Singer

‘I want to show the world the richness and beauty of African culture ... and I feel music is the best vehicle to carry that message.’ That mission has sustained the career of five-time Grammy Award-winner Angélique Kidjo for over four decades. Following her Proms debut back in 2019, the Benin-born ‘queen of African music’ returns for a showcase as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, paying tribute to her African heritage and taking in iconic tracks from legends such as Miriam Makeba, Fela Kuti, Hugh Masekela and Youssou N’Dour. ‘I wanted to tell a story based on my personal experience and my musical background,’ says Kidjo. ‘I also wanted to speak of the struggles that artists encounter in the pursuit of their music.’

Angélique Kidjo: African Symphony

Bradford Theatres

Two endlessly curious musicians come together to search beyond the edges of their musical backgrounds, exposing the ways we have all been connected for a very long time; it’s a collaboration that asks us to joyfully question the tenets of genre and tradition that underpin our cultural thinking.

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Angélique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma Sarabande Africaine

University of California, Berkeley

Angélique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma first met under the Arc de Triomphe, gathered with dozens of world leaders to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. Ma played a Bach sarabande; Kidjo sang “Blewu,” an Ewe dirge, in memory of the many and often-forgotten African soldiers killed in the war. It was a fitting beginning to a conversation between Kidjo and Ma about the ways in which African culture is so frequently erased—in historical memory as in music—despite its enduring, essential presence in what we think of as the Western tradition. 

Sarabande Africaine

Hollywood Bowl

From the legends of Benin, celebrated by singer Angélique Kidjo, to the rustic landscapes unfolding in the “Pastoral” Symphony, join us for a delightful moment of escape!

The “Pastoral” Symphony and the Mythology of Glass

Place des Arts

Glass’ music fuels the imagination of Angélique Kidjo, who brings Beninese legends to life with her vocal depth and power.

Angélique Kidjo Sings Glass

### Event Description

**The Hallé Presents Philip Glass: Angélique Kidjo Ifé Songs**

**Date and Time:** Thursday, 13 February 2025, 7:30 PM  
**Venue:** The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Join The Hallé for an extraordinary evening celebrating the works of the iconic composer Philip Glass. This special event features the UK premiere of "Ifé Songs," performed by the renowned singer-songwriter and Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo. Known for her powerful voice and dynamic stage presence, Kidjo will be accompanied by conductor Robert Ames, a distinguished interpreter of Glass’s compositions.

**Programme:**
- **Glass Days and Nights in Rocinha:** A thrilling tribute to the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood, characterized by its gradual build-up of complex percussive rhythms leading to a magnificent climax.
- **Glass Ifé Songs (UK Premiere):** A unique collaboration between Philip Glass and Angélique Kidjo, described by the composer as "a bridge that no one has walked on before."
- **Glass Symphony No. 11:** A fascinating piece that alternates between reflective moments and vibrant rhythmic textures.

**Ticket Information:**
- Price Range: £23 to £43 (including fees)
- Concessions and discounts available

Don't miss this opportunity to experience the mesmerizing music of Philip Glass, brought to life by the exceptional talents of Angélique Kidjo and Robert Ames. Secure your tickets now for an unforgettable night at The Bridgewater Hall.

The Hallé Presents Philip Glass: Angélique Kidjo Ifé Songs

The Bridgewater Hall

Angélique Kidjo – singer-songwriter, Grammy Award winner, activist – has a star-studded career spanning five decades. Tonight, she steps onto The Bridgewater Hall stage alongside Robert Ames, a skilled interpretor of Glass’s work and ‘a super connector in modern music ’(The Guardian), to perform the UK premiere of Ifé Songs – written especially for her. The composer said of the work: ‘Angélique, together we have built a bridge that no one has walked on before.’

The Hallé - Angélique Kidjo Sings Ifé Songs

Five-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo hails from the West African nation of Benin. Her striking voice, stage presence and fluency in multiple cultures and languages have won respect from her peers and expanded her following across national borders.  Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.

Angélique Kidjo

Jay Paul Company Main Stage

Following her 2023 Saratoga Jazz Festival debut, five-time GRAMMY Award-winner and African music icon Angélique Kidjo joins The Philadelphia Orchestra in an all-new program featuring a mix of African songs and original works. 

Angélique Kidjo with The Philadelphia Orchestra

Saratoga Spa State Park

Five-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo entrances audiences with her striking voice, stage presence, and visionary fusion of West African culture, American R&B, Latin music, funk, dancehall, and jazz. A once-in-a-lifetime performance!

California Center for the Arts

In June 2023, Yo-Yo Ma played the final notes of Bach’s Cello Suites in Nairobi. They marked the end of a five-year, six-continent journey, a search for answers to the questions that have in many ways defined his career: What is culture’s role in society? How can culture help us imagine and build a better future?

Now, in a special program combining music and conversation, Yo-Yo will be joined by two friends he met along the way, Angélique Kidjo and Jeremy Dutcher, visionary artists whose generosity and perspective have guided him toward hope. Performing together for the first time, Ma, Kidjo, and Dutcher call on us to contemplate the great questions of life and art: What has brought us here? And where will we choose to go next?

An Evening with Yo-Yo Ma

Gaillard Center

Over the past four decades, Angélique Kidjo has cemented her status as one of the most adventurous and omnivorous artists on the international pop music scene. The five-time Grammy winner is known for making connections across genres, generations, and geopolitical boundaries, enlisting her clarion voice and dynamic, eclectic musical vision to address complex subject matter through radiantly joyful music. Kidjo’s recent projects range from her theatrical work Yemandja to a reboot of the Talking Heads’ classic 1980 album Remain in Light (both part of the Cal Performances 2021–22 season); a tribute to salsa queen Celia Cruz; and most recently, Mother Nature, a cri de coeur against climate change and political corruption featuring African millennial superstars. Throughout all this, “Kidjo’s voice is constant, an instrument of such power and clarity that it sounds equally capable of polishing glass or announcing Judgment Day” (The New Yorker).

Musicians from around the country and around the world have found refuge in New York, a city with a rich musical history, diverse cultural influences, and endless opportunities for collaboration and growth. Our first Refuge concert features a World Premiere commission by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Raven Chacon and brings together extraordinary artists from Shanghai, West Africa, Tunisia, Brazil, Jamaica, France, Arizona and Minneapolis, who have all found their artistic home in New York.

Nyc Tapestry: Home As Refuge

Perelman Performing Arts Center

Four-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo is one of the greatest artists in international music today, a creative force with fourteen albums to her name. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva”, and named her one of the most influential people in the world for 2021; The BBC, Forbes Magazine, and The Guardian have all highlighted her importance to the people of the African continent. She is the recipient of the 2015 Crystal Award given by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the 2016 Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award, and the 2018 German Sustainability Award.

Angelique Kidjo with Jupiter & Okwess

Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove

Five-time Grammy Award winner, Angelique KIdjo was named one of 2021’s 100 Most Influential People by TIME magazine for her striking voice, stage presence and fluency in multiple cultures and languages. “Africa’s premier diva” ranked first on the Forbe’s list Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa, and she has crosspollinated the West African traditions of her childhood in Benin with elements of American R&B, funk and jazz, as well as European and Latin American influences.

Angélique Kidjo/Richard Bona

Mimi Ohio Theatre

Join us for an unforgettable performance celebrating more than a century-long commitment to the transformative power of the arts. Led by Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra, who will be joined by two artists beloved around the world.

The Philadelphia Orchestra Featuring Renée Fleming and Angélique Kidjo

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Kimmel Cultural Campus join together in a new gala celebration to benefit the great stages of the Academy of Music, the Miller Theater, and the Kimmel Center. The Great Stages Gala—featuring a performance with Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and a star-studded lineup of special guests—honors our shared history and heralds a new era for the performing arts in Philadelphia.

Great Stages Gala

Yemandja, named for a Yoruban deity, is a panoramic work of magical realism, a parable about gods and humans that illuminates through song what can happen when people are robbed of their culture. Kidjo sings her transfixing music backed by a live band and a chorus of dancer-singers, in a fully staged production directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce and featuring stage design by the revered Black American visual artist Kerry James Marshall; the libretto is by Kidjo’s daughter, Naïma Hebrail Kidjo.

Angélique Kidjo; Yemandja

Inspired by her ancestors, her family and Africa’s resilience, three-time GRAMMY® winner Angélique Kidjo conjures up a timely musical theatre work that is at once a family drama and historical thriller, redolent of Greek tragedy and infused with themes of love, betrayal, honor and the horrors of slavery. Yemandja is a work of magical realism that illuminates what happens when people are robbed of their culture. Yemandja is co-commissioned by ArtsEmerson; The Broad Stage at Santa Monica College, Cal Performances, Ruth and Stephen Hendel, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, MASS MoCA and Yale Schwarzman Center. Produced by THE OFFICE performing arts + film.

Yemandja: A Story of Africa

The Broad Stage

Named one of 2021’s “Most Influential People” by TIME Magazine and one of the “Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World” by The Guardian, Kidjo is one of the greatest artistic forces in international music today, using her voice to make connections across genre, generations, and geopolitical boundaries. Blending West African rhythms with jazz, pop, funk, R&B, Latin, and dance music, Kidjo’s visionary music tells the story of Africa’s past while looking ahead to the future.

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Angélique Kidjo

Events

Upcoming events

Mar 26, 2026

Angélique Kidjo · University Musical Society

Past events

Sep 7, 2025

Angélique Kidjo: African Symphony · BBC Philharmonic

Aug 30, 2025

Angélique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma Sarabande Africaine · Cal Performances

Future and recently performed repertoire

Singer in African Symphony by Kidjo

BBC Philharmonic

About

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