Prom 16: Late Night – Angélique Kidjo by Various, Alkaen (2019/2019), Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

Described as ‘the undisputed queen of African music’, three-time Grammy Award-winner Angélique Kidjo makes her Proms debut with her nine-piece band in late-night tribute to the celebrated salsa songstress Celia Cruz. Described as ‘the undisputed queen of African music’, three-time Grammy Award-winner Angélique Kidjo makes her Proms debut with her nine-piece band in a late-night tribute to the celebrated salsa songstress Celia Cruz. Kidjo grew up in Benin, West Africa, listening to salsa and found Celia Cruz a huge inspiration. She later discovered that much of Cruz’s music was inspired by Yoruba traditional songs that migrated from Benin to the Americas with the slave workers. Kidjo here reinvents these songs in the Afrobeat and juju styles of West Africa, reflecting their true origins.