Angélique Kidjo

Who is Angélique Kidjo?

Angélique Kidjo is a Beninese-French singer-songwriter, activist, and one of the most celebrated musicians in African music history, born on July 14, 1960, in Ouidah, Benin, then Dahomey. Raised in a family of performers, with a musician father and a choreographer mother, she began performing at age six in her mother's theatre troupe and later sang with her brothers' rock and R&B band before pursuing music professionally. In 1983 she moved to Paris to escape political unrest in Benin, where she studied jazz, collaborated with musicians including her future husband Jean Hébrail, and released her first solo album, Pretty, in 1988. Her international breakthrough came in 1991 with a recording deal from Island Records, launching a decades-long career defined by her adventurous fusion of traditional West African rhythms with jazz, funk, soul, reggae, and pop. Singing fluently in Fon, Yoruba, French, English, and other languages, Kidjo has become one of the world's foremost ambassadors for African music, winning five Grammy Awards, for the albums Djin Djin, Eve, Sings, Celia, and Mother Nature, and setting a Guinness World Record for most Grammy wins in the Best Global Music Album category. She was named to Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People list, received the 2023 Polar Music Prize, became the first Black African artist honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and serves as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and advocate for women's education across Africa.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Angélique Kidjo" · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Angelique Kidjo" · Vilcek Foundation, "Angélique Kidjo"