An icon of world music for more than three decades, the West African songwriter
Angélique Kidjo was born in Oudah, Dahomey (now known as Benin) on July 14,
1960. She grew up listening to traditional Beninese music, as well as modern day
artists such as James Brown, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, and Santana. Those
diverse sounds would soon influence her own mix of Afropop, jazz, Afrobeat, and
worldbeat. Political unrest in her native country forced her to relocate to
Paris, where she enrolled at Le Centre d'Informations Musicales, one of the
city's most reputable jazz conservatories...