Four Decades Later, Angélique Kidjo is Still Raising the Bar
Angélique Kidjo’s influence on the African music scene is immeasurable.
Her exceptional artistry and astute showmanship have resulted in a career that stands alongside the greats of this century — and yet, Kidjo isn’t stopping.
Forty years in, album after album, the multiple Grammywinner has transformed a dazzling kaleidoscope of influences, keeping in touch with modern sensibilities while reflecting her own long-held standards.OkayAfrica recently met the Beninese French icon at Carnegie Hall in New York City, where we had a conversation that ranged across her glittering career. She traced the roots of her musical path, which “started with [her] album Pretty, in 1981,” says Kidjo. “I had to take my student loan as a loan to come and record in Paris.”
Although she returned to Benin three years later, by the late 1980s her voice had already won her important fans, one of them being Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records. Logozo and Aye would later be released under the label, and Kidjo groups these as, “part of the journey that brought me to celebrate my 40th anniversary in this music business.”Always the trailblazer, the zebra-designed jumpsuit Kidjo wore on the cover of Logozo was deemed too “modern” for an African artist. The backstory is even more ridiculously ignorant. “The stylist they called for us was like, ‘You don’t need stylists, don’t you guys walk naked in your countries?’ So I went out and got that jumpsuit.”
Kidjo infused electronic touches into her style, and even though the curators and executives couldn’t understand it for a while, her trust in her art paid off. The Beninese singer looks reflective when she considers the gains of her perseverance.
“This young generation, they all grew up with my music. They all sample my music,” she says. “I’m glad that all the fights I’ve been through, all the misunderstandings, all the cliches of what an African person should sound like and look like — it was not for nothing, because it gives wings to this new generation to start their career unapologetically.”
Discussing the freedom of creativity in the modern age, where an artist can choose to sign to a record label or not, Kidjo sees a distinction from her own period when she had to sign to a label to have a career. With this freedom comes the need for even more discipline. “This new generation has to be consistent, professional, perfectionist. They have to be on time, because there are gonna be new artists coming every day!”
Photo by Jennifer Taylor.
Beninese icon Angélique Kidjo performs onstage during her 40th Anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall.
In her own artistry, Kidjo has demonstrated the need to be “spotless,” as she told us in an earlier interview. She didn’t always have vocal training, rather charting her early career through the sensuous vibrations of her voice. When she took on a trainer, it was none other than the legendary William Riley, who taught her “to extend [her] range with exercises,” she says. “The voice is like an instrument. At the same time, it is a fragile instrument.”
Kidjo also contributes to the ever-turning conversation about African genres and their place in international award shows. No other African person dead or alive has more Grammys than her, so it was only right she spoke about the platform.
“What I like about the Recording Academy is that they listen,” she said. “They are not perfect, but if you want change, you’re going to have that conversation with them. So, let’s get to work. If it’s Afrobeats, whatever you’re gonna call it, you call it. [If] you don’t like it, let’s come up with something. They don’t pretend to know everything. Let’s have a conversation. Let’s sit and talk. What do we want? How do we make everybody represented? How do we have gender equality?”
Kidjo’s ideologies have always found a way into her art, and her showcases of powerful women, both African and Black, have made her an immovable force in this century’s discourse of gender, especially in relation to contemporary music.
As an exclusive, she tells us that her next album will, “celebrate the spirit of [her] mother,” she says.
Kidjo weaves in that sentiment with the message behind her recent single alongside Davido. “For me, ‘Joy’ was to pay tribute to a woman that raised ten children with one paycheck. No matter the circumstances, my mom would always smile for it, would always joke about it. We can be in dire situations, she’d always have that joy, and she always used to say to me, ‘Joy is a state of mind.’ And when you have joy as a gift, it costs nothing, but when you really believe in the power of joy, you are unbeatable.”