Angelique Kidjo at Joe's Pub

Angelique Kidjo emerged last night from behind the stage at Joe's Pub (one of my favorite performance spaces in NYC) looking every bit like "Africa's Premier Diva," as she was once famously dubbed by Time Magazine.  Her wrists abundantly bangled, her skin radiant, her gele tied and knotted to perfection, a matching sash draped across a simple linen dress split to the knee to accommodate a forthcoming fury of dance.  

She took us on a journey through customs, birthrights and coming-of-age in her tiny village in the West African nation of Benin.  From childhood baptism to ancestral idolatry (with a particularly moving ode to the goddess of love and the sea, "Lemanja"), the show was a working version of a musical play currently being written about Angelique's life.  As with many one-woman shows, she sang, then told stories, and then sang again.  But her perspective and spirit shone in a way that made that tried-and-true format feel new again.

The highlight of the evening was a joyful rendition of "Mama Afrika" that the whole audience joined in on as Angelique fluttered about the house holding the mike to nearly every mouth in the room.  

At the end, she dragged a bunch of audience members on stage and had them all dancing like the "She's Your Queen-to-Be" scene from Coming to America. (Did that reference just blow all my credibility?) Anyway, catch a video of that dancing here, and pay close attention to the man dancing at 4:02.  He's not me, but people say we look alike :)

Angelique's next NYC-area performance is December 18 in Newark at the NJ Performing Arts Center with Lizz Wright and Martha Reeves in a show called Soul Sisters Sing the Truth! How fun does that sound?