By Richard Burnett for Curtains Up
@bugsburnett
Some years ago I asked Angélique Kidjo – one of the world’s great singers – if she could sing her devastating cover of the traditional Tanzanian song Malaika at her Montreal concert.
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 told me afterwards. “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’s latest is Spirit Rising, a collection of songs from her entire career recorded live in Boston in 2012 with such special guests as Dianne Reeves and Branford Marsalis. The album also features a killer version of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song with the Kuumba Singers.
But while Kidjo has spread her musical wings, 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.”
Kidjo is also thrilled to be back in Montreal headlining at Nuits d’Afrique. “Performing live in concert – that’s my paradise,” Kidjo says. “Paradis is being on stage.”
Angélique Kidjo and her band headline a free outdoor show at Nuits d’Afrique, on the Parterre du Quartier des Spectacles, July 19 at 9:45 pm.
Nuits d’Afrique runs from July 9 – 21. There are ticketed indoor shows as well as free outdoor shows, including the legendary Skatalites (July 18).
Photo courtesy Angelique Kidjo
