Angélique Kidjo Dancing In The Streets By Benjamin Cooper
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here is a slight chance you might not recognise the name Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, but her staggering output and influence on popular music for the last three decades will have reached you somehow. The West African singer-songwriter now resides in New York City, and possesses enough personality and wicked charm to fill stadiums rather than the tiny jazz rooms she occupied at the start of her career, in 1980s France. Her impassioned performance was one of the highlights alongside The Black Eyed Peas and Shakira at the Official Kick-Off Celebration Concert to commence the 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa: an opportunity that presented the lady from Benin to a global audience of millions. Kidjo’s reflections of that evening impart a sense of satisfaction that is at odds with the restless zeal for improving the lives of Africans that she communicates throughout our conversation. “That was a marvellous evening,” she says, “and most of all because the critics said ‘Africa is not ready for this kind of an event’, and we proved them all wrong. That period of the World Cup was a time in Africa where you could walk the streets, and there was a very real sense that the African public no longer saw themselves as just poor people. People everywhere were filled with this marvellous sense of pride in themselves and their land. It seemed that everywhere I went I would see my good friend Desmond Tutu – and he asked me eventually, ‘How can you always be jumping around and dancing? Are you really that happy?’ And I said to him ‘Of course I am! This is the moment that has always been coming for Africa: how can I possibly stop dancing?’”
nations, yet these women have used technology to turn the balance in favour of the good.” Politics aside, Kidjo says she’s looking forward to her triumphant return this month to the potent acoustics of Sydney Opera House, following a sell-out show in 2009. And even though she won’t have the 140 percussion players she used for her recent shows at Carnivale in Brasil, she says she plans on taking full advantage of the opportunity. “Last time I was there I had such fun with everyone I met. This time I’m bringing my wonderful friend Keb’ Mo’,” she says, “and you just wait, because that man has got a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Make sure you’re rested because we’re cooking up something extra special that’ll have you all dancing so much you’ll need to lie down and rest halfway through!” With: Keb’ Mo’ Where: Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall When: Monday April 2 More: Also playing alongside Maceo Parker, Nick Lowe, Yann Tierson and many more at Bluesfest from April 5-9 @ Byron Bay
“How can you always be jumping around and dancing? Are you really that happy?” And I said, ‘Of course I am! This is the moment that has always been coming for Africa...’” Kidjo’s music has always straddled a variety of genres, starting with her education in the jazz scene of ‘80s Paris and moving through the expansion of Afropop and world music a decade later. Throughout her career she has engaged with a plethora of similarly adventurous peers, including Peter Gabriel on the Grammy-winning 2007 record Djin Djin, and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig on last month’s Spirit Rising live PBS Special Performance album. But it is her total commitment to Africa and its people that has seen Kidjo lauded not just as an artist but something rarer: a truly erudite celebrity humanitarian. When I suggest to Kidjo that her status affords a rare opportunity to engage with people at all levels of society and influence, she is firm in her response. “I have an opportunity here and it’s one that must be seized. The responsibility of my position falls not just to me but to all of us who are able to see the hypocrisy of modern Africa. So many times we watch the news and see African leaders trying to do their best to confront the corruption, and they get killed. Then everyone watching outside of Africa feels good that someone stood up briefly for the lives of others, and [then they] go back to ignoring the continent. “It is ludicrous that all we talk about when it comes to Africa is poverty,” Kidjo continues, exasperated. “It makes no sense to me that I come from the richest continent on the planet and yet my people’s lives are dismissed so that elsewhere people can have two cell phones and two cars. Most of my people are lucky to have one little hut, and hopefully not more than a handful of preventable diseases. It’s very easy to point and proclaim blame about Africa, but the reality is we must all start to wake-up and realise that these are going to be the next big nations and we have to guide and assist them in that journey, because those resources have to remain for the children to come.” Her support of Africa’s female leaders was highlighted at the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, where she performed prior to the honouring of recipients Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, and Yemen’s Tawakel Karman. Singing in Swahili was something that felt appropriate to Kidjo, in order to show “the richness and vitality of new Africa.” “I was watching these strong women standing on that stage, and it made me realise that technology is able to create bridges. So much of my experience with technology is that it has truly raped Africa through the work of patronising BRAG :: 455 :: 26:03:12 :: 19