Angélique Kidjo

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Angélique Kidjo


Img_capt =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Angélique Kidjo
Born =Ouidah, Benin
Genre = Afropop, Afrobeat, reggae, world, world fusion, worldbeat, jazz, gospel, Latin
Occupation = Singer-songwriter
Years_active = 1982–present
Label = Island, Mango, PolyGram, Columbia, Razor & Tie
URL = [http://www.kidjo.com www.kidjo.com] |

Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award-winning Beninese singer-songwriter, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos.

Early life

Kidjo was born in Cotonou, Benin. Her father, is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people. By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother's theatre troupe, giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance. She started singing in her school band Les Sphinx and found success as a teenager with her adaptation of Miriam Makeba's "Les Trois Z" which played on national radio. She recorded the album Pretty with the Camerounese producer Ekambi Brilliant and her brother Oscar. It featured the songs Ninive, Gbe Agossi and a tribute to the singer Bella Bellow, one of her her role models. The success of the album allowed her to tour all over West Africa. Continuing political conflicts in Benin prevented her from being an independent artist in her own country and led her to relocate to Paris in 1983.

Moving to Paris

While working various day jobs to pay for her tuition, Angelique studied music at the CIM, a reputable Jazz school in Paris where she met and married musician and producer Jean Hebrail with whom she has composed most of her music. She started out as a backup singer in local bands. In 1985, she became the frontsinger of the known Euro-African jazz/rock band Jasper van't Hof's Pili Pili. Three Pili Pili studio albums followed: Jakko (1987) Be In Two Minds (1988, produced by Marlon Klein) and Hotel Babo (1990). By the end of the 1980s, she had become one of the most popular live performers in Paris and recorded a solo album called Parakou for the Open Jazz Label.

International career

She was then discovered in Paris by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell who signed her in 1991. She recorded four albums for Island until Chris Blackwell's departure from the label. In 2000 she was signed by Columbia Records for which she recorded two albums.

Her musical influences include the Afropop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz, gospel, and Latin styles; as well as her childhood idols Bella Bellow, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Miriam Makeba and Carlos Santana. She has made her own renditions of George Gershwin's " Summertime", Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child", and The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", and has collaborated with the likes of Dave Matthews and the Dave Matthews Band, Kelly Price, Branford Marsalis, Robbie Nevil, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock and Cassandra Wilson. Kidjo's hits include the songs "Agolo", "We We", "Adouma" "Wombo Lombo" "Afirika" and "Batonga".

Kidjo is fluent in Fon, French, Yoruba, and English and sings in all four languages; she also has her own personal language which includes words that serve as songtitles such as "Batonga". Malaika is a song sung in Swahili language. She often utilizes Benin's traditional Zilin vocal technique and jazz vocalese.

Logozo

Her first album for Island Records was recorded between Miami and Paris and produced by Miami Sound Machine drummer Joe Galdo and featuring Branford Marsalis and Manu DiBango on saxophones. it was released worldwide in 1991 and reached number one one the Billboard World Music chart. Music videos for the singles We We and Batonga were released and Angelique made her first world tour, appearing at many festivals and headlining the Olympia Hall in Paris on the 31st of october 1992.

Aye

Released in 1994, the album Aye was produced by David Z at Prince's Paisley Park Studio in Minneapolis and by Will Mowat at Soul To Soul studio in London. It includes the single Agolo which gave Angelique her first nomination to the Grammys.

Fifa

Angelique and Jean Hebrail traveled all over Benin in 1995 to record the traditional rhythms that would form the base for the Fifa album. Carlos Santana appears on the track called "Naima" that Angelique wrote for her daughter. The single Wombo Lombo and its video was a big success all over Africa in 1996.

In 1998, she started a trilogy of albums (Oremi, Black Ivory Soul and Oyaya) exploring the African roots of the music of the Americas.

Oremi

Produced by Peter Mokran, recorded in New York, Oremi is a collection of songs mixing African and African American influences. Cassandra Wilson, Branford Marsalis, Kelly Price and Kenny Kirkland collaborated with Angelique on this project. The opening track is a cover of Jimi Hendrix' Voodoo Chile.

Black ivory Soul

in 2002 Angelique traveled to Salvador de Bahia to start recording the Axe percussion grooves for this album inspired by the Afro-Brazilian culture. She worked with famous songwriters Carlinhos Brown and Vinicius Cantuaria. On the Brazilian version of the album, Gilberto Gil joined her on Refavela. Dave Matthews appears on the song Iwoya.

Oyaya!

Produced by Steve Berlin from Los Lobos and by the pianist Alberto Salas, released in 2004, Oyaya! is largely inspired by Latin and Carribbean music which is mixed with African guitars. the French Guyanese legend Henri Salvador who was 86 at the time of the recording, joined Angelique on the song "Le Monde Comme Un Bebe".

Djin Djin

Angelique Kidjo released an album titled "Djin Djin" on May 1st, 2007. Many guests appear on the album including Josh Groban, Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys, Joss Stone, Peter Gabriel, Amadou and Mariam, Ziggy Marley, and Branford Marsalis. The title, "Djin Djin", refers to the sound of a bell in Africa that greets each new day. The album is produced by Tony Visconti, who is known for his work with David Bowie, Morrissey, and T. Rex, among others.

Advocacy

She has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002. With UNICEF, she has travelled to many countries in Africa. Reports on her visits can be found on the UNICEF site: [http://www.unicef.org/people/benin_40858.html Benin] , [http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/senegal_34101.html Senegal] , [http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ethiopia_24999.html Ethiopia] , Tanzania, [http://www.unicef.org/people/syria_44902.html Syria] , Malawi, [http://www.unicef.org/aids/uganda_36668.html Uganda] , [http://www.unicef.org/aids/kenya_33726.html Kenya] , [http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sierraleone_45606.html Sierra Leone] , [http://www.unicef.org/aids/zimbabwe_33839.html Zimbabwe] and [http://www.unicef.org/aids/southafrica_33360.html South Africa] .

Kidjo founded [http://www.batongafoundation.org The Batonga Foundation] which gives girls a secondary school and higher education so they can take the lead in changing Africa. The foundation is doing this by granting scholarships, building secondary schools, increasing enrollment, improving teaching standards, providing school supplies, supporting mentor programs, exploring alternative education models and advocating for community awareness of the value of education for girls.

She has campaigned for Oxfam at the 2005 Hong Kong WTO meeting, for the their Fair Trade Campaign and travelled with them in North Kenya and at the border of Darfur and Chad with a group of women leaders in 2007 and participated to the video for the In My Name Campaign with Will I Am from The Black Eyed Peas

Events

In 1996 she performed in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert honoring Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta for their work in East Timor

IN 1998, she was part of the Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair tour

In 2002 she performed in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert honoring President Jimmy Carter

In February 2003, she performed a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" at the famed Radio City Music Hall in New York City alongside Chicago blues guitar legend Buddy Guy and New York rock guitarist Vernon Reid (of Living Colour) in what would become part of Martin Scorsese's "Lightning In A Bottle: One Night In The History Of The Blues", a documentary about blues music that features live concert footage of other rock, rap, and blues greats.

In November, 2003 she sung with Peter Gabriel and Youssou'n Dour at the Cape Town 46664 concert for Nelson Mandela's Foundation

In May 2004, she performed at the Quincy Jones produced concert in Rome called We Are The Future in front of 400 000 people. The show took place at the Circo maximo with appearance from Oprah Winfrey, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli, Herbie Hancock and other international stars.

IN March 2005, she appeared at the Africa Live concert in Dakar along with many great African stars in from of 50 000 people.

In June 2005, she was part of the Live 8 concert, Eden Project hosted by Angelina Jolie in Cornwall, UK

In 2007, she covered John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" for the CD "".

In 2007, she toured North America extensively with Josh Groban's "Awake" show.

On 7 July, 2007, Kidjo performed at the South African leg of Live Earth.

Annie Lennox has joined forces with Angelique Kidjo and 22 other female artists to raise the awareness of the transmission of HIV to unborn children in Africa.

Miscellaneous

In "The Simpsons" episode "Simpson Safari", Homer's guide sings lines from Kidjo's "Wé-Wé", from her album "Logozo".

Kidjo appeared in a bonus track of the official The Lion King 2 soundtrack, reprising the song "We Are One", featuring a more African influenced arrangement of instruments and several lines in Fon.

She appears on two albums ( African Fantasy and The Beat Of Love) released by the famous Indian drummer Trilok Gurtu.

She has sung the song "Madre Terra" with Carmen Consoli on her Eva Contro Eva album.

She has sung and produced with Jean Hebrail a track called Easy As Life for Tina Turner on the Elton John and Tim Rice's album Aida.

She has sung Jamaica Farewell with Dan Zanes on his House Party album.

She has collaborated with Philippe Saisse on the song La Vie from his Till Dawn album.

She sung with Debbie Davis on the French version of the Lion King's "Hakuna Matata"

She has covered the U2 song Mysterious Ways on the Africa Celebrate U2 album

Carlos Santana covered her song Adouma as the opening song of his Shaman album.

She now resides in New York City, New York, United States [ [http://www.myspace.com/angeliquekidjo MySpace.com - Angelique Kidjo - - Afro-beat / Nu-Jazz / Pop - www.myspace.com/angeliquekidjo ] ]

Discography

*Pretty (African release only)
*Parakou (1990)
*Logozo (1991)
*Ayé (1994)
*Fifa (1996)
*Oremi (1998)
*Keep On Moving: The Best Of Angelique Kidjo (2001)
*Black Ivory Soul (2002)
*Oyaya! (2004)
*Djin Djin (2007)

Soundtracks

Kidjo also recorded many songs for various movies, Tv shows and documentaries, among them: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109382/ "Caro Diario"]

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107471/combined "My Favourite Season"]

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112281/ Ace Ventura] "

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111301/ Streetfighter] "

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120725/ Krippendorf Tribe] "

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282120/ The Wild Thornberrys Movie] "

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270707/ The Truth About Charlie] "

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318649/ Sahara] "

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399738/ Changing Times] "

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701983/ Six Feet Under] "

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093792/ Without A Trace] "

"Blood Diamond (film)"

" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1202203/ Pray the Devil Back To Hell] " which won the prize for Best Documentary at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Awards

:Octave RFI (France, 1992) :Prix Afrique en Creation (France, 1992):Danish Music Awards: Best Female Singer (Denmark, 1995):Kora Music Awards: Best African Female artist (Africa, 1997):Mobo Awards for Best World Music Act (UK, 2002):Africa-Festival Award (Germany, 2006):SAFDA African pride Award (South Africa, 2006):Antonio Carlos Jobim Award (Canada, 2007):NAACP Image Award for Outstanding World Music Album (USA, 2008):Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album (USA, 2008):Go Global World Music Award (Denmark, 2008)

Grammy nominations include the Best Music Video of 1995 and Best World Music Album in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007.

Angélique Kidjo is the 4th laureate of the Antonio Carlos Jobim Award (2007). Created in 2004 on the 25th anniversary of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, each year the award is given to an artist distinguished in the field of world music whose influence on the evolution of jazz and cultural crossover is widely recognized.

On August 1st 2008, Angélique has been elevated to the rank of Commander of the National Order of Benin for loyal services rendered to the nation.

Dance/club hits

Angelique's music has been remixed by famous producers including Norman Cook (We We) and Tricky (Agolo). Several of her singles have reached the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart. In 1996, Junior Vasquez remixes of her song "Wombo Lombo" brought the song to #16. In 2002, King Britt remixes of her single "Tumba" helped the song reach #26. "Agolo" was remixed by Mark Kinchen, "Shango" was remixed by Junior Vasquez, and "Conga Habanera" was remixed by Jez Colin."Salala" from Djin Djin was remixed in 2007 by Junior Vasquez and Radioactive Sandwich. [http://www.radioactivesandwich.com]

References

# [http://www.kidjo.com Official Angélique Kidjo Site]
# [http://www.batongafoundation.org The Batonga Foundation]
# [http://www.myspace.com/angeliquekidjo Official Angélique Kidjo My Space]
# [http://www.youtube.com/angeliquekidjo Official Angélique Kidjo You Tube]
# [http://www.eventful.com/angeliquekidjo Angélique Kidjo on Eventful]
# [http://www.afropop.org/multi/interview/ID/21/Angelique+Kidjo%2C+February+2002 Afropop Worldwide interview with Angélique Kidjo, February 2002]