Black ivory soul
- By News Hound
- Published 06/28/2007
- Music
- Unrated
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View all articles by News HoundAngélique Kidjo
by Bugs Burnett
Angélique Kidjo conquers the world - with love 
Some years ago I asked Angélique Kidjo - one of the world's great singers - if she could sing me her devastating cover of the traditional Tanzanian song Malaika. And she did.
Malaika, first recorded by Kenyan musician Fadhili William back in the 1950s, tells the tale of the lifelong love the narrator cannot afford to marry, feed or care for ("malaika" is Swahili for "angel").
"I'm in another world when I sing that song," Kidjo says today. "I close my eyes and I'm gone. I'm taken into a world of love. It is a very sad song." But it is ethereal and powerful when Kidjo reinterprets it.
The Benin native and Unicef goodwill ambassador now divides her time between NYC and Paris ("Those two cities are very energetic - you have the whole world there"), though her parents still live in Benin.
After her trio of Grammy-nominated albums, Oremi, Black Ivory Soul and Oyaya, showcasing the music of America, Brazil and Cuba, Kidjo returned to her African roots for her new album, Djin Djin, which she recorded at Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studio in NYC.
"It was special for me to be in the space where Jimi made the music I loved listening to as a child," says Kidjo, who sang Voodoo Chile her last time in Montreal. "His vibe is still there. The layout is so amazing - the lighting, the fabrics."
But in America and Europe audiences and journalists still try to box her in.
"One journalist from [the French daily] Libération doubted my Africanness. I told her, 'I've been to school. I can speak for myself. And your fantasy of African women has taken a huge toll on my career.' My grandmother taught me to always do what makes me happy. You cannot be loved by everybody. So I always do what makes me feel happy and powerful. I do not want to be seen as a colonized person."
Breaking into showbiz was also tough as a woman. "But what I have achieved today I did without going to bed with anybody. My talent got me here. It is my voice."
And it is that voice that has won Kidjo the Antonios Carlos Jobim Award at this year's Montreal Jazz Festival. "It's an honour," Kidjo says, "but performing live in concert - that's my paradise. Paradis is being on stage."
