Angélique Kidjo

Born in Ouidah, Benin, in 1960, Angélique Kidjo grew up in a family where theatre, traditional Fon and Yoruba songs, Afro-Cuban music and European pop intersected. She began performing as a teenager with local groups in Cotonou. Settling in Paris in the mid-1980s, she became part of the capital’s jazz, funk and “world” scenes and developed a repertoire blending Beninese rhythms, afro-pop, soul and Caribbean influences. Her first widely distributed album, Parakou (1989), was followed by Logozo (1991), Ayé (1994) and Fifa (1996), which established a style built on West African polyrhythms, pop-song forms and multilingual singing — notably in Fon, Yoruba, French and English. With Oremi (1998), then Black Ivory Soul (2002) and Oyaya! (2004), she more directly explored links between African music, American soul and Afro-Latin traditions, while Djin Djin (2007) and Õÿö (2010) alternate original compositions and reinterpretations of standards. Based between Paris and New York, she recorded Eve (2014), centered on African women’s choirs, followed by Remain in Light (2018), a full reinterpretation of the Talking Heads album, Celia (2019), a tribute to Celia Cruz, and Mother Nature (2021), noted for collaborations with a new generation of African artists. A fixture at numerous international festivals and a collaborator with musicians such as Manu Dibango, Herbie Hancock and Tony Allen, she has also served as a UNICEF ambassador — a role that has influenced some of her lyrics.