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Angélique Kidjo: Defying the Africa of Clichés
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Friday June 04, 2010
Angélique Kidjo: Defying the Africa of Clichés
The singer from Benin has never been afraid to defy the ‘Africa of clichés’ in her musical choices
By Clive Davis
From Times Online
She is only days away from one of the biggest shows of her life — the all-star concert in Johannesburg marking the launch of the World Cup — yet Angélique Kidjo seems to be taking things easy. “I’m living one day at a time,” she explains, much like a Premiership footballer facing a pre-match inquisition. “You only get stressed if you worry about things too much.”
Perhaps the knowledge that she has just released the finest album of her career helps to steady the nerves. The diva from Benin, who turns 50 next month, has a string of fine recordings to her name, crisscrossing boundaries and blending traditional dance rhythms with funk, pop and Latin melodies. But Oyo, an exuberant collection of the music — African, American and European — that shaped her childhood is perhaps her masterpiece. Whether paying homage to Miriam Makeba, James Brown, the jazz legend Sidney Bechet or the Togolese singer Bella Bellow, Kidjo delivers a stunningly authoritative performance over a constantly shifting backdrop.
Her scintillating cover of Move on Up, Curtis Mayfield’s paean to positive thinking, promises to be a highlight of her World Cup display. The American R&B singer John Legend made a powerful guest appearance on the album version, and for the recently released single Kidjo also managed to recruit her old friend Bono. “I asked Bono to sing on the record because of his involvement in Africa,” she says. “He knows my passion for the continent. I sent him an e-mail and he sent me a reply saying he’d love to perform on the song.”
She talks with breathless passion and urgency. When we meet in a hotel in Rome, the evening before she plays the sleek, Renzo Piano-designed Parco della Musica, it is hard to get a word in edgeways. She may be a diminutive figure, but this fitness fanatic with the trademark short-cropped hair possesses an outsize personality — and a voice to match. The following night she was faced with an audience that at first seemed too reserved to respond to her calls to dance. By the end the auditorium had taken on the atmosphere of a street party, with Kidjo, as ever, inviting all and sundry to join her on stage for the finale.
A citizen of the world, she floats between continents and traditions. Long based in Brooklyn, she served much of her musical apprenticeship in Paris after fleeing the Marxist regime that once ruled her homeland. The more puritanical world-music critics sometimes seem unnerved by her cosmopolitan tastes. Kidjo does her best to ignore them: she follows her own instincts, regardless of the rules.
The World Cup opening concert is on BBC Two on Thur at 9.30pm
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| Baby, I Love You feat. Dianne Reeves | 3:10 | Angélique Kidjo |
| Zelie | 2:04 | Angélique Kidjo |
| Move On Up feat. John Legend | 3:46 | Angélique Kidjo |
| Ae Ae | 3:31 | Angélique Kidjo |
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