Angélique Kidjo became the first African artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, a milestone marked with speeches from actor Willem Dafoe and Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. at a ceremony held at 7011 Hollywood Blvd., directly across from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The five-time Grammy-winning singer, born in what is now Benin, was celebrated for a four-decade career that has carried West African rhythms and languages onto the world's biggest stages.
The ceremony drew official recognition beyond the star itself. Ron Frierson, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, declared August 18 “Angélique Kidjo Day” in Hollywood, according to OkayAfrica. As MyNewsLA.com reported, Harvey Mason Jr. told the crowd that Kidjo's star symbolizes her achievements and that her legacy lives on in the people she has touched and inspired, describing her as an artist whose influence extends well beyond her musical accomplishments.
Willem Dafoe, who has been friends with Kidjo since 2002 after being introduced to her following his performance in the play To You, the Birdie! in Brooklyn, also spoke at the event. Per the same account, Dafoe described Kidjo as a performer whose music can transform the atmosphere of any venue, saying her songs make audiences leave their seats and dance. Kidjo herself reflected on Africa's cultural influence during the ceremony, telling attendees that the continent has inspired the world through its culture.
A Career Built on Boundary-Crossing Sound
Kidjo released her first album, Pretty, in 1981, and has gone on to release 18 albums across a career that has earned her five Grammy wins and 16 nominations, the outlet's report notes. Her first Grammy nomination came in 1995 for best music video for “Agolo,” and she won her first Grammy in 2008 for best contemporary world music album for Djin Djin. She went on to win the best global music album Grammy for Eve in 2015, for Sings in 2016, for Celia in 2020, and for Mother Nature in 2022. Both Djin Djin, in 2007, and Eve, in 2014, topped Billboard's World Music Albums chart, as did her fourth album, Logozo, when it was released in 1991.
Kidjo sings across five languages — Fon, French, Yorùbá, Gen (Mina), and English — and frequently draws on Benin's traditional Zilin vocal technique alongside a vocal language of her own invention, according to Wikipedia. That invented language has even supplied song titles, including “Batonga.” The night before the star ceremony, Kidjo performed at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles.
Global Honors and a Nobel-Level Prize
Kidjo's accolades extend well beyond the Grammys. She received the World Economic Forum Crystal Award in 2015, the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award in 2016, the German Sustainability Award in 2018, and the Vilcek Prize in Music in 2023. In 2023, she was also awarded the Polar Music Prize — often called the “Nobel Prize of Music” — receiving the honor and 600,000 Swedish Kroner from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm alongside co-recipients Chris Blackwell and Arvo Pärt, according to the Polar Music Prize.
Her global stature was also on display in July 2021, when she represented the African continent alongside John Legend, Keith Urban, and Alejandro Sanz in a pre-recorded performance of John Lennon's “Imagine” during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, with musical arrangement by Hans Zimmer broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers, per Olympics.com. Time magazine named her to its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021, following earlier recognition as one of Africa's 50 most iconic figures by the BBC and one of the 100 most inspiring women by The Guardian, as noted by The Manila Times.
Advocacy Rooted in Benin
Kidjo's activism runs parallel to her music career. In 2006, she founded the nonprofit Batonga Foundation to provide secondary education, leadership development, and financial literacy training for vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in Africa, with a focus on Benin, where historically three out of four girls did not reach middle school, according to the Batonga Foundation. As a UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador since 2002, she traveled to Benin in January to visit youth-led community projects promoting climate action, healthcare, and childhood immunization amid declining international foreign assistance, meeting with young U-Reporters in the Zou district who are advocating for digital vaccination tracking and environmental sustainability, per UNICEF.
Kidjo has said, per her website biography, that she hopes her songs bring happiness and remind people to help and love one another, and that her music aims to show that anything and everything is possible.
Joining a 2,800-Star Landmark
The Hollywood Walk of Fame was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 194 in 1978 and now spans 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street, drawing an estimated 10 million visitors annually, according to Wikipedia. The landmark was completed with 1,558 initial stars in 1961 and now includes 2,854 stars embedded in pink terrazzo and brass. Securing a star requires an official nomination, a $275 non-refundable application fee, and an $85,000 sponsorship fee upon selection to cover creation, installation, and long-term maintenance, per the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Tuesday's ceremony was emceed by Variety correspondent Angelique Jackson and broadcast live globally via the official Walk of Fame website, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. With her name now set in terrazzo along Hollywood Boulevard, Kidjo joins the ranks of the Walk of Fame's honorees as the first artist from the African continent to do so — a distinction that, per the ceremony's speakers, reflects a career spent carrying her home country's culture onto the world stage.
