Benin's Angelique Kidjo Bags Third Grammy at the 2016 Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards ceremony went down earlier this week on Monday 15 February, and other than Kendrick Lamar’s five Grammies that he took home that night, as well as his spectacular performance, there were also some big takeaways as far as Africa is concerned.

Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo who bagged the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album, now boasts of three Grammies in the same category, winning the last two of them consecutively.

Kidjo first won a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album in 2008 for her eighth studio album, Djin Djin, which included a star-studded list of guest artists including Branford Marsalis, Ziggy Marley, Alicia Keys, Carlos Santana and Peter Gabriel. She won her second Grammy in 2015 for her 2014 album EVE in the Best World Music category. That win was dedicated to the women of Africa, with Kidjo explaining in her acceptance speech: “For me, music is a weapon of peace and today more than ever, as artists we have a role to play in the stability of this world.

Her 2016 Grammy was for her latest album Sings, a collaboration with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.

In accepting her latest award Kidjo danced onto stage to the sounds of James Brown, before announcing: "I want to dedicate this Grammy to all the traditional musicians in Africa, in my country, and all the young generation, the new African music, vibrant, joyful music that comes from my continent that you have to get yourself to discover. Africa is on the rise. Africa is positive. Africa is joyful. Let's get together and be one through music and say no to hate and violence through music. Thank you!"

[SOURCE: Music In Africa]