Angelique Kidjo

An icon of world music for more than three decades, the West African songwriter Angélique Kidjo was born in Oudah, Dahomey (now known as Benin) on July 14, 1960. She grew up listening to traditional Beninese music, as well as modern day artists such as James Brown, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, and Santana. Those diverse sounds would soon influence her own mix of Afropop, jazz, Afrobeat, and worldbeat. Political unrest in her native country forced her to relocate to Paris, where she enrolled at Le Centre d'Informations Musicales, one of the city's most reputable jazz conservatories. The education paid off, and Kidjo first came to prominence as the lead singer of the jazz rock band Pili Pili before being discovered by Island's Chris Blackwell, who signed her in 1991. Released that same year, Logozo rose to Number 1 on the Billboard World Albums chart. Angélique Kidjo repeated that feat with 2007's Grammy-winning Djin Djin and 2014's Eve. One of Africa's most globally-beloved artists, she remained prolific during the 2010s and early 2020s, earning her fourteenth consecutive Top 10 hit on Billboard's World Albums chart with 2019's Celia before kickstarting a new decade with 2021's Mother Nature.