In new music video, Angélique Kidjo pays tribute to #Endsars movement

Grammy award-winning singer, Angélique Kidjo, has released the stunning music visual for her latest work, titled Dignity featuring Yemi Alade.

The song is a tribute to the protestors of the #EndSARS movement last year. The music video is cinematic storytelling fitting for the message behind the song.

It shows a bleak view of migrants working at a port who face being unfairly laid off, and reveals that dance and song are the organic liberating forces. Furthermore, the music video calls for the dignified treatment of black people.

As a performer, Alade brings a dynamic twist to the song with her passionate energy driven by first-hand perspective as an activist who was directly involved in the #EndSARS movement.

This is not the first time Kidjo and Alade are coming together for a musical project, as they had in the past successfully collaborated on Alade’s Shekere.

“Many people think that police brutality only happens in America, but it’s everywhere. This song is against brutality, but it’s also about how we need to treat each other with dignity, treat nature with dignity, and treat ourselves with dignity. Because if we can’t see the dignity that Mother Nature gave to all of us, then how can we walk tall?”

The song’s hook ‘respect is reciprocal’ makes this song another anthem for reclaiming humanity. Kidjo and Alade enliven the video with their undeniably bold presence.

The four-time Grammy Award winner is one of the greatest artistes in international music today, a creative force with 13 albums to her name. Time Magazine has called her ‘Africa’s premier diva’, just as BBC has included her in its list of the continent’s 50 most iconic figures.

In 2011, The Guardian listed her as one of their Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World; while Forbes Magazine has ranked her as the first woman in their list of the Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa.

As a performer, Kidjo’s striking voice, stage presence and fluency in multiple cultures and languages have earned her respect from her peers and expanded her following across national borders.

She has cross-pollinated the traditions of her childhood in Benin Republic, West Africa with elements of American R&B, funk and jazz, as well as influences from Europe and Latin America.