I have seen Angelique Kidjo live in concert twice. Once in 1994 for Africa Fete '94 in Delaware and again in 2001 in DC at the 9:30 Club. Africa Fete '94, was a summer tour of dance-oriented global-beat bands put together by Island Records, featuring Caribbean zouk pioneers Kassav, electro-funk chanteuse Angelique Kidjo, and Ziskakan, a group of musicians from the East African island of Reunion who mixes Eastern melodies with rock rhythms. Africa Fete '94 was an incredible outdoor show.
Now, you had to see and witness what happened next to believe what I am about to tell you. It was scheduled to rain this summer evening but it hadn't yet. Not for the whole concert. Not yet.
I had been to many concerts where it rained before with thunder and lightning included but this was something else.
Angelique Kidjo came on stage last. It was dark by the time she came out after all the other performers. Her performance was incredibly powerful and electric. She tore it up!
The rainclouds overhead moved from the Penns Landing side of Philadelphia, across the Delaware River to where we were by the stage in a matter of minutes but it didn't rain on any of us or the stage. Not yet. The clouds just stayed above where we all were, stage and crowd. The rainclouds just hovered. You could tell by the look of them we were all about to get it and get it bad!
Family, I kid you not, those luminous clouds stayed right on top of the stage and us in the crowd (at least 300 people) for Angelique Kidjo's entire set which must have been between 30 to 45 minutes. Then the sound of thunder and lightning started "dancing" within the clouds themselves above the stage and above the stage only. Have you ever seen that? Have you ever seen lightning bursts within the clouds themselves? It's like a lightshow in the sky. Sometimes it's loud, sometimes it's silent.
Well, what happened this evening was they started dancing in the clouds, to what appeared to be, to the beat of her singing and her live band playing if you can believe it. I had never seen anything like that in my life. It was really incredible and beautiful to see and the whole crowd of what must have been over 300 people saw it too. Everybody was amazed and everybody was talking about it. It was like we were witnessing something very special aside from the great show. Some people filmed it. People were taking pictures like crazy too because this was truly an incredible natural event that we were all witnessing.
It was as if Angeligue Kidjo and Mother Nature were one and Mother Nature was giving her just enough time for her to finish and for us all to hear the last song before the pouring rain began. I think at one point she even looked up to see what everybody was smiling and in awe about because people were pointing up all over the place.
Maybe it was the power that sound has on energy in this case, electrical! It reminded me of the book, 'The Mysticism of Sound.'
As Ms. Kidjo ended her last song and said her thank you's and goodnights, it poured, and her and the entire stage of musicans and techs jetted! We all jetted for cover too in the audience. People scrambled to their cars and to the ferry to get back to Penns Landing but I waited in the rain with some friends because I wasn't trying to take the packed crowded ferry back across the river in those conditions! LOL. The ferry got so crowded, they had to tell some people to wait until it came back which would have been at least 20 to 25 minutes. Yet some people just rushed or pushed their way on. This was another reason there was no way I was going to run to it. LOL. Anyway, It eventually subsided and we drove back.
Her shows are incredible and so is she. She really is something else and someone special and so is her music. She came through DC earlier this year but I missed her! I hope to catch her again next time.
Agolo from her 1994 album Aye:
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