Though she may live in New York, Benin-born Angelique Kidjo’s voice will always sing for Africa. “I try to go back as often as I can, but I have a lot of things to do. I’m more useful being out there, bringing people’s attention to my country, to my continent,” says the Grammy Award-winning songstress. And that’s just what she’s been doing — attracting attention for more than two decades.
Kidjo has often been credited with being the female voice that has most exposed African music to a wider audience. “I don’t sing for war,” she says. “I don’t sing for tables and chairs. I sing for human beings.” It’s this humanity at the heart of Kidjo’s music that has endeared her to audiences across the world for so long and has made her speak up where others cannot. “I listen to the concern of every being wherever I go. So for me to be in that position and not say what is wrong, what we can correct in order to move forward, would be irresponsible,” she says over the phone from her apartment in New York.
Kidjo’s distinctive voice has taken her around the world and she’s seen many places, met many people. It’s what has given her music an added sense of purpose: not only does she bring together various rhythms within an African idiom, she seeks to educate people about the problems on the continent too. “Music goes to every house, not the politician’s speech,” she says. Kidjo’s music explores different connections between cultures, whether it’s Caribbean calypso fused with an African beat on her most recent album, Oyaya, or mixing sounds from Africa and Brazil together on Black Ivory Soul.
Kidjo seeks to bring understanding through notes and melodies, sung in her native tongue of Fon and other languages, such as English and French, that are more accessible. “Every time I have the chance to tell people through my music what is going on, I do so. Through my interviews, people will hear my voice and know there’s a chance. Africans are not as trapped as they want us to be. We just have to react.”
By “they”, Kidjo means the Western world and its media. She believes they’ve created negative perceptions around Africa. Like at last year’s Live 8 concert. Kidjo was not among the artists invited by Bob Geldof to perform at Hyde Park, but neither were any other African artists. “It seems to be a matter of money, once again, and marketing, because the African so-called traditional artists are not so well known and it wouldn’t be popular to be televised all over the world … but I said to the Western media, ‘Who made it like that? You did, because you decide who is important and who is not.’ It’s not a good enough excuse for me. You can’t keep doing things for the African continent without involving the African artists that have a huge impact on the youth of the continent.” She took part in Peter Gabriel’s Eden Project in Cornwall, she says, for this very reason.
It’s this kind of vigour that Kidjo pours into her music and her message. Her involvement in 46664 shows this. “When Madiba asks you to be part of a concert to help HIV/Aids, you don’t think twice. I don’t even ask myself the question. It’s not even a matter of question — human life is at stake here,” she states, with the same determination that resonates in her songs. “Aids is a pandemic that is taking the workforce of Africa away and wiping it out. As a person and a performer, I’ll do whatever it takes to to use my voice to raise awareness, to prevent some deaths, to preserve life.”
In spite of the obstacles Kidjo sees in Africa’s road to prosperity, she remains hopeful. In the meantime, she’ll continue collaborating with artists of different styles and nationalities — from Dave Matthews to Cassandra Wilson. And now, when she returns to South Africa once again this week, she’ll be looking to further her list of collaborators.
“There are still a lot of people out there I want to collaborate with,” she says with a laugh. “I’ll be doing two songs with Ringo [Madlingozi]. I have plans in the future to do an album of duets with the different artists I’d love to work with: Sibongile Khumalo, Busi Mhlongo and so on. I can’t predict when it will happen, but when the time is right, everything else will be right.”
Kidjo’s audiences at the Bassline in Jo’burg and Spier in Cape Town can look forward to more of her soul on show. “The same joyful energy and loving poured out to them, they’re going to give back to me. It makes it easier to give everything I have and beyond. It’s going to be a moment of joy we keep preciously for the days and months to come.” With Kidjo’s African soul, you can bet it will be.
Angelique Kidjo will be performing at the Old Mutual Encounters Concert at the Bassline in Jo’burg on April 13 and at the Old Mutual Encounters Picnic at Spier Wine Farm on April 16. Tickets through Computicket.
Destined for greatness
- Angelique Kidjo was born in Cotonou and raised in Quidah, a small coastal city in Benin.
- Kidjo comes from a family of 10 children, who are all musically inclined. Her mother was a choreographer and theatrical director and Kidjo used to act in her plays when she was a girl.
- Kidjo grew up listening to a number of styles, including traditional Benin music, salsa, Zairean rumba, soul, funk, gospel, makossa from Cameroon and even Arabic and Indian music.
- Her brother was a guitarist who introduced her to Santana and, together, they memorised his songs. They did not dream Kidjo would one day collaborate with the legendary guitarist.
- As a teenager, Kidjo toured Benin performing at local festivals and making guest appearances on the radio, but the city wasn’t open to women trying to make a living out of singing.
- During this time, Kidjo looked up to Miriam Makeba — who was one of her idols — and used to perform her songs, such the Swahili ballad Malaika.
- Kidjo moved to Paris in 1983, where other famous West African musicians such as Salif Keita and Manu Dibango were living and recording albums. African musicians mixed with Caribbean, French and American musicians.
- While in Paris, Kidjo enrolled in jazz school. She joined a jazz band called Pili Pili, recorded two albums and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1987.
- That same year, she met and fell in love with French bassist Jean Hebrail and they were married. They recorded four of her albums together, with Kidjo commenting that he was the patience to her haste.
- Kidjo is fluent in English, Fon, French and Yoruba and sings in all four languages.