenrick, Kidjo has written a memoir entitled Spirit Rising. It was published by HarperCollins on January 7, 2014. Desmond Tutu wrote the preface and Alicia Keys the foreword. On the back cover, Bill Clinton is quoted as saying: "The only thing bigger than Angélique Kidjo's voice is her heart. In this evocative memoir, Kidjo chronicles an inspiring life of music and activism, and raises a passionate call for freedom, dignity, and the rights of people everywhere."[39]
Collaboration with Philip Glass: IFÉ[edit]
January 17, 2014, saw the premiere of IFÉ: Three Yoruba songs for Angelique Kidjo and the Orchestre Philharmonique Du Luxembourg conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer at the Philharmonie hall in Luxembourg. Philip Glass wrote the orchestral music based on three creation poems in Yoruba sung by Kidjo. In the program notes, Philip Glass says: "Angelique, together we have built a bridge that no one has walked on before."[40][41] The piece made its American premiere with the San Francisco Symphony to a sold-out crowd in the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall on July 10, 2015.[42]
Founded
2006
- Angélique Kidjo
- Mary Louise Cohen
- John R. Phillips
Educational Charity No. 501(c(3)
- Mary Louise Cohen
- Angélique Kidjo
- Monica Winsor
- Jean Hebrail
- Joel H. Samuels
- Aleta Williams
- Romuald Hazoumè
- Colin Clarke
World War I Centennial Ceremony[edit]
On November 11, 2018, Kidjo sang Bella Bellow's song "Blewu" under the Arc De Triomphe of Paris in front of 70 heads of state and a television audience of millions to pay tribute to the fallen African soldiers of the war.[58][59][60]
Kidjo also recorded songs for various movies, TV shows and documentaries, among them:
Kidjo has appeared on
She was the host of the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS in March 2010 and February 2014[95] and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in July 2010.[96]
On September 15, 2021, Time included her in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[11]
In 2010, the BBC Focus on Africa magazine included Kidjo in its list of the African continent's 50 most iconic figures, based on reader votes.[97] and in 2020 she was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.[98] In 2011, The Guardian listed her as one of its Top 100 Women in art, film, music and fashion[99] and Kidjo is the first woman to be listed among "The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa" by Forbes magazine.[100] The Daily Telegraph in London described her as "The undisputed queen of African music" during the 2012 Olympic Games River of Music Festival.[101] In March 2013, National Public Radio (NPR) in America, called her "Africa's greatest living diva".[102] Kidjo is listed among the "2014 Most Influential Africans" by New African magazine and Jeune Afrique.[103][104] Forbes Afrique put Kidjo on the cover of their "100 most influential women" issue in 2015.[105] On June 6, 2013, Kidjo was elected vice-president of the Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Auteurs et Compositeurs (CISAC). She now resides in New York City,[106] where she is an occasional contributor to The New York Times.[107][108][109] Kidjo has received honorary doctorates from Yale University, Berklee College of Music, Middlebury College and UCLouvain.[110][111][112][113]
Kidjo is the recipient of the 2015 Crystal Award given by the World Economic Forum of Davos in Switzerland[114] and has received the Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International in 2016[115] She also is included in the exhibits at the National Museum of African American History that opened on September 24, 2016, on the National Mall. Other awards include:
Dance/club hits[edit]
Kidjo's music has been remixed by famous producers including Norman Cook ("We We") and Tricky ("Agolo"). Several of her singles have reached the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart. In 1996, Junior Vasquez remixes of her song "Wombo Lombo" brought the song to Number 16. In 2002, King Britt remixes of her single "Tumba" helped the song reach Number 26. "Agolo" was remixed by Mark Kinchen, "Shango" was remixed by Junior Vasquez, and "Conga Habanera" was remixed by Jez Colin. "Salala" from, Djin Djin, was remixed in 2007 by Junior Vasquez and Radioactive Sandwich.[157] "Move On Up" was remixed by Radioclit, the team from the Very Best.