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Music on the Road

Seeing the world with Angelique Kidjo

By Joanne Suh
CNN Entertainment Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- When you ask West African singer/songwriter Angelique Kidjo where her home base is these days, she answers, "The world!"

Kidjo, who sings in several different languages, is once again globetrotting -- this time to promote her seventh studio album, "Black Ivory Soul." It includes a duet ("Iwoya") with Dave Matthews, who is originally from South Africa, and with whom she toured last summer.

While Kidjo uses music to uplift and enlighten people around the world, the roots of "Black Ivory Soul" lie in the darker subject of slavery. The album explores the musical connection and kinship between Africa and Brazil, specifically her home country of Benin and the Brazilian city of Bahia, one of the destinations Beninese people were transported to as slaves years ago.

CNN caught up with Kidjo in Los Angeles during a stop on her current U.S. tour.

CNN: Where is your home base now?

KIDJO: My home base is the world because I travel a lot and I don't limit myself to one place. The world is big and small at the same time. For somebody that travels so much, it's always exciting when I arrive at new places, new cities, different languages, different food, different culture. It's an excitement because I know that with my music, I'm going to make those differences disappear, even if I don't speak the language.

	CNN NewsPass Video
Angelique Kidjo performs 'Refavela' at the Roxy in West Hollywood, California (June 20) Play video

CNN: How did you come to collaborate with Dave Matthews on the song, "Iwoya"?

KIDJO: Dave Matthews is somebody who listens to different types of music. For somebody who grew up in America, I think his African roots help him keep that open mind. ... We did tour together last summer, and I came to know him a little bit better and his band also. It's wonderful to be around Dave Matthews and his team because they are wonderful people and they do music for the pleasure of doing it. And when you are so big as he is, keeping the simplicity is a quality that I really cherish and I really recognize that he had.

I asked him to sing with me and simply he said, "Let me think about it because you sing so well and I don't know where I'm going to fit." I said, "You can fit in anytime, anywhere you want to!" So he comes and he gives himself completely to that song. He doesn't do things halfway. That's what I like about Dave.

CNN: Tell me about your home country, Benin.

KIDJO: I was born in Benin and I was raised in Benin and I did all my studies in Benin. I wouldn't be the person I am today if not for the fact I was born in Benin. It's a very small country, only 6 million people. My ancestors were fishermen and my village is on the sea, so the life, the community life, the solidarity is very important.

As a child, I never ever had any fear of nobody, of nothing because I felt protected. Every time I left the house, I knew that somebody was always watching after me because they knew where I belonged. And that gives you a very, very strong confidence in yourself to go wherever you can go.

CNN: Why was it important for you to explore the connection between Africa and Brazil in "Black Ivory Soul?"

KIDJO: You know the first white people that arrived in Benin in order to colonize and start slavery were the Portuguese, not the French. ... So you have a huge community of mixed Brazil and Beninese kids. My mother has Portuguese blood.

When I arrived in Bahia, the smell (of the food) was the same -- I mean it's like you leave home, and miles away you find the same thing. And today, the question I ask by doing that trip is, "How much do slaves come back and influence the music that had been taken for granted from the beginning and how many of them stayed after slavery was over?" It's very interesting.

CNN: You sing in several different languages. Does a listener have to know what you're singing about to enjoy your music?

KIDJO: No, it's not about the language at all. And that is one thing I discovered when I was a little girl because when I started listening to people like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Otis Redding -- all Motown was in my house because my brothers and sisters were listening to that. I was a little child, I was not speaking a word of English, not at all, but I would make up my own words on top of them and sing them. And it's still the case today in Africa. People love music from all over the world. They don't speak the language, (but) they make up their own words and sing it because they love the song.