The veteran Beninese diva performed at the Auckland Town Hall on Saturday night. Shanti Mathias reviews the show.
“If you’re sitting down, stand up,” Angélique Kidjo calls across Auckland Town Hall. “If you don’t know the words, don’t worry, just join in!” She’s been performing for an hour already, but Kidjo still seems like the most energetic person in the room. The Beninese-French singer is wearing a flowing silky dress, skipping around the stage so quickly that the spotlight often can’t keep up.
At 63, Kidjo’s close cropped hair is mostly grey, and she’s roughly in the same demographic as many of the audience – and the Auckland Arts Festival more generally – but she clearly has broad appeal: there was a wide range of ages present. I bought half-price under-30 tickets and ended up right at the back, but it was hard to mind when Kidjo is such a vibrant, expressive performer.
Kidjo is a difficult performer to put in a box: she sings in multiple languages, across multiple genres, and has done dozens of collaborations alongside her solo work. After hearing her on world music albums throughout my childhood, my personal Kidjo-naissance was when she was on Zambian artist’s Sampa the Great’s 2022 album. Kidjo has done Disney (she’s on the Lion King 2 soundtrack), celebrity charity songs (the somewhat cheesy Love Song for the Earth to inspire climate action), championed dozens of younger artists and won five Grammys for her solo albums. Watching her at the Auckland Town Hall on Saturday night, it was impossible not to be convinced that she is a massive star.
The good
It’s good to be astonished every now and again at the ability of human voices to fill a space. I’ve been telling people that I’m entering a choral music phase and this has only reinforced it. From the waiata and haka that kapa haka Angitū performed in the opener, to Kidjo’s impressive enunciation through the syllables of ‘Agolo’ and ‘Once in a Lifetime’ alike (she’s very into the Talking Heads), to her enthusiasm in getting the whole crowd singing and dancing with her, repeating the lines until everyone joined in.
I’ve been accused, not without accuracy, of listening to excessive amounts of melancholy white girl music. Kidjo was the opposite of that: abundant in joy, fast and dancey. There’s something to be said for swaying to Julia Jacklin, but it turns out I also love music that makes it so easy to feel happy.
Kidjo’s band was excellent too, joining in on backing vocals as well as having playful solo moments: the bass player was especially excellent. At one point, Kidjo turned her back to the crowd and went to each of the band members individually, dancing until they joined in.
A frequent voice for gender equality and global justice, Kidjo talked about how she hadn’t believed that women could be lead singers growing up. Her songs have messages of love and connection, which are easy to dismiss as cliched, but the sense of togetherness at her concert convinced even my irony-poisoned self: sometimes, it really is nice just to be with other people and sing about how a better world is possible.
Before the encore, the concert ended in a glorious rendition of Miriam Makeba’s (another African music queen, it is impossible for me to listen to this without crying) ‘Pata Pata’ where Angitū accompanied Kidjo, ending in what looked like a completely spontaneous and exuberant dance party on stage. I really can’t emphasise enough: this was a concert where everyone was having such a great time, half of the people in the seated areas were standing up and wiggling their hips or at least twisting their shoulders – myself included.
The not-so-good
Kidjo was accompanied by two drummers, a bassist and a keyboardist, all of whom were amazing – but while her voice is incredible, I would’ve loved to hear a melodic instrument like a guitar alongside it as well. As it was, her excellent vocals were at times quite exposed.
The Auckland Town Hall is hardly a stadium venue, and with a one-night-only performance, perhaps it wasn’t worth complicating the set up. The lighting design was good for what it was, the rainbow lighting while Angitā sang a waiata about āniwaniwa a particularly nice touch, as well as the starry backdrop covering the hulking metal of the organ. Still, Kidjo’s extremely energetic performance, basically doing star jumps across the stage, could have been even more fun with a bit more spectacle – perhaps a fog machine, if not the elaborate harness of the P!nk concert happening across town on the same evening.
The verdict
It’s always a great time to see an artist you love perform live. What I didn’t expect from this show was how energetic Kidjo was, and how energised I felt afterwards.