Grammy-winner Angélique Kidjo on Her New Album

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And, Angelique, I just want to ask you briefly, what were your earliest influences? Who were your earliest influences? Who did you look to, either in Africa or outside of Africa, as your musical mentors, so to speak? Because you’ve done everything from talking heads to, I mean, just everything. You’ve got such a wide, you know, variety and repertoire.

ANGELIQUE KIDJO, GRAMMY-WINNING MUSICIAN: I would say that the traditional musician in my country were really my backbone. Because when music start coming and my brother started doing music, I listen to Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding James, Brown, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Miriam Makeba, Celia Cruz. So many music. And music from a Democratic Republic of Congo, from Cameroon, from Ivory Coast, all around. So, for me, sometimes I get lost in it. And I would go to my village and say to traditional musician, can you play this? And they say, bring it. And they’ll play the drums. And as soon as the drum comes in, it makes sense for me, it brings everything together. The traditional music of my country is the glue of everything I have been doing as musician ’til today, because it’s modern, it talks to people and it tells a story. We are storytellers. Every musician, every artist is a storyteller. Every chef is a storyteller through taste and through what have been given to them. And that’s what it is. Storytelling is powerful.

AMANPOUR: Well, you have graciously agreed to sing us out, to play us out. Your authenticity reaches all the way to not being afraid to do that without your backup, without the instruments. Acapella for us So, Angelique Kidjo, what are you going to sing? I think it’s from, obviously, “Mother Nature.” But what title are you going to sing for us?

KIDJO: “Mother Nature,” I was going to sing for you.

AMANPOUR: OK. Go for it.

KIDJO: And I am sending you strength from mother nature every day from now on. You are on the wings of mother nature as all of us.