Bermuda Festival jazz singer Angelique Kidjo's work is more about joy than politics, a fact that threatened her life twenty-five years ago.

Ms Kidjo was born in Ouidah, Benin, West Africa. In Benin, in 1972, a military coup led by Mathieu Kérékou led to the establishment of a communist government.

"For awhile I was able to escape the pressure of just writing about revolutions, but it caught up with me," Ms Kidjo told The Royal Gazette in a telephone interview. "I said I wasn't going to use my singing for a political party or ideology.

"When you live in a dictatorship regime, your say means nothing. It is: do as we say or go to jail."

Ms Kidjo eventually decided to leave because she was putting her family in danger.

In her early twenties she left for Paris, France.

"Of course, as soon as I left they started asking my father where I was," she said. "He said he didn't know."

She couldn't even call home for six months because the phones were tapped.

"The first year I was out of Benin was a stressful experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone," she said. "Even being in a different society was hard. The difference between you and the people in the new country was slapped in your face every day, but you had to live with it."

In Benin, in the late 1980s the marxist system was abandoned and Kérékou re-established a parliamentary capitalist system. In 2006 Benin held an election that was largely considered free and fair.

In 1983, Ms Kidjo performed in Benin after 14 years away. Her performance was a triumph of joy over fear and hatred.

"It was quite something," she said. "I played in the stadium and it was packed. There was a lot of pressure and a lot of joy.

"I felt that this was the public that understood every word I was singing. I was home. How could it get better than that?

"I was on the angel's wing. I was flying on the stage. I was ready to eat up the whole place."

She is very proud that Benin is now a democracy.

"I don't think it is going to move back to a dictatorship," she said. "It proves that democracy is possible in Africa."

But she said rich countries need to stop abusing their power and wealth in Africa.

"The rich countries have to get their hands off our wealth," she said. "We don't need weapons shipped to us in exchange for our oil."

Ms Kidjo said she can't wait to come to Bermuda again. She currently lives in New York City where it is cold and wet.

"I hope we have fun," she said. "The first time I was in Bermuda I had this feeling I was a little bit in England.

"Not in the accent, it was in the way men dress. Those long socks and shoes... I was like wow, there are some aspects of heritage that never go away."

She said that this performance in Bermuda will be absolutely different from 2002, because she has a new album out, Djin, Djin.

Djin Djin was released in May 2007 and contains guest appearances from Josh Groban, Carlos Santana, Alicia Keyes, Peter Gabriel and others.

She has a number of albums out including Jakko (1987), Be in Two Minds (1988) and Hotel Babo (1990).

Ms Kidjo has also won many distinguished awards. In 2007 she became the fourth laureate of the Antonio Carlos Jobim Award, created in 2004 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. The award is given annually to an artist distinguished in the field of world music whose influence on the evolution of jazz and cultural crossover is widely recognised.

"I never follow things like how many records are selling," Ms Kidjo said. "There is too much stress already, and I don't want to add to it.

"A lot of people love it and some like it. Music CDs, in general, aren't selling anymore. That is the way the market is no, because of all the new technology out there."

But she has not been shy about taking advantage of the Internet.

Her music is available online, and she also uses technology to stay informed.

"I don't use it to be inspired, though," she said. "I use life for that."

Ms Kidjo started performing when she was just six years old in her mother's theatre troupe.

"The first time I performed I thought I was going to have a heart attack," she said.

She was asked to fill in when another girl suddenly fell ill.

"I knew all the songs because I was there all the time and was always asking questions," she said. "I learned all the songs and all the parts."

The theatre was packed that day and the young Ms Kidjo froze when she took to the stage.

"I must have been making a funny face, because people started laughing and I relaxed."

Ms Kidjo said that according to her mother, she started singing before she could actually talk.

"Everything I heard I had to replicate," she said. "I like songs. I don't know what it is, but it is a part of me."

She said joy is the key to success and to finding happiness and harmony.

"We have to use the joy within our soul to approach every day," she said. "Fear is a political tool and doesn't create anything positive.

"It makes you numb and not want to move for fear of losing what you have."

She said she is a joyful and positive person, and her performances are often described by others in a similar way.

Ms Kidjo is also known for inventing her own words and sounds to make her music.

"I like the sounds and how they come to me," she said. "For example, Djin, Djin, my album title is the sound a bell makes."

For more information about Ms Kidjo go to http://www.kidjo.com

Ms Kidjo will be performing at The Fairmont Southampton at 8.30 p.m. today. See tomorrow's Royal Gazette for a review.

Her music will explore links between her native Africa and the African diaspora. It will contain African funk, Brazilian rhythms, salsa and much more.

Tickets are available on www.bermudafestival.org. For more information telephone 296-5774.

Benjamin Grosvenor review: Page 22