Angelique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, known as Angelique Kidjo, is a five-time Grammy Award winning Beninese singer-songwriter, actress, and activist who is noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos.
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Angelique Kidjo's father was a musician, and her mother worked as a choreographer and theatre director.
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Angelique Kidjo is fluent in five languages: Fon, French, Yoruba, Gen, and English.
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Angelique Kidjo often uses Benin's traditional Zilin vocal technique and vocalese.
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Angelique Kidjo's father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people in Nigeria.
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Angelique Kidjo grew up listening to Yoruba and Beninese traditional music, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Fela Kuti, Stevie Wonder, Osibisa, and Santana.
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Angelique Kidjo 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 was played on national radio.
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Angelique Kidjo recorded the album Pretty with the Cameroonian producer Ekambi Brilliant and her brother Oscar.
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Angelique Kidjo was then 'discovered' in Paris by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who signed her in 1991.
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Angelique Kidjo recorded four albums for Island until Blackwell's departure from the label.
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Music videos for the singles "We We" and "Batonga" were released and Angelique Kidjo made her first world tour, appearing at many festivals and headlining the Olympia Hall in Paris on October 31,1992.
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In 2000, Angelique Kidjo traveled to Salvador de Bahia to start recording the Axe percussion grooves for this album, based on Afro-Brazilian culture.
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Angelique Kidjo worked with songwriters Carlinhos Brown and Vinicius Cantuaria.
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On January 28,2014, Angelique Kidjo released a new album, Eve, dedicated to the women of Africa, to their resilience and their beauty: "Eve is an album of remembrance of African women I grew up with and a testament to the pride and strength that hide behind the smile that masks everyday troubles", Angelique Kidjo commented.
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On March 31,2015, Angelique Kidjo released her collaboration with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra.
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Angelique Kidjo partnered with producer Jeff Bhasker to create Remain in Light.
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The Independent said: "the 15th album by Angelique Kidjo has the feel of a grand homecoming: celebratory and inclusive, with an acute sense of place and time".
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Angelique Kidjo campaigned for Oxfam at the 2005 Hong Kong WTO meeting, for 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 in the video for the in My Name Campaign with will.
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Angelique Kidjo hosted the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in Alexandria, Egypt, on November 26,2007, and on November 15,2008, in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, on November 14,2009, and in Mauritius on November 20,2010.
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Angelique Kidjo hosted the "Africa Celebrates Democracy Concert" organized by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in Tunis on November 11,2011, and sang at the Award Ceremony on November 12,2011, in Dakar on November 10,2012, Addis Ababa in November 2013 and Accra in November 2015.
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On September 28,2009, UNICEF and Pampers launched a campaign to eradicate Tetanus "Give the Gift of Life" and asked Angelique Kidjo to produce the song "You Can Count On Me" to support the campaign.
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Angelique Kidjo has recorded a video based on her song "Agolo" and on the images of Yann Arthus-Bertrand for the United Nations SEAL THE DEAL Campaign to prepare for the Copenhagen Climate Change summit.
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Angelique Kidjo appears in the Sudan365: Keep the Promise video, to support the peace process in Darfur.
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On May 22,2014, Angelique Kidjo met with First lady Michelle Obama to discuss international girls' education, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House.
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On September 21,2014, Angelique Kidjo was one of the endorsees of the People's Climate March.
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November 2014 saw Angelique Kidjo collaborating with many other artists as part of Band Aid 30, the 30th anniversary version of the 1980s supergroup.
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In 2006, Angelique Kidjo founded the Batonga Foundation with the goal of empowering and educating adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Angelique Kidjo invented the word "Batonga" as a joyfully defiant response to those who told her that girls did not belong in the classroom.
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In 2006, Angelique Kidjo founded the Batonga Foundation with the goal of empowering and educating adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa.
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On November 11,2018, Angelique Kidjo sang Bella Bellow's song Blewu under the Arc De Triomphe of Paris in front of 70 heads of state and a television audience of millions to pay tribute to the fallen African soldiers of the war.
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In 1996, Angelique Kidjo performed in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert honoring Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta for their work in East Timor.
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In 2005, Angelique Kidjo appeared at the Africa Unite Live concert in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a concert to celebrate the Honourable Bob Marley's 60th birthday, and was a featured speaker at the conference of African Unity held along with the concert.
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Annie Lennox has joined forces with Angelique Kidjo and 22 other female artists to raise awareness of the transmission of HIV to unborn children in Africa.
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Angelique Kidjo was a judge for the seventh annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
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Angelique Kidjo performed at the 75th Birthday Celebration of Quincy Jones at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 2008.
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Angelique Kidjo made her Carnegie Hall debut in New York on November 1,2008.
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Angelique Kidjo appears on the "Price of Silence" video produced by Amnesty International to celebrate the 60 years of the Declaration of Human Rights.
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In Europe in July 2009, together with Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright and Simone, Angelique Kidjo was part of a touring tribute to Nina Simone called "Sing The Truth".
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Angelique Kidjo invited Rokia Traore, Dobet Gnahore, Sayon Bamba Camara, Vusi Mahlasela, Asa and Ayo.
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Angelique Kidjo curated another version of the same show at the Barbican in London on November 21,2009, with Baaba Maal replacing Rokia Traore.
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On December 7,2009, on the opening day of the UN Copenhagen Climate Change summit, Angelique Kidjo sang, along with Anggun, Shaggy, Youssou N'Dour and Cheb Khaled, at the Dance 4 Climate Change concert.
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On February 15,2010, Angelique Kidjo performed in Vancouver for the Winter Olympic Games at the Place De La Francophonie.
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On November 11,2010, Angelique Kidjo presented her "Sound Of The Drum" show at Carnegie Hall.
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Angelique Kidjo was one of the performers at the BET Honours Awards in February 2011.
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On June 8,2011, Angelique Kidjo performed her most famous songs with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra at the Philharmonie Luxembourg Hall.
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Angelique Kidjo performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert the next day along with Janelle Monae, Evanescence, Sugarland, Jill Scott and many others.
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On February 28,2012, the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations and UNICEF presented a special Angelique Kidjo concert called "Raise your Voice to End Female Genital Mutilation" at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City.
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On July 21,2012, Angelique Kidjo performed with Baaba Maal, Hugh Masekela and King Sunny Ade on the African stage of the BT River of Music Festival organized for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
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On October 9,2012, Angelique Kidjo sang for the One World Concert in Syracuse, NY, honoring the Dalai Lama.
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Angelique Kidjo sang "Move On Up" and "True Colors" as a duet with Cyndi Lauper.
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On December 6,2012, Angelique Kidjo joined the Alicia Keys's Keep A Child Alive Black Ball in Harlem at the Apollo Theatre along with Jennifer Hudson, Bonnie Raitt and Brittany Howard.
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Oprah Winfrey and Angelique Kidjo were honored for their humanitarian work at the ceremony.
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On March 8,2013, International Women's Day, Angelique Kidjo performed along with Fatoumata Diawara at the Royal Festival Hall in London for the Women of the World Festival organized by the Southbank Centre.
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On September 13,2013, Angelique Kidjo sang at the legendary Rock in Rio Festival with the rock band Living Color.
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On May 14,2014, Angelique Kidjo sang at the famous Brazilian music award show "Premio da Musica Brasileira" at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro.
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On May 29,2014, Angelique Kidjo sang with Brazilian singer Lenine and Portuguese guitar player Rui Veloso for the opening concert of The Rolling Stones at Rock in Rio Lisboa.
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On November 5,2014, Angelique Kidjo presented her "Mama Africa" tribute concert to Miriam Makeba at Carnegie Hall.
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On July 10,2015, Kidjo sang with the San Francisco Symphony at the Louise M Davies Symphony Hall.
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Angelique Kidjo participated, as did Katy Perry, Sting, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim James and classical guitarist Sharon Isbin.
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On September 24,2016, Angelique Kidjo performed at the opening ceremony of the National Museum of African American Culture and History in Washington appearing along with Patti LaBelle, Angela Basset, Robert De Niro, Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and John Lewis.
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On May 5,2017, Angelique Kidjo presented her "Remain In Light" concert at Carnegie Hall.
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Angelique Kidjo's sold-out performance was a reinvention of the iconic album by the rock band Talking Heads.
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On November 16,2021, Kidjo performed in Geneva, Switzerland with the Geneva Camerata in the Concert Prestige n 2 conducted by David Greilsammer, with arrangements by Jonathan Keren, and Francesco Ciniglio as the drummer.
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Angelique Kidjo married French musician and producer Jean Hebrail in 1987.
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Angelique Kidjo recorded songs for various movies, TV shows and documentaries, among them:.
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Angelique Kidjo was the host of the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS in March 2010 and February 2014 and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in July 2010.
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In 2011, The Guardian listed her as one of its Top 100 Women in art, film, music and fashion and Angelique Kidjo is the first woman to be listed among "The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa" by Forbes magazine.
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Angelique Kidjo is listed among the "2014 Most Influential Africans" by New African magazine and Jeune Afrique.
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On June 6,2013, Angelique Kidjo was elected vice-president of the Confederation Internationale des Societes d'Auteurs et Compositeurs.
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Angelique Kidjo now resides in New York City, where she is an occasional contributor to The New York Times.
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Angelique Kidjo has received honorary doctorates from Yale University, Berklee College of Music, Middlebury College and UCLouvain.
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Angelique Kidjo is the recipient of the 2015 Crystal Award given by the World Economic Forum of Davos in Switzerland and has received the Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International in 2016 She is included in the exhibits at the National Museum of African American History that opened on September 24,2016, on the National Mall.
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Angelique Kidjo's music has been remixed by famous producers including Norman Cook and Tricky.
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