Angelique Kidjo
Angelique Kidjo
Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, known as Angélique Kidjo, is a Beninese-born American Grammy Award winning 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...
ProfessionSoul Singer
Date of Birth14 July 1960
african blues bringing combining culture easier jazz music rhythm technology tools western
I'm an African bringing my culture to the Western world. But I use technology and rhythm and blues and jazz and rock. I make it easier for you by combining your tools with mine. But then some will say the music is not pure.
behave lives losing stop
We have to stop the vulnerability of losing lives so stupidly. We have the capacity. We have the brains, yet we behave like new-born kids.
crisis horn millions people
But this isn't just about Kenya. This crisis is devastating the whole of the Horn of Africa. Millions of people are still suffering.
recognise
I’m honoured when Africa recognises me
technology artist hype
With technology today you can sing like a frog and sound good. And then when you come on stage, what do you do. Some of those artists never toured, probably just hype.
love-you people defining
What you do that makes you happy and that makes your family, the people that love you, their opinion counts more than anybody out there that is putting a category on you or defining you according to the old phantasmal.
west east born
Africa is not just about where you are born. For me, Africa is the whole continent; from south to north, to east to west.
stories knows know-how
I'm a story teller. I really know how to tell stories of Africa.
country people political
Education is very political, because when you educate the people, then you have a country that you can't fool anymore.
hurt sake lines
We cannot hurt ourselves just for the sake of it. When you hurt somebody you hurt yourself. Down the line, the ripple of it comes back to you.
people feelings use
I never use someone just because they are great musicians. I work with people who have the same kind of feeling towards the music that I do, and the subject that I'm speaking of at that time.
misery
Don't let misery bring you down.
fate
Don't let anyone define and decide for you fate.
thinking people care
I don't care about what people think about me.