Angélique Kidjo
THE way Angélique Kidjo tells it, most if not all of the world’s music has its roots in Africa and her mission has been to join up the dots. “My whole life has been about building bridges between cultures and connecting the world with my African musical roots,” she says. Born in Benin in 1960, she has spent most of her adult life living in Paris and New York, while her music has abseiled audaciously across genres without ever losing sight of her African heritage. She’s won a Grammy for Best World Music Album four times – but to call her a world music artist would be a massive disservice. Never one to repeat herself, every release is a distinctive project with its own unique concept – from reimagining Talking Heads to an orchestral album with Philip Glass, collaborations with Tony Visconti and covers of Jimi Hendrix and Aretha Franklin. Yet she insists there is a unifying theme to her diversity. “It all leads back to where it started – in Africa!”
LOGOZO
ISLAND, 1991
Kidjo’s first release on a major label reached No 1 on the Billboard World Music albums chart and received rave reviews – not least from a certain James Brown...
I had left Benin and been living in Paris for seven or eight years when a friend sent my first self-produced album to Chris Blackwell at his home in Jamaica. The day after he got the record he faxed Island Records in London and told them, “You must sign this girl up at all costs and as quickly as possible.” I’ve got a copy of the fax! The people from Island came to see me singing at the New Morning club in Paris. Chris offered me a contract, we needed a producer and Chris suggested Joe Galdo, who had worked with Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. Going to Miami to work with him was the first time I’d ever been to America. I told him the percussion is the foundation of a song for me and he got it because Cuban music is the same. We recorded the African musicians in Paris where we finished the record. My plan was to mix my influences from African and American music and to challenge western attitudes towards Africa. The cover signifies what the record was about. The zebra-striped catsuit I’m wearing symbolised Africa – but like pop art we were using a cliché to subvert the stereotype. After the record came out I got a phone call from James Brown congratulating me on my music. I didn’t believe it was him. Then suddenly he shouted, “Say it loud!” So I shouted back, “I’m black and proud!”
