Angélique Kidjo biography: Age, Hometown, Parents, Net-Worth, Husband, Career, Awards, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Latest Songs
Angélique Kidjo is a popular singer from the Benin Republic. She was born on the 14th of July, 1960 in Ouidah, Dahomey now the Benin Republic and as of 2020, she is 60 years old. She is known for her collaborations with internationally prominent popular musicians and for her innovative blending of diverse musical styles. Let’s take…
Angélique Kidjo is a popular singer from the Benin Republic.
She was born on the 14th of July, 1960 in Ouidah, Dahomey now the Benin Republic and as of 2020, she is 60 years old.
She is known for her collaborations with internationally prominent popular musicians and for her innovative blending of diverse musical styles.
Let’s take a brief look at her biography below.
Angélique Kidjo Age
She was born on the 14th of July, 1960 in Ouidah, Dahomey now the Benin Republic and as of 2020, she is 60 years old.
Angélique KidjoAngélique Kidjo Early Life
Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin. Her father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people.
Her father was a musician, and her mother worked as a choreographer and theatre director.
She grew up listening to Beninese traditional music, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Osibisa, and Santana.
Angélique KidjoBy 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.
Angélique KidjoThe 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.
Angélique Kidjo Personal Life
Kidjo married French musician and producer Jean Hébrail in 1987. Their daughter Naima was born in 1993 in France.
Angélique Kidjo Hometown
Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin. Her father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people.
Angélique KidjoAngélique Kidjo Career
At age six Kidjo began performing in her mother’s theatre troupe, and, as a teenager, she sang with her brothers in their rock–rhythm-and-blues band.
By age 20 she was a professional singer. She recorded her first album, Pretty, in 1988.
In 1983 Kidjo moved to Paris, where she encountered a vibrant musical community and myriad musical styles with which to experiment; in Paris, she also met Jean Hebrail, the French producer, composer, and bassist whom she later married.
Angélique KidjoHer first years in the city were spent studying jazz and performing with various local groups. After teaming with the Dutch pianist Jasper van ’t Hof, she sang with and co-wrote songs for his jazz group, Pili-Pili.
After several years Kidjo left Pili-Pili and recorded Logozo (1991), which featured the American jazz musician Branford Marsalis and the African artists Manu Dibango and Ray Lema.
With songs addressing issues of global concern—such as homelessness, the environment, freedom, and integration—Logozo was an international success.
Angélique KidjoKidjo increased her international appeal through her later releases, including Fifa (1995), in which she and more than 100 other musicians performed songs in English, Fon (her native language), Yoruba, and French.
Like her earlier releases, Kidjo’s subsequent albums were exercises in musical fusion, melding an array of genres, including jazz, hip-hop, zouk, Zairean rumba, samba, salsa, funk, gospel, Cameroonian makossa, and various Beninese traditions.
Her sixth solo album, Black Ivory Soul (2002), was a dazzling excursion into Brazilian musical forms that deftly blended a Latin sound sensibility with traces of traditional West African rhythms.
Angélique KidjoOyaya! (2004) included a collaboration with American musician Dave Matthews, and Djin Djin (2007) featured numerous luminaries from the international popular music scene, including Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Carlos Santana, and others.
Õÿö (2010) was an album of covers, and Spirit Rising (2012) was a collection of live tracks. Eve (2014), a tribute to African women largely sung in Beninese languages, won a Grammy Award for a best world music album, as did Sings (2015), a collaboration with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Luxembourg.
Angélique KidjoIn 2018 Kidjo covered the Talking Heads album Remain in Light (1980), and the following year she paid homage to Cuban American singer Celia Cruz with Celia.
Angélique Kidjo Awards
You can check out the list of the Awards and Recognitions of Kidjo here.
Angélique KidjoAngélique Kidjo Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
She goes by the handle @angeliquekidjo on Instagram, @angeliquekidjo on Twitter and Angélique Kidjo on Facebook.
Angélique Kidjo Latest Songs
Kidjo has dazzled the music world with her heart soothing tunes. She has won the hearts of many over the years, a true African gem. Following is a list of some of her latest songs; Toro Mata, Cucala, Elegua, Shekere among others.
Angélique Kidjosource: www.wikipedia.org
