Angélique Kidjo & Fatoumata Diawara, Festival Hall - music review

Two energetic singers conjured a euphoric atmosphere for the Festival Hall's celebration of International Women's Day
Fatoumata Diawara performs
Getty Images
Simon Broughton11 March 2013

I’ve never seen the Festival Hall like it. Maybe it was the chance to forget the economic gloom and maybe it was the frequent invocations to celebrate International Women’s Day but the whole place was dancing. By the end the stage was packed with audience members, the burly security guard was out-manoeuvred and possibly even enjoying young women recklessly strutting their stuff just inches from his chest, to the unstoppable rhythms of a djembe player.

Jude Kelly, artistic director of the Southbank Centre and organiser of Wow, Women of the World Festival, introduced the two singers as activists using music “for pleasure and for power”. First on was Mali’s Fatoumata Diawara, strikingly tall in elegant red and yellow robes and turban. She was the Newcomer in the Songlines Music Awards last year but in just a few months her stature has risen immensely.

In Mali, recently, she assembled many of the country’s greatest musicians to record a song for peace and, accompanied by electric guitars, that too was a theme of her set on Friday. One of her songs, Mousso, is about the power of women and she said she hoped to see a female president of Mali one day — huge applause. As the energy built, Fatoumata threw off her turban and started dancing, throwing her beaded hair backwards and forwards. A star.

Angelique Kidjo, from Benin via New York, has a gorgeous voice and a power-packed muscular energy. She had everybody dancing early on, came out into the audience and then invited as many as could fit on the stage.

A euphoric atmosphere that few will forget.

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