Angélique Kidjo has won fans across the world with her commanding voice and ability to fuse West African styles with funk, jazz and R&B

🌐 Here's What Happened

Five-time Grammy award winner Angélique Kidjo has made history as the first African musician to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"We Africans just don't know what we've given to the world, and what we continue giving to the world for the music to exist. Without us, there's no music possible on this planet," the musical icon, who comes from Benin, said at the ceremony.

She was joined by her family, friends and stars such as Hollywood actors Willem Dafoe and Djimon Hounsou, who is also from Benin, and Nigerian musician Adekunle Gold.

📌 Key Details

For more than four decades, Kidjo, 66, has taken African sounds to global audiences, blending influences from her native Benin with funk, jazz and pop.

Celebrating her illustrious career, Kidjo thanked others as her legacy was immortalised in Los Angeles.

"The star for me means that my vision of the world as a small village is a reality," she said as it was unveiled on Tuesday.

"It doesn't matter where we come from, what language we speak, which skin colour we have. We are human. It's one human family."

Kidjo grew up in Benin, but left for Paris in 1983, citing oppression from the country's then-communist government.

"From the moment the communist regime arrived in Benin, I became aware that the freedom we enjoy can be snatched away in a second," she told the BBC in 2023.

📰 Source: BBC Africa