Angélique Kidjo

Featuring: Josh Groban Carlos Santana

There is a woman in Somalia
Scraping for pearls on the roadside
There's a force stronger than nature
Keeps her will alive
This is how she's dying
She's dying to survive
Don't know what she's made of
I would like to be that brave

She cries to the heaven above
There is a stone in my heart
She lives a life she didn't choose
And it hurts like brand-new shoes

Hurts like brand-new shoes
There is a woman in Somalia

The sun gives her no mercy
The same sky we lay under
Burns her to the bone
Long as afternoon shadows
It's gonna take her to get home
Each grain carefully wrapped up
Pearls for her little girl

Hallelujah
Hallelujah

She cries to the heaven above
There is a stone in my heart
She lives in a world she didn't choose
And it hurts like brand-new shoes
Hurts like brand-new shoes

Beninese singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo is widely regarded as one of the greatest artists in international music with thirteen albums and three Grammy Awards to her name. Born in 1960 to a mother of the Yoruba people and a father of the Fon people, she grew up listening to Beninese traditional music as well as the popular Afrobeat, Soweto Blues, Caribbean Fusion, and American Rock artists of the day. By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother’s theatre troupe, giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance. Her professional career began in the late 1970’s when her cover of Miriam Makeba’s “Les Trois Z” found success on national radio. This led to the release of her debut album Pretty in 1981. Kidjo speaks and sings fluently in five Fon, French, Yorùbá, Gen (Mina), and English.

From the album

Djin Djin (2007)

Angélique Kidjo popular songs

Pearls

PearlsAngélique Kidjo

Angélique Kidjo