Five-time Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo joins Emma Searle to discuss her unstoppable career and genre-defying repertoire. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The thing that we have to realize is that Africa is a continent and it's a continent in which we have millions of languages.
Even for us, Africa is immense.
It's the biggest continent on the planet and we have to be collaborative in the way we can help to find how to define a continent's music without leaving anyone behind.
That is colossal work.
So I don't like the term world music.
That's why I campaign so much that it disappeared to global music.
Because we are global citizens, Africans, we need to embrace that.
Angeli Kidjo is an unstoppable creative force.
One of the greatest artists of our time.
She earned the title of Africa's premier diva by Time magazine with not one, not two, but 16 albums to her name.
The five time Grammy Award winner is world renowned for her striking vocals and infectious energy on stage.
Her genre defying repertoire cross pollinates West African musical traditions of her childhood in Benin with international influences from America, Europe and Latin America.
And she's not just a musician.
Angelique is also a fearless human rights activist who believes that education has the power to transform the lives of women and girls all over Africa.
I'm Emma Searle and I spoke to Angelique Kidjo on the big interview.
Angelique, welcome to the program.
I wanted to start by asking you about the Polar Music Prize which you very recently won alongside Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records and the Estonian composer Arvo Part, which is, and this is like one of the most prestigious honors in the industry.
So I just wanted to begin by asking what did winning the Polar Prize mean to you?
Well, it means more responsibility, I guess.
I mean, I thought I was going to be 70 or 80 years old before I get considered for that prize and here I am getting it.