You are known as a strong African woman with African values. Is this that the secret of your success in the world music? "I do not know. I deeply believe that doing something wrong against someone, to walk on the head of somebody to succeed, always has consequences in your life because all that links us deeply; what makes us human, is this red colour of blood. Life always recalls what you did and returns it to you. My ancestors had this principle because they wanted to make me understand that one can work towards an end in life without sacrificing life on his way; without making evil with people with impunity and in all conscience. And I deeply believe that. "What is making the success of my career? I do not know. All I am is conscious and I know what I learned from my parents is that work always pays. I am always open to all the proposals." People present to you as a person with deep spiritual values in the African traditions. How do you mix this culture with the strong influence of the Nigerian 'Voodoo'."I will say, quite simply, that all human beings on this planet share the same universal values which we share in Africa whatever the names that one gives; be that traditional values, or any values that link human beings. I learned two fundamental things while growing up that I put in practice in my life: to like oneself and to respect oneself to be able to like and respect others. That is the foundation of my traditions that I put everywhere in my music. "The traditional singers of my country always told me that the music does not have anything to have with hatred; the music has to have a truth that passed through you as an individual. For me to be deep-rooted in my traditions is to respect those things. People talk so much of the religion' Voodoo', they talk of it being evil, since they do not really know it." Do you want to speak about it a little? "I will say that we believe in nature. And that our ancestors, before I were born, believed in nature like the Indians of America. The same for the Pagans or the Greeks, they believed in the wind, the element water, the flashes… in short, the elements which man cannot control and which participate to his evolution and his balance on this ground. The man has started to kneel down in front of these elements and has requested the fact that it can breathe fresh air, the fact that water can refresh, wash him and give him a life. It is from there that all these animist religions we are talking about came from. | "By the music we speak the same language and we are one." | | Angelique Kidjo |
"Today we have the Catholics, the Protestants, the Muslims etc. All these religions, on whatever elements are they based, on this ground, on this sand on which we walk; the wind, these religions do not have any capacity and power over it. It is only God who created them. It means that before Catholicism was brought to Africa, we believed theoretically in these elemental, natural things - the things that make Voodoo theoretical. Thus all those who believe that the environment should be saved, to save this planet. "The reheating of planet is a fundamental problem in our society today. People must ask questions to understand why we are not able to control the planet. There is not the capacity to change the planet without having the consequence of it and the consequences are seen on the climate today. And all technologies that we have today in the world cannot help to stop it if we, as individuals, do not make the effort to stop polluting." Do you still have Christian values in you? "What makes me laugh are those people who say that they believe in God but they have no sense of tolerance and compassion. How one can say he believes in God and be evil to another? How one can say he believes in God and says that because he is black, he is less of a believer or because the person has another belief. If God judged us strongly as we judge others, there would never be enough forgiveness. Human beings are full of arrogance and prejudice. "When the Catholics has arrived in Benin, my country, they have asked to the Voodoo Priests to leave their religion and to be fully committed to the Catholicism. The religious (Voodoo) chiefs of my country asked the Catholic priests what was the message of their God. The Catholics answered that the fundamental message of their God is to love each other and the animist's said that it is the same God we practice. Nature has taught us to show respect and the forgiveness between each other; therefore we can put your God in ours, they said." | 
