Choose artist...
Home   >   Projects   >   Celia
Angelique Kidjo

Celia

Verve

Press Release

Read press

Artist Details

Read bio

Tour Dates

View

Website

Visit
La Vida Es Un Carnaval
How Did You Meet Celia Cruz?
How Did Celia's Music Inspire You?
Cucala - Angelique Kidjo
KUVO - Denver, What's New? My VS Radio 5 10 2019
Best World Music Album | 2020 GRAMMYS
1 Cucala
2 La Vida Es Un Carnaval
3 Sahara
4 Baila Yemaja
5 Toro Mata
6 Elegua
7 Quimbara
8 Bemba Colora
9 Oya Diosa
10 Yemaja
Show all tracks
Hide

On April 19, Angélique Kidjo will release Celia (Verve/Universal Music France), an album that honors Celia Cruz, widely known as "the Queen of Salsa" and the most popular Latin artist of the 20thcentury.  On Celia, Angélique explores the African roots of the Cuban-born Cruz and reimagines selections from Cruz's extraordinary career in surprising new ways, infused with an explosion of sounds and rhythms from Cuba, Africa, the Middle East, America and beyond.  The album includes performances by Tony Allen (Fela Kuti) on drums, Meshell Ndegeocello on bass, and British saxophonist Shabaka Hutchins plus his band Sons of Kemet.   

Says Kidjo: "As a child I saw Celia Cruz sing in Benin and her energy and joy changed my life. It was the first I was seeing a powerful woman performer on a stage. Her voice was percussive and her songs resonated in a mysterious way with me. Many years later, I learned she was singing the Yoruba songs that were carried out of Benin 400 years before. I felt she was a long lost sister from the other side of the world. Like me, she experienced exile from a dictatorship and she was always proud of her roots, of her African roots. In the same way I wanted to bring back Rock and Roll to Africa with my Talking Heads' Remain In Lightproject, I now want to pay homage to this incredible voice and those songs that reunite with their juju and Afrobeat roots." 

Celia was recorded in New York and Paris, produced and arranged by David Donatien and mixed by Russell Elevado (D'Angelo, Kamasi Washington).  Angéliqueis joined by a host of musicians including Tony Allen and Meshell Ndegeocello, who appear on a number of songs, plus her longtime guitarist Dominic James, the GangbéBrass Band from Benin, British saxophonist Shabaka Hutchins as well as his Sons Of Kemet trio, and more.   

Over the course of 10 beloved songs from Cruz's extensive catalog but with special focus on her work from the 1950s,Angélique's voice soars in lockstep with a grand presentation of rhythmic touchstones that delve deep into the history of music from Africa and it's influence on the music of Cuba.  Each song celebrates this idea – from the tight afro-beat groove of "Baila Yemaja," the high octane take on "Quimbara," the frantic energy of "Bemba Colora" to "Oya Diosa," a lushly orchestrated ballad.  

Celia Cruz was born in Havana in 1925 and left Cuba for the U.S. when Fidel Castro took power in 1959.  She joined Tito Puente's orchestra in 1966, and her recordings for the Fania label helped to construct the legacy of salsa music.  Cruz released over 60 albums, 23 of which went gold.  Her image was featured on a commemorative U.S. postage stamp, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and won 6 Grammy Awards in addition to the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award.  

  • Angelique Kidjo w/New Haven Symphony is 'Arts & Ideas Festival' main event / NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
    Posted At: June 19, 2023 12:00 AM
    Arts & Ideas Rises With Angelique Kidjo NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT - ELEANOR POLAK writes….A crowd of people swarmed New Haven Green like ants on a picnic blanket Saturday to witness the opening of the 28th annual Arts & Ideas Festival. ?“Are you ready to rise with me?” asked Rev. Kevin Ewing, A&I’s board chairman. ?“In case you didn’t know it, that’s the theme of this year’s festival.”Before lo...
    Bookmark and Share

  • An encounter beyond space and time with Angelique Kidjo / theafricareport
    Posted At: May 26, 2023 12:00 AM
    theafricareport's Patrick Smith writes……Fresh from winning the prestigious Polar Music Prize, the Benin-born singer tells The Africa Report what motivates her to cross cultural divides in her art and advocacy. An encounter with Angélique Kidjo transcends space and time. We start off in Paris in April 2023, looking at each other on computer screens across the city. Soon we are in New York with some of its mu...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Grammy Winner Angelique Kidjo releases 'Choose Love' remix / NYSMusic
    Posted At: May 2, 2022 12:00 AM
    NYSMusic - Paolo Confino writes…..Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo released a remix and music video of her song “Choose Love”. The “Choose Love” remix comes on the back of her Grammy Award win for Best Global Music Album for her album Mother Nature in April.Mother Nature was released in June of 2021. The album, met with career-best raves, tackles major issues like the climate crisis and the struggle for freedo...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo Q&A's with The New Yorker
    Posted At: February 16, 2022 12:00 AM
    The New Yorker's Julian Lucas writes….By the time she was twenty-one, Angélique Kidjo was singing in more languages than most people will ever understand. The Beninese diva received her first standing ovation at six, for an impromptu rendition of a traditional Fon melody at her mother’s theatre. Before long, she’d moved on to French yé-yé, Cameroonian makossa, and covering Miriam Makeba with her high-school...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo performs song for imprisoned human rights activist; Nasrin Sotoudeh / NYSMusic
    Posted At: January 24, 2021 12:00 AM

    NYSMusic's Andie Chapman writes...... Four-time Grammy winner Angelique Kidjo has often advocated for human rights as she has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2002. Her music is imbued with compassion, and throughout the years she has contributed songs for important causes, such as her contribution song "Leila" for the Enough Project which raised awareness for women's rights in Raise Hope for Cong...
    Bookmark and Share

  • World Music becomes Global Music at the GRAMMYS, but has anything really changed? / The Boar
    Posted At: December 5, 2020 12:00 AM

    On 3 November 2020, news broke that the Grammys had chosen to rename the category of Best World Music Album to Best Global Music Album. In a statement released on the Grammys website on 9 November, the Recording Academy acknowledged the significance of the change in terminology. World Music is a contentious, colonial-rooted term in contrast to Global Music, which they describe as "more relevant, modern, ...
    Bookmark and Share

  • globalFEST partners with NPR music's 'tiny desk concerts' for 2021 edition / World Music Central
    Posted At: November 23, 2020 12:00 AM

    Influential world music showcase festival globalFEST will be held January 11 – 14, 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulty of international travel affected globalFEST's 2021 plans so the organizers came up with a partnership with National Public Radio Music's Tiny Desk concerts. The festival will present exclusive video performances by 16 artists through NPR Music's digital platforms, in...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo celebrates her 60th birthday and Benin independence at Carnegie Hall / WorldMusicCentral.org
    Posted At: February 29, 2020 12:00 AM

    Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo will complete her Carnegie Hall - Perspectives series on On Saturday, March 14, 2020 with Daughter of Independence, a concert commemorating both her 60th birthday and the anniversary of independence of her native Benin in addition to sixteen other West African nations. For this significant event, Kidjo is joined by Grammy Award-winning vocalist Brittany Howard (...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo on 'world music' / okayafrica. q&a
    Posted At: February 21, 2020 12:00 AM

    Last month, Angelique Kidjo won her fourth Grammy in the 'Best World Music' category. But it wasn't quite like every other year she had been nominated for the award. This time she shared the nomination with fellow African act Burna Boy, the first artist of the continent's current afropop scene to earn a nomination. While there's no question that Kidjo, who won for her 2019 album Celia...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Naomi Campbell calls for new GRAMMY afrobeats category / Keep the Faith
    Posted At: February 2, 2020 12:00 AM

    Supermodel Naomi Campbell has criticised the organisers of the Grammy Awards after Nigerian afrobeats star Burna Boy failed to win at the weekend. Burna Boy was nominated for Best World Music Album for his 2019 record African Giant but lost out to Beninese singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo. In a long post published on Instagram, Campbell congratulated Kidjo for her win and for "spreading light and...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo wins 2020 GRAMMY Award 'Best World Music Album' for 'Celia'
    Posted At: January 27, 2020 12:00 AM

    Angélique Kidjo's Celia (Verve/Universal Music France), is an album that honors Celia Cruz, widely known as "the Queen of Salsa" and the most popular Latin artist of the 20thcentury.  On Celia, Angélique explores the African roots of the Cuban-born Cruz and reimagines selections from Cruz's extraordinary career in surprising new ways, infused with an explosion of...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo makes mbu: top 10 african artists of the decade
    Posted At: January 3, 2020 12:00 AM

    On the list made by Ghanaian website - Global Ranking is Angelique Kidjo. Kidjo latest release: Celia (Verve/Universal Music France), is an album that honors Celia Cruz, widely known as "the Queen of Salsa" and the most popular Latin artist of the 20th century.  On Celia, Angélique explores the African roots of the Cuban-born Cruz and reimagines selections from Cruz's extra...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo hopes to close financing gap for African women / Keep the Faith
    Posted At: December 30, 2019 12:00 AM

    The insect-eaten money fluttered in pieces to the floor. For global music star Angelique Kidjo, that image of her grandmother having to use a closet as a bank is driving her desire to see African women leap the many obstacles to obtaining credit - and respect. The Benin-born singer, one of Africa's iconic artists and a collaborator with Philip Glass and others, is the voice of a new project aimed in part...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo - Celia makes npr's 'Alt.Latino: Year In Music'
    Posted At: December 15, 2019 12:00 AM

    On April 19 2019, Angélique Kidjo released Celia (Verve/Universal Music France), an album that honors Celia Cruz, widely known as "the Queen of Salsa" and the most popular Latin artist of the 20thcentury.  On Celia, Angélique explores the African roots of the Cuban-born Cruz and reimagines selections from Cruz's extraordinary career in surprising new ways, infused wi...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo's 'Quimbara' makes npr's 'best cover songs of 2019'
    Posted At: December 11, 2019 12:00 AM

    The art of covering a song might have reached its pop-culture saturation point this year, thanks to an abundance of special programming (Triple J's Like A Version, BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, Spotify Sessions, Amazon Prime exclusives), tribute albums and touring surprises. But what makes for a good cover? Sometimes it's an arrangement that's radical; at other points, it's the unexpecte...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo - Celia makes Transglobal 'Best of 2019'
    Posted At: December 10, 2019 12:00 AM

    Angélique Kidjo - Celia (Verve/Universal Music France), is an album that honors Celia Cruz, widely known as "the Queen of Salsa" and the most popular Latin artist of the 20thcentury.  On Celia, Angélique explores the African roots of the Cuban-born Cruz and reimagines selections from Cruz's extraordinary career in surprising new ways, infused with an explosion of sou...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo - Celia selected for 2020 GRAMMY nomination
    Posted At: November 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    Angelique Kidjo - Celia selected for 2019 GRAMMY nomination for Best World Music Album On April 19, Angélique Kidjo will release Celia (Verve/Universal Music France), an album that honors Celia Cruz, widely known as "the Queen of Salsa" and the most popular Latin artist of the 20thcentury.  On Celia, Angélique explores the African roots of the Cuban-born Cruz an...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo - Celia goes #1 on 'Transglobal World Music Chart' for August
    Posted At: August 1, 2019 12:00 AM

    Angélique Kidjo new Verve/Universal Music France release is an album that honors Celia Cruz, widely known as "the Queen of Salsa" and the most popular Latin artist of the 20th century.  On Celia, Kidjo explores the African roots of the Cuban-born Cruz and reimagines selections from the singers extraordinary career in surprising new ways, infused with an explosion of sounds and ...
    Bookmark and Share

  • This week's KCRW: Rhythm Planet features; Angelique Kidjo - Celia
    Posted At: June 12, 2019 12:00 AM

    This week we check out a mix of new releases as well as evergreens that I've enjoyed over the years. We hear new music from Benin-born Angelique Kidjo with her tribute to Cuban superstar Celia Cruz. The West African nation of Benin, formerly Dahomey, produced many artists who were influenced by Cuban music, such as Gnonnas Pedro and Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. Kijdo channels Cruz in this long-awaited tribute...
    Bookmark and Share

  • The world according to Angelique Kidjo / The Root
    Posted At: June 9, 2019 12:00 AM

    She speaks and sings in five languages-no, six, if you count her recent foray into the native Spanish of the late Celia Cruz for her 17th album, released in April and simply titled Celia. Kidjo's Wikipedia page alone is a dizzying array of accolades and mentions of artists as diverse as Alicia Keys and David Byrne, whose 1980 Remain in Light album (with Talking Heads) Kidjo reimagined last year, bringing...
    Bookmark and Share

  • 41st Playboy Jazz Festival kicks off with Angelique Kidjo, Terence Blanchard's E-Collective and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones / glideMAGAZINE
    Posted At: June 4, 2019 12:00 AM

    There's truly no better place to be on a sunny weekend in June than at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, joining in the festive celebration of the annual Playboy Jazz Festival. Marking its 41st year in 2019, this festival has lit up the Bowl for two full days and nights of the best jazz, blues and R&B on the planet since 1978, when Hugh Hefner was at the height of his game. Comedian Ge...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo - Celia makes Transglobal Top 25 for June
    Posted At: June 3, 2019 12:00 AM

    On April 19, Angélique Kidjo released Celia via Verve/Universal Music France, an album that honors Celia Cruz, widely known as "the Queen of Salsa" and the most popular Latin artist of the 20thcentury.  On Celia, Angélique explores the African roots of the Cuban-born Cruz and reimagines selections from Cruz's extraordinary career in surprising new ways, infused with an explosion of...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo Q&A's with billboard on recording the songs of Celia Cruz
    Posted At: May 22, 2019 12:00 AM

    "As an African girl, when I first heard Celia Cruz sing 'Quimbara,' it just struck a chord," Angélique Kidjo tells Billboard of the salsa classic that Cruz recorded with Johnny Pacheco for the 1974 album Celia & Johnny. "Everybody knows that salsa is a very male-dominated business," Kidjo adds. "And in that business with a very male mentality, a female artist is hard to find. So here c...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo shares her views on CNN: African Voices / THISDAY Newspapers
    Posted At: May 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    Sensational singer, song writer and producer, Angelique Kidjo, will this week join two other firebrand female musicians on African Voices, a magazine programme of the Cable News Network (CNN) sponsored by telecommunications company, Globacom. Originally Angelique Kpasseloko  Hinto Housinnou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, the 58-year-old native of Benin Republic will be on the show with Sandra Suubi, an ...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo - Celia is a magnificent African reinvention of salsa / The Guardian
    Posted At: April 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    Angélique Kidjo is on a roll. For years, she has been an entertaining, reliable fixture on the world-music scene, a powerful singer famed for mixing African material, including songs by her heroine Miriam Makeba, with old favourites by anyone from Bob Marley to Sam Cooke. But it's her most recent albums that have demonstrated the scope of her ambition. First came her original reinterpretation of T...
    Bookmark and Share

  • In a new album dedicated to Celia Cruz, Angelique Kidjo reignites Cuban classics with their Afrobeat roots / Financial Times
    Posted At: April 12, 2019 12:00 AM

    Exiled from Cuba by Fidel Castro's revolution, the singer Celia Cruz settled in New York, living for a while in Hell's Kitchen. Thirty years later, forced out of Benin by the Marxist-Leninist regime, Angélique Kidjo found herself in New York living on the same block. She was already a fan of the Cuban singer, having seen her on a 1974 tour of Africa in the wake of the Rumble in the Jungle. This fa...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo: Celia on npr - First Listen
    Posted At: April 11, 2019 12:00 AM

    Angélique Kidjo now has a pair of albums that are essentially covers of other artists, but interpreted with an African sensibility so majestic as to render the originals almost as source material. Celia refers to Celia Cruz, perhaps the most well-known vocalist to come from Cuba during any era. The ten tracks span several decades of Cruz's career, from before she left Cuba in 1960 to her g...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Angelique Kidjo set to perform 'Remain in the Light' at UPAC / Chronogram
    Posted At: April 2, 2019 12:00 AM

    Nearly 40 years after its release, Remain in Light's groundbreaking fusion of African polyrhythms, funk, electronics, and New York new wave has seen the set dubbed one of the most influential albums of all time. In 2017, the Library of Congress selected it for inclusion in the National Recording Registry for its being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant," and it played a crucial pa...
    Bookmark and Share
Go to artist details