The Gift of Voice

Angélique Kidjo, a five-time Grammy-winning African music icon, sees her voice as a gift to champion world peace and women's rights 

- Zabrina Lo

In early December, the French capital’s performing arts complex the Philharmonie de Paris played host to Sarabande Africaine, a concert that brought together two musical legends—Chinese American cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Angélique Kidjo, a Beninese French singer-songwriter who has been bringing traditional African music into the international limelight for 40 years. The world was curious about their chemistry and how African and classical music would go with each other.

If what is available to listen to is anything to go by, the result must have been mesmerising. Take Blewu as an example of just how well the two mesh. The ancient dirge for dead soldiers, sung in the West African language Ewe, opens with the mellow sound of the cello; then Kidjo’s powerful, certain yet gentle voice joins in. The warmth of the strings and her soothing vocals interplay and envelop each other, creating a solemn moment of serenity. “It was about the connection of all the ‘musics’ and everything,” Kidjo tells Tatler.

Such is the charm of the star whose powerful voice and wide range of genres, spanning African pop, French West Indian zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz, gospel and Latin music, combine to produce an uplifting, comforting quality in both her solo songs and collaborations with artists from across the industry, from John Legend and Alicia Keys to Josh Groban and Philip Glass. Her four-decade career has birthed 15 albums (a new one is under way) and won her five Grammys and 14 nominations.