Angélique Kidjo (born on July 14, 1960) is a Grammy Award-winning Beninese … Read Full Bio ↴Angélique Kidjo (born on July 14, 1960) is a Grammy Award-winning Beninese singer, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos.

Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin. Her father is Fon from Ouidah and her mother is Yoruba . She grew up listening to James Brown, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, and Santana.

By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother's theatre troupe, giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance. She started singing in her school band Les Sphinx and found success as a teenager with her adaptation of Miriam Makeba's "Les Trois Z" which played on national radio. She recorded the album Pretty with the Camerounese producer Ekambi Brilliant and her brother Oscar. It featured the songs Ninive, Gbe Agossi and a tribute to the singer Bella Bellow, one of her role models. The success of the album allowed her to tour all over West Africa. Continuing political conflicts in Benin prevented her from being an independent artist in her own country and led her to relocate to Paris in 1982.

While working various day jobs to pay for her tuition, Angelique studied music at the CIM, a reputable Jazz school in Paris where she met and married musician and producer Jean Hebrail with whom she has composed most of her music. She started out as a backup singer in local bands. In 1985, she became the front singer of the known Euro-African jazz/rock band Jasper van't Hof's Pili Pili. Three Pili Pili studio albums followed: Jakko(1987) Be In Two Minds (1988, produced by Marlon Klein) and Hotel Babo (1990). By the end of the 1980s, she had become one of the most popular live performers in Paris and recorded a solo album called Parakou for the Open Jazz Label.

She was then discovered in Paris by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell who signed her in 1991. She recorded four albums for Island until Chris Blackwell's departure from the label. In 2000 she was signed in New York by Columbia Records for which she recorded two albums.

Her musical influences include the Afropop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz, gospel, and Latin styles; as well as her childhood idols Bella Bellow, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Miriam Makeba and Carlos Santana.

She has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002. With UNICEF, she has traveled to many countries in Africa. Reports on her visits can be found on the UNICEF site. Kidjo founded The Batonga Foundation which gives girls a secondary school and higher education so they can take the lead in changing Africa. The foundation is doing this by granting scholarships, building secondary schools, increasing enrollment, improving teaching standards, providing school supplies, supporting mentor programs, exploring alternative education models and advocating for community awareness of the value of education for girls.

She has campaigned for Oxfam at the 2005 Hong Kong WTO meeting, for the their Fair Trade Campaign and travelled with them in North Kenya and at the border of Darfur and Chad with a group of women leaders in 2007 and contributed to the video for the In My Name Campaign with Will I Am from The Black Eyed Peas. She has hosted the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in Alexandria, Egypt on November 26th, 2007 and on November 15th, 2008

Les Enfants Perdus
Angélique Kidjo Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Ils sont toujour en arrière

Quand le vent nous souffle

Dans le dos

Ils sont là quand même

Ils sont les yeux vers la terre

Quands les autres

Regardent tout en haut
Ils nous voient quand même
Ils n'ont pas les mots facile
Tout autour
On en dit en peu trop
Ils nous parlent quand même

Qui saura écouter l'appel
Des enfant perdus
Qui saura les approcher
Qui saura colorer le ciel
Des enfants perdus
Qui saura les éclairer
Qui saura aimer
Comme ils ont aimé
(Qui saura rêver comme ils ont rêvé)

Ils ont toujour un peu froid
Quand dehors
Le soleil est si chaud
Ils nous suivent quand même
On leur fait tellement peur
Tellement peur

Quand par hasard on frôle leur coeur
Ils nous aiment quand même

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Angélique Kidjo's song Les enfants perdus speaks about a group of children who are often left behind in the midst of the world's events. These children are often overlooked and ignored, but they still exist and continue to observe the events that take place around them. Despite this, they are not given the words or ability to express their thoughts and feelings, and so people continue speaking without really listening to them.

The chorus of the song calls out for someone to listen to these lost children, to approach them and understand their perspective. It calls for someone to bring color to their world and light to their lives. The lost children are described as always being a little cold, even when the sun is hot, and following behind despite their fear. However, they still love and care for others, even when they are not given the same in return.

Overall, this song is a call to action, urging listeners to pay attention to those who are often forgotten and to be aware of their existence and experiences.

Line by Line Meaning

Ils sont toujours en arrière
They are always behind

Quand le vent nous souffle dans le dos
When the wind blows towards our backs

Ils sont là quand même
They are still there

Ils sont les yeux vers la terre
Their eyes are fixed on the earth

Quands les autres regardent tout en haut
While others are looking up

Ils nous voient quand même
They still see us

Ils n'ont pas les mots facile
They don't have the words easy

Tout autour on en dit en peu trop
People say too much about everything

Ils nous parlent quand même
They still talk to us

Qui saura écouter l'appel des enfants perdus
Who will listen to the call of lost children

Qui saura les approcher
Who will approach them