Kidjo, Angélique

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ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO

Born: Cotonou, Benin, 14 June 1960

Genre: World

Best-selling album since 1990: Keep on Moving: The Best of Angélique Kidjo (2001)

Angélique Kidjo is the most popular and successful African female vocalist to have emerged since the heyday of South African singer Miriam Makeba in the 1960s. Kidjo has managed to successfully create her own unique style of Afropop that is characterized by funky, African-based dance rhythms topped off by contagious Western pop-inspired melodic hooks sung with a rich, contralto voice so evocative and beautiful that Dave Matthews describes it as the "voice of God."

A native of Benin, located between Togo and Nigeria in West Africa, Kidjo was one of nine children born into a performing family. Her mother, a director and a choreographer, ran a local theater troupe in Ouidah, where Kidjo learned to dance, sing, and act from the age of six. Her father and brothers were guitarists and helped Kidjo master traditional Benin and Indian music as well as Western pop and rock music with the Kidjo Brothers Band as a teenager before she struck out on her own to perform on radio broadcasts and in music festivals throughout Benin.

A woman performing alone was still looked down upon in Benin culture; however, when government repression made it clear that Kidjo could not freely express herself, she fled the country and in 1983 moved to Paris to study law. While in Paris she met other exiled African and Caribbean musicians as well as French and American artists, all of whom helped her to learn and cross-fertilize the wide variety of international styles that would become part of her performing arsenal when she decided to pursue a music career. Kidjo joined the Afro-funk group Alafia before singing and recording Afro-jazz-rock fusion with Pili Pili. Then, in 1987, she formed her own band with French bassist, composer, and producer Jean Hebrail, who also became her husband. Together they recorded her first album in the West, Parakou (1990), as well as follow-ups.

Loganzo (1991) gave Kidjo her first commercial airplay with her first dance hit, "Batonga"; the album included a nod to her idol and role model Miriam Makeba, the Swahili ballad "Malaika," which Makeba had made famous. Joining Kidjo on her first major American tour as part of the 1992 African Fete were Branford Marsalis, who had performed on Loganzo, and Peter Gabriel.

The hit single "Agolo" from Ayé (1994) and its colorful Grammy Award–nominated music video further established Kidjo as an international star and as a staple of the dance club scene. Fifa (1996) is a salute to Kidjo's Benin roots and features the guitar work of Carlos Santana on "Naïma." Kidjo's dynamic voice has also been a regular presence on soundtracks of movies that have included a string of unrelated singles. The most popular of these was Kidjo's performance of "We Are One" for The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998).

Oremi (1998) ("my friends") is the first in a trilogy of albums that are part of a Kidjo-led guided tour of the music of the black diaspora. As a cultural ambassador Kidjo offers a statement of her own African roots but also seeks to demonstrate how African music has both influenced and been influenced by African-American musicians, especially those of the R&B variety. Oremi opens with an African send-up of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child." Guest performers on the album include Robbie Nevil, Cassandra Wilson, Branford Marsalis, and Kelly Price. Black Ivory Soul (2002) moves Kidjo's tour into South America; it is a festive exploration of the kinship between African and Brazilian music. Performing guests include Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson and Dave Matthews. The third album of the completed trilogy will explore the African connection to music of Haiti, Cuba, and New Orleans.

Kidjo mostly sings in Fon, Benin's primary language, but she also sings in Yoruba, French, and English. Part of Kidjo's unique ability to bond with her audiences while she performs is that singing was always a vital part of everyday life personally and publicly in Benin. The vital importance of dancing, a natural expression of Benin culture and of the voodoo religion that originated there, is also obvious as Kidjo contagiously gyrates her way through her concerts, often inspiring audience members to join with her in joyous jubilation.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Parakou (Aye, 1990); Loganzo (Mango/Island, 1991); Ayé (Mango/Island, 1994); Fifa (Mango/Island, 1996); Amazing Grace (Island, 1997); Oremi (Mango/Island, 1998); Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music, Volume 2 (Arista, 1999); Keep on Moving: The Best of Angélique Kidjo (Wrasse Columbia, 2001); Black Ivory Soul (Columbia, 2002); Cover the World: World Music Versions of Classic Pop Hits (Putumayo World Music, 2003). Soundtracks: Street Fighter (MCA, 1994); Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (MCA, 1995); Lion King II: Simba's Pride (Disney, 1998); The Wild Thornberrys Movie (Jive, 2002); The Truth About Charlie (Sony, 2002); People I Know (Universal, 2003).