Angelique Kidjo

Ten years ago I watched Angelique Kidjo on Jools Holland, she was irrepressible and her music was infectious. I went out and bought the CD Ayé. It was the first of many. Last night I went to see her live at the Glasgow Fruit Market as part of Celtic Connections. She is a mesmerising live performer with more humanity than the entire Simon Cowell showcase. 

This was music for a better world and it was interspersed with beautifully constructed short stories of her passion for improving the lives of children. She is a UNICEF ambassador and dedicated to many causes: eradicating disease and poverty, saving young people from unemployment and, in all of these she is a champion for Africa. 

She electrified the audience and danced her way around the entire hall of a thousand well-lubricated Glaswegians with the energy of a twenty-something, not a 49-year-old who had only managed 2 hours sleep before travelling up to Glasgow. There are some good YouTube videos of her doing similar concerts in almost every continent and even a slot on Jools Holland, Agolo. If you get the chance, go and see her. She has musical depth and rhythm but is also a very special voice for the sort of world we should all aspire to in these dark days of austerity and selfish populism.

At Celtic Connections