Singing for Change

Recently,when singer Angelique Kidjo featured in The Guardian’s list of top 100 inspiring women,hardly anyone who had been following the career of the Beninese singer was surprised. This is the woman who has charmed audiences worldwide with her trademark mix of African folk music with blues and jazz. But it’s also the same woman who once pulled up Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime during a performance in Zimbabwe and who has spoken for education for girls through her Batonga Foundation. She’s won a Grammy,has performed with leading lights like Buddy Guy and Quincy Jones,and has been a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador since 2002. Yet,she says,as she prepares for her first-ever concert in Mumbai,the biggest honour for her is “to see the smile on the face of my public during my shows. It makes me feel very special”. Kidjo will be performing at the Blue Frog tonight and at the NCPA on Friday.

Kidjo’s music was born out of her Beninese roots and her early exposure to various musical traditions,thanks to her mother,who ran a theatre troupe,and her father,who was a fan of musicians like Otis Redding and James Brown. Yet,the singer had to overcome prejudices while growing up. “I started at a very early age and became famous quickly. Being a singer as a teenager was very difficult because people think you are a prostitute if you sing modern music,” she says. The singer fled Benin after refusing to sing in praise of the country’s Communist regime and moved to Paris,where she was “discovered” in 1991. Kidjo went on to study at the prestigious CIM jazz school and has since released 11 albums. Time magazine even anointed her as ‘Africa’s Premier Diva’.

Her latest album,Oyo,which released last year,draws on autobiographical elements and includes covers of music that she grew up listening to,such as James Brown’s Cold Sweat and Curtis Mayfield’s Move On Up,as well as more traditional African music,like a lullaby from Benin,called Atcha Houn. The album even includes an Indian song,Dil Main Chuppa Ke Pyar Ka. “Indian music was very popular in Benin when I grew up because we love the dance and the romances of the Bollywood movies: they were closer to our culture than the American movies. There was this movie called Aan,which I saw about 10 times. When I looked back at my childhood in Oyo,I knew that I had to sing the main theme of this movie. I didn’t remember the name of the song and my brother Alfred travelled to India to find it for me. When he came back with it,I knew my album Oyo was complete,” says the 50-year-old.

This is music that is typical of Kidjo and has won her a following around the world,making her a superstar in the very country that she once had to flee. However,Kidjo’s work has found its share of critics who deem her music to be ‘un-African’. This stereotype — of what African music should sound like — is one that the performer finds particularly annoying. “I don’t want to be the exotic singer from Africa. I want to use my African identity to bring its beauty to the world,but also make music that has never been done,” she declares.