Angélique Kidjo is a world-renowned singer, pan-African artist and activist. She is a UNICEF ambassador and Founder of Batanga — an association that provides young African women access to secondary and university education.
Growing up, Angélique Kidjo was one of few girls in Benin to receive an education. She invented the word “Batonga” as a joyfully defiant response to those who told her that girls did not belong in the classroom. Later, it would become the title of a hit song for the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and the name of her non-profit organization.
In 2010, the BBC’s Focus On Africa Magazine included Kidjo in its list of the African continent’s 50 most iconic figures, based on reader votes.
On November 24, 2020, Kidjo was included in the 2020 BBC 100 Women list. The list compiles “the most inspiring and influential women in the World in 2020”.
On January 1, 2021, Angelique was awarded with the Legion of Honor, the highest French award of merit along with Roberto Alagna and Yann Arthus Bertrand.
Below are 10 things Nigerian women should know about Angelica Kidjo:
1. Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo was born on July 14, 1960). She is popularly known as Angélique Kidjo.
2. She is a Beninese-American singer-songwriter, actress, and activist who is noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. In 2007, Time magazine called her “Africa’s premier diva”.
3. Angélique Kidjo is fluent in five languages: Fon, French, Yorùbá, Gen (Mina), and English. She sings in all of them, and she also has her own personal language, which includes words that serve as song titles such as “Batonga”. “Malaika” is a song sung in the Swahili language. Kidjo often uses Benin’s traditional Zilin vocal technique and vocalese.
4. Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin. Her father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yorùbá tribe.
5. She grew up listening to Beninese traditional music, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, James Brown, Santana, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix and Osibisa. By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother’s theatre troupe, giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance.
6. While working various day jobs to pay for her tuition, Kidjo studied music at the CIM, a reputable jazz school in Paris where she met musician and producer Jean Hebrail, with whom she has composed most of her music and whom she married in 1987. She started out as a backup singer in local bands. In 1985, she became the front singer of Jasper van ‘t Hof’s Euro-African jazz/rock band Pili Pili.
7. Kidjo has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002. With UNICEF, she has travelled to many countries in Africa which include Benin, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Syria, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Haiti.
8. Kidjo married French musician and producer Jean Hébrail in 1987. Their daughter Naima was born 1993 in France.
9. With Rachel Wenrick, Kidjo has written a memoir entitled Spirit Rising. It was published by Harper Collins on January 7, 2014. Desmond Tutu wrote the preface and Alicia Keys the foreword. On the back cover, Bill Clinton said: “The only thing bigger than Angélique Kidjo’s voice is her heart. In this evocative memoir, Kidjo chronicles an inspiring life of music and activism, and raises a passionate call for freedom, dignity, and the rights of people everywhere.
10. In 2006, Kidjo founded the Batonga Foundation with the goal of empowering and educating adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa. Batonga has since provided girls in five African countries (Mali, Benin, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, and Cameroon) with 5,000 academic years of education through scholarships and in-kind support, supplied 8,727 students access to wells and latrines across 7 schools in Benin, and offered 222,000 students in Benin’s poorest regions TOMS shoes for the walk to school.
Last year, Angélique Kidjo won the Best World Music Album for Celia at the 62 GRAMMY Awards. This marks her fourth win in the category and fourth GRAMMY win overall.