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Walk of Fame milestone
Five-time Grammy award winner Angélique Kidjo became the first African musician to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, August 18th, with the ceremony held in Los Angeles.
“On Tuesday, August 18th, Kidjo became the first African musician to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.”
Kidjo said, “This star is for all the continent of Africa,” and she added in her own remarks, “We Africans just don’t know what we’ve given to the world, and what we continue giving to the world for the music to exist.”
At the unveiling, speeches came from Academy Award-nominated actor Willem Dafoe and Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., and Kidjo’s star was unveiled at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Kidjo was born and raised in Benin and moved to Paris at 23 following a political coup, where she studied jazz and kickstarted her long music career.
The Los Angeles Daily News said the ceremony took place on Wednesday at 7011 Hollywood Blvd., across from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and it described Kidjo as the first African artist to receive a star on the Walk of Fame.
Speeches and personal reflections
Dafoe told the ceremony, “I’ve seen the power of her music to get an audience who were content at first to just sit and listen jump up out of their chairs and fill the venue with dancing,” describing Kidjo’s ability to transform a room.
Mason said, “This star is a permanent symbol; it’s not going anywhere, and it’s a symbol of your achievements,” and he added that Kidjo’s legacy “lives in the people that you’ve touched.”
Kidjo reflected on Africa’s cultural influence during the ceremony, saying, “I’ve come from this country that (has) inspired the world through its culture. And we just don’t know it.”
In a separate message, Kidjo wrote on social media, “So many emotions, so many people to thank! I have not arrived to this moment by myself,” and she dedicated the honor to artists who inspired her and “to the young African artists who are inspiring me today!”
Legacy, honors, and influence
Beyond the Walk of Fame, Kidjo’s career has included performances at the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, and she was named one of TIME’s most influential people and received the Polar Prize in 2023.
“Kidjo has served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and founded her own non-profit, the Batonga Foundation”
The Los Angeles Daily News tied the honor to her discography, noting that she released the first of her 18 albums, “Pretty,” in 1981, and that her fourth album, “Logozo,” released in 1991, was her first to top Billboard’s world music albums chart.
Kidjo’s awards span multiple years, including her first Grammy in 2008 on her fifth nomination for best contemporary world music album, “Djin Djin,” and Grammys in 2015 for “Eve,” in 2016 for “Sings,” in 2020 for “Celia,” and in 2022 for “Mother Nature.”
Her humanitarian work also featured in the coverage, with uDiscover Music saying she has served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and founded her own non-profit, the Batonga Foundation, which seeks to empower girls and young women in Benin.