Born Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, but popularly known as Angélique Kidjo, is a Beninese, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and activist noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. In 2007, Time magazine called her “Africa’s premier diva”. 
Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin. Her father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people.
She grew up listening to Beninese traditional music, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Osibisa, and Santana.
By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother’s theatre troupe, giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance.
She started singing in her school band, Les Sphinx, and found success as a teenager with her adaptation of Miriam Makeba’s “Les Trois Z”, which played on national radio.
She recorded the album Pretty with the Cameroonian producer Ekambi Brilliant and her brother Oscar. It featured the songs “Ninive”, “Gbe Agossi” and a tribute to the singer Bella Bellow, one of her role models. 
The success of the album allowed her to tour all over West Africa. Continuing political conflicts in Benin prevented her from being an independent artist in her own country and led her to relocate to Paris in 1983.
Her most recent Grammy was awarded to her in 2016 for her 2015 album, Songs. While the other ones were awarded to her back in 2007 and 2014 respectively.
Kidjo is the only female solo artist from Africa to have won the Grammy’s award and has won it on 3 different occasions. 
Angelique’s albums titled Djin Djin and EVE earned her the coveted award on two different occasions.
Photo Credit: Getty
