Four-time Grammy winner for Best Global Music Album, Angélique Kidjo starred as The Meunon in the 2022 film The Woman King. She married French musician Jean Hebrail in 1983 and has a daughter Naima born in 1993. Fluent in five languages, she was born in Ouidah, Benin in 1960.
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Angélique Kidjo — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Angélique Kidjo was born on July 14, 1960 in the coastal town of Ouidah, Benin. Raised speaking Yoruba at home, she grew up surrounded by traditional Beninese music. Her mother, Yvonne Kidjo, was a choreographer and theater director, exposing her to the arts from an early age. Her older brother, Oscar Kidjo, also influenced her musical taste.
Angélique Kidjo played The Meunon in the 2022 film The Woman King. She appeared in Street Fighter 1994 and The CEO 2016. She has won four Grammy Awards for Best Global Music Album. She won the Polar Music Prize and the Ambassador of Conscience Award, among others. She guested on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1992 and The Kelly Clarkson Show.
She married French musician Jean Hebrail in 1983. They have one daughter, Naïma Hebrail Kidjo, born in 1993. She has a brother, Oscar Kidjo. She is fluent in five languages: Fon, French, Yoruba, Gen Mina, and English.
She has won four Grammy Awards for Best Global Music Album, the most of any African female artist. She was named to the Time 100 list and received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. She was appointed Commander of the National Order of Benin.
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A wall of memorable lines from Angélique Kidjo — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Come from This Diversity and Richness That’s Benin, Where There Are Fifty Different Languages. I Speak Four of Them. I Never Know in Advance Which Language Will Come When I Start to Write.The Song Leads Me to the Language.
Benin Has Little Tradition of Harmony in the South Where I Come From. the North Has a Lot More, but the South Has More Rhythms, Which Are Absolutely Fantastic and People Don’t Know Them. There’s One Village Specifically Dedicated to the Drum. When You Get There You Can Go and Choose Your Tree, Cut It Down and Make Your Percussion from It. the Challenge for Me Is Adding the Harmonies That the Rhythms Give.
People Say ‘La Musique Africaine’, but I Say ‘Les Musiques Africaines’. They Refuse to Recognize That Africa Is a Continent with a Huge Number of Different Cultures and Languages and Music. That’s Always Been the Difficulty of My Career. People Expect All Africans to Have the Same Sound More or Less, as If You Can Lump Them All Together.
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Kidjo has a daughter named Naima, born in 1993.
She is fluent in five languages: Fon, French, Yoruba, Gen Mina, and English.
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