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
Tourner La Page
Angélique Kidjo Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Changer de paysage
Le pied sur une berge
Vierge
Il faut tourner la page
Toucher l′autre rivage
Littoral inconnu
Nu
La colonne de marbre
Qui fuse dans le ciel
Tel
Que tu quittes la terre
Vers un point solitaire
Constellé de pluriel
Il faut tourner la page...
Redevenir tout simple
Comme ces âmes saintes
Qui disent dans leurs yeux
Mieux
Que toutes les facondes
Des redresseurs de monde
Des faussaires de Dieu
Il faut tourner la page
Jeter le vieux cahier
Le vieux cahier des charges
Oh yeah
Il faut faire silence
Traversé d′une lance
Qui fait saigner un sang
Blanc
Il faut tourner la page
Aborder le rivage
Où rien ne fait semblant
Saluer le mystère
Sourire
Et puis se taire
The lyrics of Angélique Kidjo's song "Tourner La Page" speak of the need to turn the page and change one's surroundings. The image of standing on a virgin riverbank and touching the unknown shore signifies the importance of leaving behind the familiar and venturing into new territories. The suggestion is to embrace the unfamiliar, just as one would embrace a tall marble column that extends into the sky, symbolizing a departure from this earthly existence.
The lyrics emphasize the idea of simplicity and purity, comparing it to the saintly souls who express their truth through their eyes. These souls are contrasted with those who pretend to know it all, the self-righteous and the false prophets. The call to turn the page is also a call to let go of the old, to discard the burdensome old notebook of expectations and responsibilities. It is a call to make way for silence, to accept the piercing lance that bleeds a pure white blood, representing a profound transformation.
In turning the page, the song suggests moving towards a shore where nothing is pretense or illusion, where one can greet the mystery and choose to smile and remain silent. The lyrics of "Tourner La Page" invite the listener to embrace change, simplicity, and the unknown, freeing oneself from the constraints and pretenses of the world.
Line by Line Meaning
Il faut tourner la page
It is necessary to turn the page and move on
Changer de paysage
Change the scenery
Le pied sur une berge
One foot on a riverbank
Vierge
Virgin
Il faut tourner la page
It is necessary to turn the page and move on
Toucher l′autre rivage
Reach the other shore
Littoral inconnu
Unknown coastline
Nu
Naked
Et là, enlacer l'arbre
And there, embrace the tree
La colonne de marbre
The marble column
Qui fuse dans le ciel
That soars into the sky
Tel
Such as
Que tu quittes la terre
That you leave the earth
Vers un point solitaire
Towards a solitary point
Constellé de pluriel
Studded with plural
Il faut tourner la page...
It is necessary to turn the page and move on...
Redevenir tout simple
Become simple again
Comme ces âmes saintes
Like those holy souls
Qui disent dans leurs yeux
Who speak through their eyes
Mieux
Better
Que toutes les facondes
Than all the mannerisms
Des redresseurs de monde
Of the world's fixers
Des faussaires de Dieu
Of the counterfeiters of God
Il faut tourner la page
It is necessary to turn the page and move on
Jeter le vieux cahier
Throw away the old notebook
Le vieux cahier des charges
The old notebook of obligations
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Il faut faire silence
It is necessary to be silent
Traversé d′une lance
Pierced by a lance
Qui fait saigner un sang
That makes blood bleed
Blanc
White
Il faut tourner la page
It is necessary to turn the page and move on
Aborder le rivage
Approach the shore
Où rien ne fait semblant
Where nothing pretends
Saluer le mystère
Greet the mystery
Sourire
Smile
Et puis se taire
And then be quiet
Writer(s): Sylvere Johnson, Philippe Paul Saisse, Gerard Desire Nubul, Mehdi Felicite, Fabien Vincent Philetas, Khalid Dehbi, Cedric Jean Belise, Samuel Babatunde Adebiyi, Claude Nougaro
Contributed by Camilla C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
De Montagu Christian
Une magnifique reprise, surprenante aussi
Melmont Luc
En effet une version pleine de grâce