Angelique Kidjo, Grammy Award-Winning Singer and Activist, to Lecture and Perform on February 19 as Part of University’s Distinguished Lecturer Series --Kidjo, who won her third Grammy Award this week, will sing and discuss her advocacy work for education Angélique Kidjo Singer and activist Angélique Kidjo will present “Education in Hope: Investing the the Future,” a lecture and performance at William Paterson University in Wayne as part of the Distinguished Lecturer Series on Friday, February 19, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. The program will be held in the University’s Shea Center for Performing Arts on campus. Tickets are $25. William Paterson students will be admitted free with valid ID. For more information, please call the Shea Center Box Office at 973. 720.2371 or visit wp-presents.org. Kidjo, who was born in Benin, West Africa, has been a force on the world music scene for more than two decades. She won the 2016 Grammy for Best World Music Album for Sings, a collection of her songs infused with Western classical traditions in a collaboration with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. This is the second straight year that Kidjo has won the Best World Music Album prize, after last year's Eve that paid tribute to African women and hit number one on the world music charts with retailers around the world. Her 2007 album, DJIN DJIN, won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Album. She has collaborated with numerous artists, in genres from pop and rock to jazz and classical, including Dave Matthews, Bono, Branford Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet, and performed around the world. In 2015, Kidjo sang with Shakira at the opening of the 2015 United Nations General Assembly. Since 2002, she has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador who advocates for education as the key to economic empowerment. She is a co-founder of the Batonga Foundation, which seeks to empower young women and girls in Africa through secondary school and higher education. She has been acknowledged by The Guardian magazine as one of the 100 most inspiring women in the world, and is the first woman to be listed among “The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa” by Forbes magazine. Kidjo has received honorary doctorates from Yale University, Berklee College of Music and Middlebury College.
