Singer Angélique Kidjo has become the first black African performer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – telling RFI the honour represented “a door opening” at a time of global turmoil.
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The five-time Grammy winner unveiled her star on Tuesday at a ceremony in Hollywood attended by film stars and music industry figures.
“I never imagined I’d be here – never,” the 66-year-old Beninese-born singer told RFI’s Clothilde Hazard after the ceremony.
“In this moment of chaos we’re living through, moments like this give me hope, a reminder that when we work together and set aside the rhetoric of hatred and division, we create beauty everywhere.”
Kidjo has built an international career spanning more than 40 years and 18 albums. She has also been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.
She said she felt “a huge amount of emotion, and disbelief” on receiving the star.
“If anyone had told me one day I’d have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, I’d never have believed them,” she said. “That’s the power of music. Music takes you to unexpected places, makes things happen.”
Angélique Kidjo and the women of Africa
Africa’s gift to the world
The singer used the occasion to underline the influence of African music around the world.
“We Africans don’t know what we’ve given to the world,” she told the crowd at the ceremony. “Without us, there’s no music possible on this planet.”
After thanking her team and family, Kidjo broke into song.
Harvey Mason Jr of the Recording Academy described her as a “rare artist” and said her work had helped build connections across the global music community.
“This star is a permanent symbol; it’s not going anywhere, and it’s a symbol of your achievements,” he said. “But your legacy, it lives in the people that you’ve touched, that you’ve inspired, the barriers that you’ve broken, the connections you’ve created all around the world.”
Actor Willem Dafoe also praised Kidjo’s energy on stage and her humanitarian work through the Batonga Foundation, which supports the education of girls and young women in Africa.
Teenage performers from Benin use girl power to take on the world
A tribute to France
Kidjo joins white South African actor Charlize Theron in representing the continent on the Walk of Fame, among more than 2,700 other stars.
She said the honour belonged not only to Africa and Benin, but also to France, where she restarted her career after arriving in 1983, citing oppression from the country’s then communist government.
“This star isn’t just for Africa and my country – it’s for France too, because I’ve spent so much time there, and I married a Frenchman,” she told RFI.
“French culture has also shaped my inspirations in various ways – through songwriters like [Claude] Nougaro and [Charles] Aznavour. There were so many artists I listened to as a child who’ve stayed with me in the work I do. So really, this star is for everyone.”
New opportunities
Kidjo said young African musicians now had opportunities that were not available when she began her career.
“With the internet, young people today can find success instantly,” she said. “And that’s a good thing, because they get to be exactly who they want to be, without carrying the weight I had to carry.”
African pop and the Afrobeats movement has gained global recognition thanks to a younger generation of artists including Nigeria’s Burna Boy, Ayra Starr or Wizkid – with whom Kidjo has recorded duets.
Asked whether she’d helped in changing perceptions she said: “Probably – through the work I did before them, and because they grew up listening to my music.
“I think it gave them a work ethic too.”
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