Angélique Kidjo: the singer from Ouidah with five Grammys and a foundation for Benin's girls
She sings in Fon, Yoruba, French, Mina and English, has worked with artists from Burna Boy to Yo-Yo Ma, and has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002.
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Cotonou — Angélique Kidjo was born in Ouidah, in what is now Benin, on 14 July 1960. Her father, from the Fon people, was a musician; her mother, who is Yoruba, was a choreographer and theatre director. By the age of six she was performing with her mother's theatre troupe.
From Cotonou radio to the world
As a teenager she had a hit on national radio with her version of Miriam Makeba's "Les Trois Z", and at 20 recorded her first album, Pretty, which took her on tour across West Africa. In 1983 she moved to Paris, where she studied at a jazz school and became one of the city's most popular live performers.
Her album Logozo reached number one on the Billboard World Albums chart in 1991. She has gone on to win five Grammy Awards and the Polar Music Prize, and has collaborated with Alicia Keys, Peter Gabriel, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma and Burna Boy. She sang at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and in 2021 Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Five languages and a voice for girls
Kidjo is fluent in Fon, French, Yoruba, Mina and English, sings in all of them, and often uses Benin's traditional zilin vocal technique. For one album, Fifa, she travelled across Benin recording traditional rhythms.
A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002, she co-founded the Batonga Foundation, which reaches some of the most vulnerable adolescent girls in Benin with the knowledge and skills to shape their own lives and communities.
Background: Wikipedia.
