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

Yemandja
Angélique Kidjo Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

BE CAREFUL, DON'T CAUSE ME GRIEF

BE CAREFUL, DON'T CAUSE ME GRIEF

I NEED THE COOL RAIN

TO QUENCH MY RAGE

THERE IS A SONG COMING,

IT'S THE SONG OF YEMANDJA

GODDNESS OF WATER

WE NEED TO INVOKE HER

TO QUENCH THE DESTRUCTIVE FIRE

OF OUR RAGE

?

ATTENTION, NE ME CHERCHEZ PAS D'HISTOIRE.

ATTENTION, NE ME CHERCHEZ PAS D'HISTOIRE.

IL FAUT QUE LA FRA?CHEUR DE LA PLUIE,

APAISE MA COLSRE.

MAIS VOIL... UNE CHANSON,

CELLE DE YEMANDJA - LA D,ESSE DE L'EAU

IL FAUT L'INVOQUER

AFIN QU'ELLE ,TEIGNE,

DE TOUTES NOS COLSRES,

LE FEU DESTRUCTEUR.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Angélique Kidjo's song Yemandja speak to the power of nature and the need to respect it in order to overcome feelings of anger and rage. The singer pleads for caution from those around her, asking that they not cause her any pain. She then goes on to express a need for the cool rain to calm her down and soothe her anger.

The chorus introduces the song of Yemandja, the goddess of water. The singer suggests that invoking her is necessary in order to put out the destructive fire of our rage. Nature is presented as a powerful force, one that demands respect and reverence in order to maintain balance in our lives.

The final verse reiterates the sentiment of the first two, emphasizing the need for calm and rain to quell the singer's anger. The song of Yemandja is once again called upon to bring balance and harmony to our lives. Overall, the lyrics of Yemandja remind us of the importance of respecting nature and finding balance within ourselves in order to achieve inner peace.

Line by Line Meaning

BE CAREFUL, DON'T CAUSE ME GRIEF
I caution you to be careful in your actions so as not to cause me pain or sorrow.

I NEED THE COOL RAIN
I long for the soothing relief of a gentle cooling rain.

TO QUENCH MY RAGE
That rain will help to quell the fiery passion that burns within me.

THERE IS A SONG COMING,
A song is on the horizon,

IT'S THE SONG OF YEMANDJA
the song of Yemandja,

GODDNESS OF WATER
the goddess of water

WE NEED TO INVOKE HER
We must invoke her

TO QUENCH THE DESTRUCTIVE FIRE
to extinguish the destructive fire

OF OUR RAGE
of our passion.

ATTENTION, NE ME CHERCHEZ PAS D'HISTOIRE.
Attention, don't go looking for trouble with me.

IL FAUT QUE LA FRA?CHEUR DE LA PLUIE,
I need the freshness of the rain,