Consider this next time you get bored or think there's nothing to listen to: You could spend lifetimes upon lifetimes communing with Africa's extraordinary range of musical styles and never reach the bottom. Even the word "African" sometimes fails as a summarizing agent, says the Beninese singer/songwriter Angélique Kidjo.
"Our continent is huge. From one place to another, the language changes; the rhythm changes," the four-time GRAMMY winner and 12-time nominee tells GRAMMY.com. "The way the rhythm is danced and the way it's sung and carried is different. Even in my small country of 12 million people, man!"
Despite this boundless range of forms — and the recent proliferation of Afrobeats around the globe — try asking the average American who their five favorite African musicians are. You might be dismayed. But in narrowing this cultural gap, Afrobeats takes on added utility — Kidjo refers to it not only as a standalone style, but as a "vehicle" for traditional rhythms and melodies.
"If you take any music from any part of Africa and put it in Afrobeats, it gives you a different flavor of Afrobeats," Kidjo says. "Because you have the pulse of Afrobeats in it, you can consume and discover music from north to south, east to west, and central Africa in a way that we haven't [before]."
For those interested in establishing a foothold in this musical multiverse, Kidjo is something of a hub for emerging talent; her ability to inhabit any style she wishes makes her an excellent jumping-off point for exploring the breadth of African sounds. Just look at the range of contexts that garnered her GRAMMY nominations at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards.
In the Best Global Music Album category, her multifarious album Mother Nature got a nod. And in Best Global Music Performance, she's got collaborations with Afrobeats hero Burna Boy ("Do Yourself") and household-name cellist Yo-Yo Ma ("Blewu"). What's her attitude toward these global accolades? Kidjo feels magnanimity toward everyone nominated — and a desire to see her musical community elevated on the world stage.
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"Whoever wins, I will be happy to celebrate with the person. It's not about my win or your win. It's about my company winning in a way that has never been done before," she says. "And it's opening a new era. It's a new chapter in the Recording Academy and the world of music today."
Ahead of the 2022 GRAMMY Awards on April 3, GRAMMY.com gave Kidjo a ring on Whatsapp to discuss her GRAMMY-nominated collaborations, how Mother Nature came to be and why she believes the Recording Academy is coming to grips with the unbelievable complexity of "global music."
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Congratulations on three GRAMMY nominations. How are you feeling?
It is important for me to see the Global Music category opened up to my continent more. This Mother Nature nomination is really an honor and a pleasure. To see Wizkid, Femi and his son — it's been a long wait to see the continent of Africa forecast. I'm humbled and honored to be nominated three times.
How did you first cross paths with Burna Boy?
The first time we spoke, it was when he was doing his [2019] album African Giant. He was in London; I don't know [how] his mother got my number.
I received a call from someone who said, "Burna Boy's going to call you." I said "Me? OK!" And then he called, and he said "I can't believe I'm speaking to you.' I said, "Believe it. Everything happens for a reason, and I'm just a human being like anybody else, so let's speak." He said, "I would be really honored to have you on my album — on my song, 'Different,' with [Damian Marley]."
So, I said, "Oh, send the song! What do you want me to do?" He said, "Whatever you want." That's how our collaboration started — with that song, "Different." Now and then, I'd speak to his mother and him. I met him for the first time at the GRAMMYs in Los Angeles. I went to see him and had a conversation. I said to him, "The GRAMMYs are like any award — you don't know what's going to happen. If we know, it wouldn't be a GRAMMY anymore."\
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[I encouraged] him to keep on working — it would come with time. Meaning, my first nomination came in 1995. After that, many years passed before I would get nominated. I didn't win all the time, and that's the thing — being nominated means that your work has been acknowledged by the business and your fellow musicians. Nominations are as important as winning in the GRAMMYs.
How did this attitude manifest in your recent work and subsequent GRAMMY nominations?
Mother Nature happened during the confinement — the lockdown. I had started [that album] in 2019. And it became obvious with the virus that our world was going to change. And if you want to talk about the world we live in, we have to give a platform to the youth for us to listen to them.
We don't listen to the youth enough. When you give them the opportunity to speak, they come up with things that are amazing that we underestimate.
So, that's how it started. Burna sent [me a song] in the evening in the studio, making me listen to it through WhatsApp Video. I said, "This is torture! Send that damn song, boy!" [Laughs.] And then he sent the song right before I went to bed. I was like "Ah, man!" The next morning, we started working on it.
It was absolutely amazing to see how we worked together because he sent me all the files and everything. I was being very respectful of his song, and then he sent me one of my voice that I did. He said, "I like it, but I want more of you!" I said "OK," did another one, sent it to him, and he said, "I still want more of you!"
I put in more of my voice, layered the voice, and did more stuff — call-and-answer. When I sent it to him, I was saying to myself, "He's going to cut some stuff out." No — he sent me it uncut. And that's how we started.
You're nominated for GRAMMYs alongside Arooj Aftab, Femi Kuti, Wizkid, Rocky Dawuni and Daniel Ho. Anyone you're rooting for in particular?
All of those people you named are worthy of the GRAMMY. That's what I have to say. They are masters in their own rights, in their own music. So it happens that we are in the same category together because their craft got the attention of everybody. You don't get there just because it's pretty. It's because your music has significance.
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I can tell it's far less of a competition to you than an opportunity to uplift a global community of musicians.
Yeah, that's it. That's what I've said from the beginning: open up your ears. Africa has so much surprise in store for you. That continent — we can't see the bottom of it. Even us Africans can't see the bottom of it! Much less the rest of the world.
With all the strides made to bring African music to a wider audience, I imagine we have a long way to go. One could spend lifetimes poring over the cultural heritages of various African countries.
Even for us, "African" is a challenge. Our continent is huge. From one place to another, the language changes; the rhythm changes. The way the rhythm is danced and the way it's sung and carried is different. Even in my small country of 12 million people, man!
I come from the south part of Benin, and every time I go from one village to the other — my husband is French, and he goes, "Do you speak the language?" I say "Yes, I understand this language." And sometimes I go, "No, I don't." He's like, "It's your country!" I'm like, "Yeah! Every village has their own music — their own language." I can only speak four major languages out of Benin.
And the music is like that. It never stops! Every time, you go "I didn't know this instrument can sound like this!" It's crazy!
How can we continue to foster understanding and nuance in our appreciation of music from various African countries and regions?
I think the GRAMMYs are the best place to start. I've talked about and criticized the term "world music" for pretty much my whole career. I say, let's work on it. Let's bring many artists from Africa — and it's not just me and the Academy. We need to reach out to producers and new artists from Africa.
I think the Academy has, for the first time, a grip on the complexity of the music that's out there. Today, we have a vehicle, and it's Afrobeats. Because if you take any music from any part of Africa and put it in Afrobeats, it gives you a different flavor of Afrobeats.
The music that we do can make people say, "Oh, this language is different, or this aesthetic." But because you have the pulse of Afrobeats in it, you can consume and discover music from north to south, east to west, and central Africa in a way that we haven't [before]. The Afrobeats is underlining all those traditional rhythms.
I've been doing my career and living in France for many years, and they have the French GRAMMYs [Victoires de la Musique]. The GRAMMYs have opened to so many contemporaries in the world. It's not only the African continent; you have all the continents. Every artist is welcome at the GRAMMYs. If you're going to celebrate music, you have to celebrate it globally.
In your estimation, why is Afrobeats creating such a splash globally? To me, it's because it's more often than not very soothing and beautiful, which anybody can connect with.
It's just a matter of timing. In Afrobeat, you have blues; you have rock 'n' roll; you have funk. You have everything in there. That's why it speaks to people's ears here — because whatever music you like, you put Afrobeat on it and it speaks.
That's the greatness of Afrobeat, that Fela [Kuti] started playing a long time ago. Because Fela was a music lover. Beyond the music from Nigeria, he used to listen to all the [artists from] the R&B world. What was clear for him was that all of that had roots back in Africa. And Afrobeat is a conjunction of all that in the rhythm. That's why I say that in Afrobeat, there's no music that you can't do.
No matter which part of the continent they're from, what African artists are you enjoying lately?
I'm a curator for the Holland Festival, and I want to give a platform to women in rap in Africa. Let's face it: the music world is dominated by males. There are great, great female artists out there. I tell you, it's not easy when you're born a girl in Africa and want to do music. It's not easy at all!
I was lucky enough to have a supportive family. My father produced my first concert and did all kinds of stuff that allowed me to be who I am today. Many young girls in Africa don't have that. So, every opportunity I'm given to curate festivals and concerts, I always try to reach out to young women.
I have Sho Madjozi as a headliner. Tonight, I'm bringing a singer from Benin called Zeynab Abib — and other young girls from Senegal and Kenya. So, I try to open up roads and give people the chance to be known and start doing what they want to do with it.
Because I know how hard it is when you're in Africa and you want to be a musician. I can't even start talking to you about it!
What else have you got percolating, Angélique?
I did an album with a trumpet player from Lebanon called Ibrahim Maalouf. I performed with him recently at my Carnegie Hall show in November [2021]. And everybody was there — what the hell! He plays a quarter-tone trumpet. All the harmony will just take you to travel with what he's playing.
Also, I have a musical theatre work [Yamandja] with my daughter [Naïma] that we premiered at Mass MoCA at the beginning of March. We're going to do it also in Los Angeles on April 12, 13 and 14. And then we're going to go to UC Berkeley.
It is absolutely amazing — the story of the gods and goddesses of our religion. So, we go back in time, back and forth. The music is also pretty good, because we worked on it.
Anything you want to add before we get out of here?
I think that music can be the vehicle — more than ever today — for people to find meaning in this world. The song I did with Yo-Yo Ma, "Blewu," which is nominated, is the song I sang for the centennial of the First World War, in front of all the heads of state, including Putin.
That song's a song of peace, and it's relevant more than ever. Because we need peace. Even that day, when I was singing, I felt the division of the world between autocracy and democracy. When we believe in democracy, we can sit and say "I don't like this; I don't like that."
No one is perfect. The only thing that matters to me is how we protect our democracy. How do we perfect it? How do all of us together as citizens work with leaders for us to make sure that never again will our democracy be so much in danger?
That song, "Blewu," was the message that I wanted this world to understand. Our leaders, we put in power, but all we ask of them is to make sure that we have peace at any cost. So, music, for me, is the first and easiest thing that can penetrate and finally change things.
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