Real Name:
Angélique Kidjo
Music Genre:
Afrobeat
Afropop
Gospel
Jazz
Reggae
Record Label:
Razor & Tie
Date of birth:
14-07-1960
Age:
64
Nationality:
BENIN
Angélique Kidjo
- Background
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Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award-winning Beninese singer, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos.
Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin. Her father is Fon from Ouidah and her mother is Yoruba . She grew up listening to 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 Cameroun’s 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 1982.
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 whom she has composed most of her music. She started out as a backup singer in local bands. In 1985, she became the front singer of the known Euro-African jazz/rock band Jasper Van’t Hof’s Pili Pili. By the end of the 1980s, she had become one of the most popular live performers in Paris and recorded a solo album called Parakoufor 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 she recorded two albums.
Her musical influences include the afropop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese Rumba, jazz, gospel and latin styles.
She has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002. With UNICEF, she has traveled to many countries in Africa. Reports on her visits can be found on the UNICEF site. Kidjo founded 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. She has hosted the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in Alexandria, Egypt on November 26th, 2007 and on November 15th, 2008
Discography
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Pretty
Released in 1981
Produced by Jengou Records
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Parakou
Released in 1989
Produced by Island Records S.A.
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Logozo
Released in 1991
Produced by Island Records S.A.
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AYE
Released in 1994
Produced by Island Records Ltd.
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Fifa
Released in 1996
Produced by Island Records Ltd.
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Oremi
Released in 1998
Produced by The Island Def Jam Music Group
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Black Ivory Soul
Released in 2002
Produced by Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
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Oyaya!
Released in 2004
Produced by Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
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Djin Djin
Released in 2007
Produced by Razor & Tie
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?ŸÖ
Released in 2010
Produced by Razor & Tie
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EVE
Released in 2014
Produced by SLG, LLC
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Keep On Moving: The Best of Angélique Kidjo
Released in 2001
Produced by Wrasse Records
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Spirit Rising: Live from Guest Street
Released in 2012
Produced by Razor & Tie
References
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http://www.kidjo.com/
Singles
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1992
Title Album Batonga Logozo -
1992
Title Album Wé-wé Logozo -
1992
Title Album Malaika Logozo -
1994
Title Album Agolo AYE -
1994
Title Album Adouma AYE -
1998
Title Album Voodoo Child Oremi -
2002
Title Album Tumba Black Ivory Soul