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Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, commonly known as Angélique Kidjo, is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos.
Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva".
The BBC has included Kidjo in its list of the African continent's 50 most iconic figures.
The Guardian has listed her as one of its Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World and Kidjo is the first woman to be listed among "The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities In Africa" by Forbes Magazine.
The Daily Telegraph in London describes her as "The undisputed queen of African music" during the 2012 Olympic Games River of Music Festival.
In March 2013, NPR, National Public Radio in America, called her "Africa's greatest living diva".
She is an occasional contributor to the New York Times.
On June 6, 2013, Kidjo was elected vice-president of CISAC.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, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Miriam Makeba and Carlos Santana.
She has recorded George Gershwin's "Summertime", Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" and The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", and has collaborated with Dave Matthews and the Dave Matthews Band, Kelly Price, Alicia Keys, Branford Marsalis, Robbie Nevil, Philip Glass, Peter Gabriel, Bono, Carlos Santana, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Josh Groban and Cassandra Wilson.
Kidjo's hits include the songs "Agolo", "We We", "Adouma", "Wombo Lombo", "Afirika", "Batonga", and her version of "Malaika".Kidjo is fluent in Fon, French, Yorùbá and English, and sings in all four languages; she also has her own personal language, which includes words that serve as song titles such as "Batonga".
"Malaika" is a song sung in the Swahili language.
Kidjo often utilizes Benin's traditional Zilin vocal technique and jazz vocalese.
She now resides in New York City, New York, United States.Early lifeKidjo was born in Cotonou, Benin.
Her father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people.
She grew up listening to Beninese traditional music, Miriam Makeba, James Brown, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, and Santana.
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 Cameroonian 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 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.ParisWhile working various day jobs to pay for her tuition, Kidjo 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.
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 in New York by Columbia Records for which label she recorded two albums.