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Angélique Kidjo will bring her thrilling voice and stage presence, irresistible music and fluency in multiple cultures and languages to the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Somerville, on Friday, February 28, presented by Global Arts Live.
The five-time Grammy winner and her quartet — a keyboardist, percussionist, drummer and bassist — will perform selections from three albums. “We’ll be celebrating my albums ‘Remain in Light,’ ‘Celia’ and ‘Mother Nature’ and the 40th anniversary of my musical career,” said Kidjo, speaking by phone from Paris last week.
Asked how much of her show is improvised — including her mesmerizing footwork as she dances while singing — Kidjo said, “It’s always improvised. There’s a lot of things that you cannot predict before a concert. You can set up the stage. You can have all those technical things arranged. But when it comes to the human level, it’s communication, a moment of union as we celebrate the power of music and bring ourselves together.”
Kidjo describes “Mother Nature,” which won her a fifth Grammy in 2022, as “a love letter to Mother Earth.” She recorded the album with a host of her African musical progeny, including young stars of Afrobeat, Afro-pop, dancehall, hip-hop, and alt-R&B. Her 2020 Grammy-winning “Celia” is a tribute to Havana-born salsa icon Celia Cruz and the African roots of salsa, a genre invented in New York by Caribbean immigrants. And Kidjo’s 2018 album “Remain in Light” is a jubilant African recasting of the Talking Heads’ 1980 album of the same name, which was deeply influenced by West African rhythms, notably Fela Kuti’s afrobeat.
Angélique Kidjo at Royal Albert Hall in 2023. PHOTO: Michael Tubes
Kidjo, 64, is the seventh of 10 siblings in a musical family in her West African home country, Dahomey (now Benin). She grew up listening to James Brown, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix as well as African music. In 1983, when a Marxist-Leninist regime took over her country and banned foreign music, she moved to Paris. Before long she gained acclaim with a string of dance-pop hits. She returned to Benin to record her 1996 album “Fifa” with local percussionists and soon after began collaborating with musicians throughout Africa.
Cross-pollinating West African traditions with elements of R&B, funk and jazz, as well as influences from Europe and South America, Kidjo has won a long list of awards and garnered such sobriquets as the “undisputed queen of African music” (The London Telegraph) and “Africa’s greatest living diva” (NPR) as well as inclusion among “Top Titans of African Music” (Forbes), “100 Most Influential People” (Time) and “Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World” (The Guardian).
Her impact extends beyond the stage. An advocate for children as a UNICEF and OXFAM ambassador, Kidjo supports the education of young girls in Africa through her own charitable foundation, Batonga.
Kidjo brings the musicians, rhythms and songs of Africa to audiences throughout the world. At the December 7 reopening of Notre Dame, she delivered a stirring rendition of “Jerusalema” a gospel-infused house song by a South African DJ, Master KG. “Notre Dame is one of those places that is beyond our divisions,” said Kidjo. “It’s a place in which anyone can enter and find quiet. That’s why I want to celebrate its rebirth. We need such places in this divided world we live in.”
Asked about future ambitions as she celebrates her 40-year career, Kidjo said, “There are a lot of things out there to do. I would like to bridge the gap between African music and hip-hop, rap and country music. And one of my dreams is to perform the music of Frank Sinatra with a big band. And probably with Nancy Sinatra. Why not? There are so many ways we can prove to the world that we can live together, breathe the same air, and even if we think differently, not be enemies.”
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