Angélique Kidjo became the first Black African woman to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, in a lavish ceremony held under palm trees beneath a clear California sky.
Film stars and titans of the music industry gathered on the busy Hollywood avenue to honor the five-time Grammy Award winner as she unveiled her star.
Kidjo, 66, said Africans did not know what they had given the world, and that without them there would be no music on this planet. After thanking her team and her family, she broke into song as the crowd looked on.
A career spanning four decades
Born in Benin, Kidjo has built an international career spanning more than 40 years and 18 albums. She has been named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine, and was nominated by the BBC as one of the 50 most iconic figures in Africa and by The Guardian as one of the 100 most inspiring people in the world.
Harvey Mason Jr. of the Recording Academy hailed Kidjo as an exceptional artist. He said her example had elevated the global music community, and that her work continued to remind people that music was more than entertainment, but a form of connection. He added that the star was a permanent symbol of her achievements that would not go anywhere, but that her legacy lived on in the people she had impacted and inspired, in the barriers she had broken down, and in the connections she had created around the world.
Praise from Willem Dafoe
Actor Willem Dafoe praised Kidjo's immense energy on stage. The Platoon star said that the first time he saw her perform live, he thought her music, her dancing and her delivery were incredible, and that she was without doubt the hardest-working woman in show business.
Dafoe said what impressed him most, however, was her dedication to the humanitarian work of her Batonga Foundation, which works to empower girls and young women in Africa. He said it was not a token celebrity involvement but an extension of what she does through her music, and that it moved people, uplifted them, and reminded them that everyone is connected and that love and understanding are the way forward.
Benin's government pays tribute
The government of Benin also congratulated Kidjo in a statement. It said the Beninese government proudly and gratefully welcomed the well-deserved recognition, and that for forty years Kidjo had raised Benin's profile on the international stage and remained a source of national pride for an entire people. The statement added that beyond her musical work, she had maintained a constant commitment to education and the empowerment of girls in Benin and Senegal, extending to the social sphere the same international spotlight she has brought to her country through the world's biggest stages.
