‘We are not at a funeral, please!’ said Angelique Kidjo during her free concert at Grand Performances, It made me laugh and she was right, people had to get up! She was ‘commanding’ people to stand up and dance, whereas most of them had been sitting since the beginning of the performance. I have to say that these Grand Performances at California Plaza, downtown Los Angeles, are certainly a comfortable way to enjoy the evening with a picnic basket, but Angelique wanted more from the crowd, ‘Enough sitting, this is not how we do it in Africa!’
At 53, she is a very dynamic performer, and an extraordinary strong-woman-vibe emanates from her, in particular through the short and very inspiring speeches she gave between the songs. After a few songs, it was very clear that Angelique Kidjo’s mission was going beyond simply making people dance. During the show, she used her mic, her ‘weapon of mass loving’, to talk about providing education to young girls, ending child marriage and sexual abuse, and getting Africa out of poverty,… she talked about women a lot, about African women and their resilient beauty and elegance, never presenting them as victims, but telling the crowd with conviction that Africa could be transformed through education of young women. Contrarily to many pop stars who are afraid of the term or concept, Kidjo is a true feminist, although she never used the term during her speech, well she doesn’t really need to. Africa for women’s rights campaigner, UNICEF, LiveEarth and African Union peace ambassador, she has accomplished so much, she is a true humanist and political activist who still believes she can change the world. During her show at Grand Performances, she addressed the crowd in English (but she is fluent in at least four different languages) with her powerhouse and distinct voice, and when she said we had to get up, I don’t think anyone had any other choice.
Her last album ‘Eve’, which was released earlier this year – along with her new autobiography, ‘Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music’ – tells a lot about her feminist vision of the world, Eve being the ultimate and first mother of everyone – an African mother. But Eve is also her own mother Yvette whom she ‘invited’ on stage during the song ‘Bana’ through the magic of technology. She sung in different African languages (even one she made up?), English and French, ‘Senamou (c’est l’amour)’, but it didn’t really matter if you could or couldn’t understand all the lyrics, Angelique spoke a direct and universal language, carried by West African guitars, Afrobeats and a world fusion of rhythms, with a voice capable to break the most solid walls and which sometimes reminds the other African queen, Myriam Makeba. And this comes even truer when she sang the Swahili song ‘Malaika’.
Going from songs performed with a simple acoustic guitar to numbers with her full four-piece band and her spinning-like-a-top dance, Angelique performed vibrant songs from all African horizons, going beyond her native Benin. She has released about 11 studio albums and collaborated with a plethora of rock-pop stars, so she could have continued forever this small African feast. During a song, fearless Angelique made her way through the crowd, crossing the small pond separating the audience from the stage and greeting people,… some of them even followed her back on stage during the song ‘Tumba’. Last time I saw a performer doing this, I was at a Iggy Pop concert and things occurred a bit faster and more violently, but the sentiment was basically the same. Following the infectious rhythms of the song produced by percussionist Magatte Sow holding a little drum under his arm, everyone did a little solo dance under Angelique’s critical but benevolent sight. The kids were cute, the adults not shy at all, and this dance party could have lasted forever. Angelique and her band came back for an encore and more dancing in front of the water choreography of the California Plaza. Perfect evening for the summer solstice? I guess everyone who was there would agree.
