Angelique Kidjo on her Hong Kong concert tribute to three singers she looks up to
Singer talks about the debt she owes Miriam Makeba, whose mantle of Queen of African music she’s inherited, flamboyant salsa star Celia Cruz, and Nina Simone
It is now just over two years since Angelique Kidjo’s Hong Kong concert debut. At the end of that show, which had the entire audience on its feet, the “Queen of African music” expressed an intention to return.
As good as her word, on November 3 she will be back at the Cultural Centre Concert Hall in Tsim Sha Tsui, and almost certainly getting the same response. When Kidjo performs, audiences getting up to dance is not so much an option as a requirement.
Her previous appearance in Hong Kong followed the release of two albums back to back – Sings, which she made with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and Eve, both of which won Grammy Awards.
There have been no new releases since, but Kidjo’s life continues to be a whirlwind of activity. She has, for instance, developed two new stage shows – one a salsa extravaganza built around the repertoire of the late “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz, and another based on the groundbreaking 1980 album by Talking Heads, Remain In Light.
She also put together a concert for the 2016 Montreux Jazz Festival featuring a line-up of “African Women All-Stars” including Asa, Lura, Dobet Gnaore, and the Trio Teriba from her native Benin.
Kidjo also remains highly active as an advocate for African women’s and children’s rights, as a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, and as the head of her Batonga Foundation that funds the education of African girls.