Angélique Kidjo

Angélique Kidjo is a force of nature and well-deserving of her official title, Queen of World Music.

She was born with a gift and was always told to share it.

Taking command of the stage with her confident dance and powerful vocals on “Crosseyed and Painless” (by Talking Heads), her energy and enthusiasm never wanes for the entire concert.

She is like a prize-fighter body-popping to the music, delivering the lyrics of each song as a personal message to each audience member.

When she sang the words, “You are Africa. We are Africa” from the album Mother Nature, Kidjo held out her arms to the audience including them in her extended family and she meant every word.

The album’s themes of peace, gender equality, and diversity are all set to infectious beats of salsa, reggae and afrobeat.

Ms Kidjo even managed to train the crowd into singing along with her message.

“I don’t care if you’re rich or poor. I don’t care ‘bout your DNA, all I know is you’re meant for me” (Meant for Me from Mother Nature).

Kidjo recalled an amusing tale of dragging her high school mates along to a Celia Cruz concert to prove that women could rule at Salsa.

She sang the Afro-Cuban-pulsed, “Bemba Colora” and “Sahara” from her Cruz tribute album, Celia, recorded in 2019.

Another Talking Heads’ song, “Once in a Lifetime”, was powerfully percussive to a pumped-up merengue beat which persuased the Perth Concert Hall crowd to sashay in the aisles and the choir stalls, as all other seats were sold out.

Touring Australia with Noongar support band Maatakitj (Clint Bracknell, Kylie Bracknell - last seen in the festival event, The Pool; Della Rae Morrison – featured in Wundig wer Wilera; and Arunachala on percussion – their “brother from another mother” as the band described him), this was a perfect combination of local language songs plus Ms Kidjo’s multi-lingual compositions from her hometown Benin, West Africa to her adopted homes, France, and New York.

The multi-Grammy award winner invited them on stage to join in songs from her first breakthrough album, Logoza (1991) and included children from the local choir, WA Young Voices, to sing “Afirika” (Black Ivory Soul, 2002).

Solid with her band members, Thierry Vaton (keyboards), David Donatien (percussion), Rody Cereyon (bass) and Gregory Louis (drums), Ms Kidjo called the shots and kept the rhythmic hits coming.

Despite her concerns, there is no way the crowd had forgotten her encore songs such as “Adouma” or “Batonga”, even though Kidjo hasn’t toured Perth for over 30 years.

Angélique Kidjo’s philosophy is simple – reject hate because “hate digs a hole inside you, so you can never be happy.”

The world could be united by music if Kidjo wasn’t only Queen of World Music, but simply, Queen of the World.

Angélique Kidjo performs with Maatakitj and others at Under the Same Sun, closing night concert at the Supreme Court Gardens, Perth Festival – Sold Out.

The tour continues at QPAC (March 4), Hamer Hall (March 5), Sydney Opera House (March 6), Auckland Town Hall (March 9) and Adelaide Festival (March 12).

Jane Keehn

Photographer: Cam Campbell