Angélique Kidjo
Keep on Moving: The Best of Angélique Kidjo (Wrasse Records)
Ghanaian/American jazz vocalist The BLCK Madonna told us about her love for an Angélique Kidjo gem...
One of the albums that deeply shaped me was The Best of Angélique Kidjo. I discovered it at a time when I was still trying to understand where I fit musically and culturally. Hearing her reinterpret “Summertime” was transformative. It stopped me in my tracks. It was the first time I heard a jazz standard fully reclaimed through identity and cultural heritage. The rhythm felt ancestral. The phrasing was embodied, almost percussive.
It did not feel like she was borrowing from a tradition. It felt like she was claiming it. The song no longer sounded like a relic of the American Songbook. It sounded global. Alive.
What moved me most was the authority. She did not treat the song as something fragile to preserve. She entered it fully as herself, bringing her Beninese heritage, her rhythmic language, and her cultural memory. That shifted something in me. It made me realize that standards are not museum pieces. They are living material capable of holding different histories and different bodies.
As someone shaped by both West African lineage and American jazz tradition, that realization was liberating. It changed how I approach repertoire. Interpretation is not about preservation. It is about presence. It is about entering a song honestly and allowing your identity to reshape its edges. That album did more than inspire me musically. It expanded my understanding of ownership.
The BLCK Madonna's debut album Between the Lines is out March 27.
