Interview: Angelique Kidjo in Toronto

Monday May 02, 2011

from The Globe and Mail

Angelique Kidjo’s African Values

By Guy Dixon

When Benin-born singer Angélique Kidjo takes to the stage Tuesday for the Hope Rising benefit concert in Toronto, something unspecific, but very apparent will happen.

The air will get a little more charged, the warmth of the Sony Centre a little hotter, and the all-star line-up of artists from Alicia Keys to K’naan and Rufus Wainwright will undoubtedly seem that much fuller with Kidjo’s presence. That’s because Kidjo, one of Africa’s biggest singers, has increasingly come to embody the continent’s hopes and desires internationally.

Hope Rising is a benefit show for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, but Kidjo’s advocacy work also runs from UNICEF to her own Batonga Foundation which provides secondary school and higher education for young girls. Kidjo spoke to The Globe while on tour in Europ.

What drives your advocacy work?

I grew up in Benin, one of the poorest countries in the world, and I have been very lucky to have access to education and health care because my parents understood how crucial they were for their 10 kids. I also had access to the most beautiful African music and dances. I want every little girl in Africa to have the same luck.

Some people talk of your African values when mentioning your advocacy work. What does that mean to you?

All the people who visit Africa never come back the same. It’s not because of the safaris or the sights. It’s because of the incredible warmth of its people, which is sometimes lost in the Western world. I am trying to bring this to the rest of the word through my music. Of course, you shouldn’t be blind and should recognize when a tradition, like female genital mutilation, is hurtful and needs to disappear.

As a young woman, you left Benin for Paris to study music, where you were signed to Island Records. Did leaving Africa help you to see it that much better?

It’s true that when I grew up in Benin, I didn’t learn a lot about the history of the continent, about apartheid, slavery or the history of independence. So leaving Benin gave me access to more media and perspectives. But on a purely musical level, the music of Benin stayed my main source of inspiration, even though a lot of people don’t hear it in my music!

Is it hard not to let advocacy work overshadow your musical career?

In a way, the advocacy work is a source of inspiration for my music.

You live in New York now. Why there?

I moved there when I started my trilogy of albums exploring the African roots of the music of the black diaspora. The first album was Oremi, inspired by soul music and the blues. I wanted to live in the Americas for a while to experience the music first-hand and the energy there. And maybe people from North America (including Canada!) have less preconceptions about Africa than Europeans.

What’s next for you? Will you do more collaborations, such as your records with Bono and Joss Stone?

I am working on so many projects right now, but you have to be a little patient!

Read the article here

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