New York Post - 13.03.2020

New York Post, Friday, March 13, 2020

nypost.com

By chuck arnold

L

IKE many artists,

Grammy-winning

Beninese singer Angél-

ique Kidjo — whom

Time magazine once called

“Africa’s premier diva” —

has felt the staggering ef-

fect of the coronavirus cri-

sis, which forced the can-

cellation of her Daughter of

Independence concert at

Carnegie Hall on Saturday.

“It’s a good thing and a

real sad thing at the same

time,” Kidjo tells The Post

after finding out Thursday

afternoon that her show

was canceled. “People have

to be safe. Right now, I

mean, our lives are in dan-

ger with this virus. The

concert, we can reschedule

— it can happen anytime.”

Kidjo and her band were

in rehearsals in Brooklyn

when they got the news that

Carnegie Hall was cancel-

ing all performances from

Friday through March 31.

“I’m disappointed, because

I was ready and we worked

so hard to prepare this

show,” she says. “But there’s

always a blessing when

something like that hap-

pens. That’s my take on it.”

Hours before the event

was called off, the coronavi-

rus fallout was on Kidjo’s

mind as she spoke to The

Post on the phone from her

Park Slope home. “It’s crazy,”

she says. “I have a friend that

arrived yesterday from

France and is back at the air-

port trying to go back.”

In fact, two of the special

guests who were scheduled

to perform with Kidjo had

already canceled their ap-

pearances before Carnegie

Hall pulled the plug: Baaba

Maal, who was in New York,

was heading back to Senegal,

while Cameroonian great

Manu Dibango, 86, didn’t

even make the trip because,

says Kidjo, “he’s too old to be

traveling like that.” Brittany

Howard and Nigeria’s Yemi

Alade were already in New

York and planned to appear.

The concert was set to cel-

ebrate Kidjo’s 60th birthday

(actually July 14) as well as

the 60th anniversary of Be-

nin gaining independence

from France, just about two

weeks after the singer was

born. That’s why she calls

herself a “daughter of inde-

pendence.” “When I was a

little child, I felt that sense of

freedom,” she says. “I felt

Angélique Kidjo represents

the land of her birth and

her New York City home

that I was free to go from

one house to the other with

no fear at all, that nothing

ever could happen to me.

And that’s what I want to

celebrate.”

Kidjo had another reason

to celebrate in January, when

she won her fourth Grammy,

taking home the gramo-

phone for Best World Music

Album for “Celia,” her trib-

ute to Cuban legend Celia

Cruz. She also performed

through sadness during the

Grammy pre-telecast show

at Microsoft Theater in Los

Angeles. “I walked in, and

then the news broke that

Kobe Bryant just died. It just

killed my energy right

there,” she says. “So we cele-

brated [his life], and I was

singing thinking of him.”

Although born and raised

in Benin, in West Africa,

Kidjo has called Brooklyn

home for 20 years. “When I

arrived [in New York] in

1997, I was living in Hell’s

Kitchen, 55th between

Eighth and Ninth. My

daughter [Naïma] was 4 at

that time, and she couldn’t

handle the noise. Manhat-

tan was too noisy for her.”

But she’s still giving back

to the women of Africa,

empowering them with her

Batonga Foundation. “My

mom is an example for me,”

Kidjo says. “[She] was a

strong advocate of girls’ ed-

ucation, that we have the

right to go to school.”

Kidjo still proudly repre-

sents Mother Africa on the

global stage. “African music

is everywhere,” she says. “We

can fool ourselves... that ev-

ery music comes from the

Western world. Hell no! We

all come from Africa. Africa

is the creator of humanity.”

Angélique Kidjo was born the

same year that Benin, her

native land, gained

independence.

Al Pereira/Getty Images

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