Angélique Kidjo: The queen of African music is back with ‘Hope!!’

0:12Angélique Kidjo:Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco and today I speak with a music legend, Angélique Kidjo. The queen of African music stopped by a Midori house to tell me all about her first release in five years. Her album, Hope.

0:34My body now, echo vina, fire killer, pretty like Sabina. Are you coming back or what? Are you coming back or what?

1:02Angélique Kidjo:Angelique Keijo, what a pleasure. Your 20th album's out, your first release in five years, and I was listening to it this morning. It gave me a lot of joy. I mean, it's in the title, Hope. First of all, tell us about the album. It's kind of a tribute to your mother in many ways, right? Yeah, I mean, it's a tribute to my mother. My mother passed away five years ago, and I remember the last conversation we had. She was like, next time you come, bring a recorder. We have tons of songs. I've been sitting here because of the pandemic and my head is bubbling with songs. My mom is that very positive person.

1:36She taught me how to sing. I mean, she put me on stage in a theater troupe when I was six years old. She was defiant, a defiant woman, a very strong woman. And one of the things that she always used to say is that hope is at the center of everything. Without hope, we can wake up in the morning and do anything. And that's why I wanted to call that album Hope and to celebrate her indomitable spirit of joy. She never gave up. So I think today we need more hope than any time ever because we need to not get distracted by what is going on around us. We need to focus. Hope and joy are act of resistance.

2:17We need to keep our mind clear, our heart clear, to be able to live through this hard time that we are living in. And it was just a coincidence that my album is coming out today. And I don't believe much in coincidences. It's meant to be, this album. So I'm happy that I made it.

2:37Angélique Kidjo:And I love the way you say the word distraction, because I do think in the world today we might be stressed, but we are distracted. Sometimes we have to focus on hope, you know. And let's be honest, you do that not only with music, but you are an activist. You are directly working with the things that you care about, right? With your foundation as well. The thing I care about, I understand that if myself have to exist, others have to exist. And if other people are happy, I will be happy. Because our humanity is not cut in pieces. It's only one. We live in one ecosystem. We are one human family.

3:15And I think we need to remind ourselves that all the time. And that's what I wanted to do with this album, is to tell people, don't give up hope. Be hopeful. Even in a dreadful situation, hope would get you out of the gutter all the time.

3:31Angélique Kidjo:Like in No Stopping Us, one of the tracks in the album. No Stopping Us, absolutely. Tell the one, I mean, I'm telling everyone that have hopes and dreams that it's possible. Well, let's talk a little bit about the music as well. There's been, you know, of course, amazing collaborations, and I want to talk about some of that. But I think Pharrell, I mean, he was a great collaborator in the album. I think he, did he produce and worked in three tracks of the album? Yes, absolutely. He did. Tell us about your connection with him. Did you knew him for a while? Was it a fairly recent meet? I met Pharrell a couple of times.

4:04I met him at Citizen, Global Citizen concert. We bumped into each other many times, but we just speak. And the first time I met, actually, Pharrell, it was in Miami. I was with the producer of my first album, Logozo, and he was in the studio. And the producer, Joe Gardo, said, let me introduce you to a young genius musician. I said, genius, I'll take it. Young too, I'll take it. So the first time we met, he was there. Last year, he organized a grace concert for peace at the Vatican, St. Peter's Square. No one have done any show there. So with the Vatican, the whole purpose of the event was to celebrate peace.

4:41and I was one of the first artists that was invited. I didn't know until they told me that when I was there. And I was doing the sound check. I was doing the sound check in the afternoon and he was sitting on the piano stool next to me. We talked before I started singing. I was doing my version of La Bida Esun Carnaval of Celia Cruz and then he'd come and jump out and say, Angelique, your voice. I mean, I want to write a song for you. Do you have any work that is coming out soon? I said, yes, I have an album that is coming up. And then we came to Paris, and then I go to the studio, and he said, come to my studio.

5:16And his studio is wonderful, very small, but very effective. And he was working on No Stopping Us. And I was looking at him, I said, this, how, how, how this, how did this is happening right now? He's really talented, and he's in the moment very intense. And he knows what he's doing. And I was seeing him doing this laying up sound here, doing, And I know nothing about that. I took the song and then we talked and we have a lot of conversation. And I was telling him, you know, one of the things that I like to do, why I love collaboration so much, is that the more we work together, the more we amplify the message of peace and getting together.

5:52Because if we are not each other's keeper, there's no future for us. And nothing can stop us when we come together. He said, that's exactly the sentiment of this song. So he sang a couple of lines, and I took it from him and went to talk to, I used to work with a writer, a singer-songwriter from Zimbabwe called Shun Kutsu. I did Modern Nature with him, with her. And I said, this is what we're working on with Pharrell. This is a sentiment. Go for it. And that's how we did it together.

6:24Angélique Kidjo:That's amazing. I do love No Stopping Us because I think it is an activist song, but it's very fresh. I think it's great for this kind of young generation that's coming out in the world and fighting for the rights or whatever they want. It is so important. I was doing this album also thinking about the next generation. We are no longer here. And a lot of young kids are really struggling today. A lot of them have studied, spent money studying. They might not have a job because of artificial intelligence. But that can stop them from hoping. So no stopping us is also that. We just got to get at it.

7:04We got to be creative. We got to be flexible. We have to be fluid. There's light. There's a lot of stuff we can do. And that's why no stopping us is so important for the youth to say, this is my anthem. Nothing is going to stop me. No matter what happens, it can be chaos everywhere. Once we get out of there, we're going to fix this world. And that's what I want the youth to take from that song.

7:27Angélique Kidjo:And this album in particular, Hope, for me has been a place of discovery as well, because, of course, I know your music, I've been a fan, but I didn't know many of the artists you collaborated, like the Ketman.

7:59Angélique Kidjo:I'm on fire is one of my favorite songs. I'm on fire, too hot. This kind of new high life vibes. Absolutely. Are you always on the lookout for new music and new artists as well? I have a friend of mine that used to listen to all kind of music and she was telling me, you have so much fun from those guys. They're called cavemen. And I listen to their music and I like the way the high life, they give a different life to the high life. I mean, high life is, it can be really crony, it can be very, I know this, but they bring something to it that is completely theirs. So I was doing a video with Davido because on previous album of Davido, there's a song called Namoni, Namoni.

8:46And then he invited me in the caveman. So here I am doing my makeup and they came in. They start talking to me about my music, music that I haven't heard for years. Singing the guitar part, the bass part, then this and that. I'm like, excuse me. I'm like, you know all my repertoire. They say, we grew up listening to you. You don't understand how you impacted the way we see music, the way we do music. So I said, let's work together. One occasion come, they sent me a song on the album that I did. And they sent me a song. They wrote a song called Nadi Balance. Nadi Balance is written by the caveman and myself.

9:25On two songs, I'm on fire, you have Coco Rocco, the leaders play the trumpet. And they came, they were in Los Angeles when I was there with the producer, Cheesy. And I said to them, if you're in Los Angeles, you should come to the studio. Then we can record live instead of the... And then we recorded one take. Nadi Balance, I make them listen to I'm on fire. I say, okay, what do you think about this? You go, okay, let's go for it. and it was so fun it was crazy the energy was so high nothing was prepared nothing was it's not like plan and that's the moment where music just becomes something that is bigger than us and then there were the bass player and the drummer and the guitar player and I'm like is this for real and we had fun.

10:16We have real good fun and I'm on Fire is the result of that.

10:21Angélique Kidjo:I'm loving that a lot of the things here that we're talking about are organic. Even the way you talk to Pharrell, you met him and it's like, oh, here is my number. It's not planned. Nothing is planned. I think that's what this album is about. I think that it's a proof that even when we don't know each other, we can still work together. You don't have to know somebody about 10 years before you click and say something is here. Let's look at what it is. How can we make this something that gets people to understand that sparkle happens? Love is still there. But endless possibility that we have at our fingertips.

11:07And no matter telephone, the telephone, no matter network, social, all those things, they're there. but nothing is more powerful than when you connect humanly with somebody and create something that is bigger than you.

11:22Angélique Kidjo:And Angelique, sorry, as a Brazilian, I must ask about the ISA collaboration and Naya Rogers, I mean, come on. But then, you know, we spoke a little bit before the interview started. You have quite a strong connection with Brazil. Brazil is in my blood because from my paternal, my mother's father's side, The lineage come from Salvador de Bahia. My mom's maiden name is Fernando. And I grew up in the creole of the descendant of slaves that came back. And we call them Aguda. And every year we do something that's called Bunilla, which is the equivalent of carnival. So you have mass people on there.

12:02I grew up in that. And I was always mesmerized by that. And I always say to myself, I need to go to this place where my ancestors come from because it's too much fun. The fun is different from all the fun that I see in my country. It's very liberating. It is just like, because as a child, my nickname was Wen Waihao. I asked so much questions. I was so curious. And something that gives me joy, I wanted more and more. And I'll be talking about it all the time. So I met Isa a couple of years back. And we talked. And then I met her also. I have a friend I call Zay Ricardo. and I was in Rio and then he bring me a lot of artists.

12:45I mean, movie actors and actors. I mean, the creme of the creme of Brazilian artists and Isa was one of them. And I like the way she, I mean, I love everything about what she does because she has so much power and she's different. People don't, that doesn't think of Brazil as a big, huge place. They don't understand that the Brazilian music is bigger than, it's big. I mean, every artist is different. Each one of them is unique. And that's how artistically and musically that country is massive. So I wrote this song with Naya Roger, Philippe Sess, who is a friend of mine that is a piano player, a prodigy piano player.

13:31And then I said, I need Brazil in this. This song deserves Brazil. I mean, this song is going to lie. I mean, Trio Electrico, whatever it is, man, this is just like you come to the carnival, you're like, that's what I want. And I can't do this without getting the real person, one of the real person that knows what it means to be in the Trio Electrico to sing this. So I sent it to her and she was like, you know, I just give breath to my baby. Give me something. I said, take your time. Don't worry about it. Take care of your little one. Just take your time. And then she came up with all that thing.

14:13It's just like, you know what I mean? And now Roger, when he listened to it, he said, okay, let's go. I said, okay, we're here. We're going to go for it. We're going to do it.

14:23Angélique Kidjo:You mentioned carnival. It's funny. If you put the album on a carnival party, I think it would work. Because it is energetic. It is. It is pumping, you know? That's what, I mean, that's the way also to celebrate my mom's heritage. She deserved that. She deserved that. I mean, she's my mom. My mom, you bring my mom to a party, you got to be ready. You cannot have a siesta before. Because she, when we used to, I mean, I used to go to a club with my mom. Every time I come in the 90s when I go back there, she said, let's go to a nightclub. I said, mom, what's wrong with you? We all going to go there.

14:54She's going to be the last one to leave. The DJ go, mom, Kijo, take the key. You close it, you know where to put it. And we are all on the couch like, mom, let's go. Mama said, no, come on, look at you. You are young. I'm like, oh, my father will never come. My father said, I know your mother. You don't understand. That woman have too much energy for me. So all those things that I cannot express, I just put it in the music. It's like my mom is following. My mom is having fun right now with that, wherever she is. So Carnival is all my mama.

15:27Angélique Kidjo:I'm wondering here, because I know you'll be performing, you know, in quite a few places this year. How are you going to showcase this album on stage? I mean, you're going to be tired because it requires a lot of dancing. No, I love it. I'm looking forward to it. I mean, if my mom, till she die, dance every day, oh, man, I'm dancing. That's fantastic. I can't be on stage without dancing. That's not going to happen. I love that. And a very random question because I'm curious about how artists do this. How do you listen to music? I mean, are you someone that you're at home relaxing or how do you actually listen to music?

16:07I listen everywhere. I can be in the train. I can be in the plane. It's also a way for me to count down and also to listen to what is going on in the world. You know, through music, you have a lot of information of the new trends. And it's always also good for me to go back to the one that have come before me. because it's really inspiring to listen to the one that I've come before. And one of the, for me, one of the best male voice on this planet is Caetano Veloso.

16:43Angélique Kidjo:Love him. The range he has, the knowledge, the ability that he has to tell us, to show us, to forecast, the power of a human voice is out of this world. And that is something that I learned watching him singing. I was at the Montreux Jazz Festival. And I said, can you come and sing with me? He just finished his part. He told me, where is the song? I'll be there. We didn't hear us. It was not his key. He came in. Just talking about it, just give me goosebumps. It's amazing how. And then he does it. and it seems so effortless. No challenge. And then you have also Gilles. And then you're like, damn, are you guys going to give me a break?

17:36And then I'm like, oh, it's never going to happen again. And you have Bitania, like there. And then you have Margaret Menaces. And then you have... Every time I go to Brazil, I'm like, oh man, you're going to give me headaches. Too many beautiful voices. They think the same about you and they say we have Angelique. But die in a good way because it's amazing to see. I mean, people listen to Brazilian music in Europe. They don't understand what it is, really. You got to touch it. You got to see it. And you got to be open to it because you got to be prepared. It's a lot of energy, a lot of beautiful songs.

18:15Every artist is different. It's mind-blowing. But at the same time, it's still music for me. I am without fortune, without money I have no right to love you Without fortune, without money I have no right to dream

18:54Angélique Kidjo:Thank you very much, Angelique. Hope is out globally on April the 24th. I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco, and the show was edited by Jack Jewers. Thank you for listening.

19:11Thank you.