Angélique Kidjo

Just as the U.S. has its Madonna and the U.K. has its Kylie, Africa has its Angélique, an iconic pop diva who owns the hearts of her homeland fans but also extends her embrace to a global audience. A maker of true "world music," Angélique Kidjo freely mixes African flavors with a potpourri of international sounds. For instance, her sunny-sounding hit "Agolo" hails from a record produced by Prince cohort David Z. in Minneapolis and Soul II Soul collaborator Wil Mowatt in London. Not only did Kidjo conjure up some percolating Afro-Brazilian sounds on her Black Ivory Soul project, but she also got Brazilian superstar Daniela Mercury to add her powerful pipes to "Tumba." But rock hasn't eluded Kidjo's globetrotting grasp, either — check out her soulful, simmering, downright funky take on Jimi Hendrix's psychedelic blues-rock talisman "Voodoo Chile." Kidjo weaves a sonic spell on the whole world in Next Steps.

For Angélique Kidjo, the international language of music is more than just an abstract idea — the World Music wonder sings in several tongues, and she's got a knack for working her own West African magic on all kinds of English-language tunes. With an assist from British R&B songbird Joss Stone, she injects a bit of urgent Afrobeat into the Rolling Stones' sanctuary-seeking classic "Gimme Shelter." For the soundtrack of Showtime series Weeds, she took the 1963 Pete Seeger hit "Little Boxes" on a tuneful trip to her native Benin and brought it back packed full of African folk flavor. And in a move that foreshadowed her collaboration with Bono on 2010's Oyo, the unpredictable African star even put some Kidjo mojo on U2, with her churning, burning take on the Irish rockers' smash "Mysterious Ways." Angélique Kidjo moves into some massive musical partnerships in Deep Cuts.

Like many singers who break through to global fame, Angélique Kidjo has forged some fascinating partnerships with artists around the world. For his Possibilities album, jazz keyboard king Herbie Hancock brought Kidjo together with Carlos Santana for a Mexican-American/Beninese sonic summit on the Afro-Latin burner "Safiatou." She teamed up with acoustic guitar hero Taj Mahal to bring a blast of African soul to the U.S. bluesman's "Zanzibar." But sometimes Kidjo finds her finest collaborators right in her own backyard, like Benin jazz-guitar giant Lionel Loueke, who sprinkles some of his six-string magic on her live version of "AtchaHoun."

GRAMMY®-winner, social activist, performer at every major musical event from Lilith Fair to Live 8, collaborator with a staggering list of superstars on which Bono, Peter Gabriel, Tina Turner, and Alicia Keys are only the tip of the iceberg — Angélique Kidjo has done it all. Throughout a career that brought her international success, the Benin belter let her searching musical spirit move through rock, pop, dance music, and more, in addition to the Afropop sounds that are her sonic home base. But working your way through the melodious map of Kidjo's adventures in World Music is no mere day trip . . . unless you let us do the driving. We've journeyed through Kidjo's own dazzling discography, her guest spots, soundtrack cuts, remixes . . . the whole shebang . . . putting the absolute essentials from her crucial catalog together right here.