Angelique Kidjo has won Best World Music Album for the “celia” album at the 62nd 2020 GRAMMY Awards.
This marks her fourth win in the category and fourth GRAMMY win overall.
Angelique Kidjo beat out fellow nominees Altin Gün (Gece), Bokanté & Metropole Orkest Conducted By Jules Buckley (What Heat), Burna Boy (African Giant) and Nathalie Joachim With Spektral Quartet (Fanm D’Ayiti).
She also gave an audience-rousing performance of “Afrika” during the 62nd GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony.
Watch the video of her performance and the 2020 grammy awards winners list at : https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/angélique-kidjo-wins-best-world-music-album-celia-2020-grammys
Watch the video of her acceptance speech at the awards below :
About Angelique Kidjo
Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin. Her father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people. She grew up listening to Beninese traditional music, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Osibisa, and Santana. By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother’s theatre troupe giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance.
She started singing in her school band, Les Sphinx, and found success as a teenager with her adaptation of Miriam Makeba’s “Les Trois Z”, which played on national radio. She recorded the album Pretty with the Cameroonian producer Ekambi Brilliant and her brother Oscar. It featured the songs “Ninive”, “Gbe Agossi” and a tribute to the singer Bella Bellow, one of her role models. The success of the album allowed her to tour all over West Africa. Continuing political conflicts in Benin prevented her from being an independent artist in her own country and led her to relocate to Paris in 1983.
You can check out Angelique Kidjo Songs