Musical icon Angélique Kidjo has become the first black African performer to be selected for a star on the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Kidjo, who comes from the West African country of Benin and has won five Grammy awards, was among the 35 names announced as part of the Walk of Fame’s class of 2026 list.
The 64-year-old was hailed as Africa’s “premier diva” during a press conference announcing the selection early this month.
Singer Miley Cyrus, actor Timothée Chalamet, actress Demi Moore and former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal are also among those set to be honoured with a star on Los Angeles’ famous walk.
Kidjo receives the honour after making music for more than four decades and releasing 16 albums.
The songstress has won fans across the world with her commanding voice and ability to fuse West African styles with the likes of funk, jazz and R&B.
Her long list of collaborators includes forces such as Burna Boy, Philip Glass, Sting and Alicia Keys.
Kidjo joins Charlize Theron, a white South African actress, in representing Africa on the Walk of Fame, which comprises more than 2,700 stars. Theron received her star in 2005.
The date on which Kidjo will see her star unveiled on the Walk of Fame has not yet been announced.
After recipients have been selected for a star, they have two years to schedule induction ceremonies.
In many respects, she belongs to the illustrious musical lineage of “Mama Africas” – the likes of South Africa’s Miriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu and Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Cape Verde’s Cesaria Evora and Mali’s Oumou Sangare.
These powerful maternal personages are distinctive for their regal bearing, a grand sense of responsibility in sharing Africa’s cultural heritage, and protecting the dignity of the African woman. They may not always articulate this political and aesthetic worldview in so many words, but their carriage says it all.
Kidjo grew up in Benin, but left for Paris in early 80s. Her father was a musician, and her mother worked as a choreographer and theatre director. She grew up listening to Yoruba and Beninese traditional music, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Fela Kuti, Stevie Wonder, Osibisa and Santana.
“I didn’t decide to become a musician. It was music that chose me, I would say. I grew up in a house where music was central to our lives, alongside sport. The two most important things for my parents were education, music and sport. I grew up listening to a lot of music from all over the world. My brothers had a music group and used to cover songs from all over the world,” she said in a past interview.
“So, I was exposed to different musical styles, in addition to traditional music from Benin, West Africa, Africa in general, and artists from Congo, Cameroon, Togo and many others. All forms of music that existed at the time were part of my daily life. I have always loved singing. I started singing at the age of six in my mother’s theater troupe. But the desire to become a musician crystallized much later in my mind.”
As a teenager, Kidjo sang with her brothers in their rock–rhythm-and-blues band. By age 20 she was a professional singer.
In 1983, Kidjo moved to Paris, where she encountered a vibrant musical community and myriad musical styles with which to experiment; in Paris she also met Jean Hebrail, the French producer, composer, and bassist whom she later married. Her first years in the city were spent studying jazz and performing with various local groups. After teaming with the Dutch pianist Jasper van ’t Hof, she sang with and co-wrote songs for his jazz group, Pili-Pili.
After several years, Kidjo left Pili-Pili. Her debut album Parakou was released in 1990, but it took her hit song, Agolo, for her to burst into global reckoning and galvanise the world’s dance floors in 1994.
She recorded Logozo (1991), which featured the American jazz musician Branford Marsalis and the African artists Manu Dibango and Ray Lema.
Kidjo increased her international appeal through her later releases, including Fifa (1995).
Like her earlier releases, Kidjo’s subsequent albums were exercises in musical fusion.
Her sixth solo album, Black Ivory Soul (2002), was a dazzling excursion into Brazilian musical forms.