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Angelique Kidjo

25/01/2010

World star gets into the Fruity groove @ Glasgow
Angélique Kidjo
Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
4/5


CELTIC Connections may have started, back in 1994, as a festival of Celtic culture, but with Angélique Kidjo on the bill this year the organisers are flexing some serious muscles in world music.

The Beninese singer made her first record 30 years ago, and has been a huge star across West Africa ever since. Her second album, Parakou, was released in 1989 and introduced her eclectic style to worldwide audiences.

After years in Paris she now lives in New York and opportunities to see Angélique Kidjo live in Britain are rare – Glasgow is the only UK stop on her current European and US tour.

The show begins with the long, sustained opening note of Zelie, and from this first moment she commands the audience completely. She has an enchantingly powerful voice that easily fills the venue, and shows just how she has achieved such musical longevity.

Songs from her new album OYO make up most of the set, with older tracks like the hugely popular ‘Malaika’ keeping loyal old fans happy. The new tracks are a tribute to music that has shaped her own style and her life, music that includes James Brown and Aretha Franklin, Bollywood and African musicians like Miriam Makeba. The soft French language song ‘Petite Fleur’, written by Sidney Bechet, which she sings in tribute to her father who died last year, moves the tempo down a step for a brief spell of melancholy in the overriding exuberance.

Angélique Kidjo has a stage presence to match her powerful voice with her sassiness and confidence and humour. She tells stories of the 'dust parties' that she sneaked away to from homework – where the James Brown wannabes danced on the red African clay where there was no concrete, and speaks emotionally about her work with Unicef.

Her performance is both playful and sincere. She has a sense of humour and infectious spirit that means she can dance energetically in the audience, and persuade he audience to dance on stage with her, without looking cheesy or contrived. She's been called an African diva, and she embodies every good connotation that word has.


By Victoria Prest
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Edinburgh Festival 2010