Johannesburg – Angélique Kidjo returns today with “Aye Kan” (feat. Ayra Starr), the latest single from her forthcoming album HOPE!! (Parlophone / Warner Music), out April 24.
The track unites the 5-time GRAMMY-winning global icon with Ayra Starr, one of the most exciting breakout voices in African pop right now, for a radiant, cross-generational collaboration rooted in shared heritage and a shared belief in what’s possible.
Listen / Watch “Aye Kan” ft. Ayra Starr: https://angeliquekidjo1.lnk.to/ayekan
Watch https://youtu.be/RmwQ7ruwjcM (airdate Fri 27/03 at noon CET /8am EST)
Pre-order HOPE!!: https://angeliquekidjo1.lnk.to/storeAY
Arriving alongside the single is the official “Aye Kan” music video, an intimate, warmly cinematic visual set inside a wood-paneled recording studio.
The video captures Kidjo and Starr performing together amid candlelight, a grand piano, and close-up moments of joy and connection—echoing the song’s lyrical core: a commitment-in-love anthem that treats love as wealth and a sustaining force, reframing what it means to be “rich” in a world that often prioritizes status and money over genuine care.
“Aye Kan” builds on a story that began years earlier, when Starr—then a child—saw Kidjo win a GRAMMY and realised the same dream could belong to her, too.
In a recent interview, Starr recalled: “Angélique Kidjo winning in 2008 was so important for me to see… She’s from Benin Republic, which is where I was born, so it made me believe I could do the same thing one day.”
Kidjo says that moment—and Starr’s artistry—sparked the collaboration: “I discovered Ayra Starr first through her music… Later, I sent her a DM saying I’d love to work with her.”
The pair reconnected at the GRAMMYs, where Starr told Kidjo she grew up listening to Kidjo’s lullaby “Naima.”
“I started singing the lullaby to her, and she said it gave her goosebumps,” Kidjo says.
“I told her, ‘I can sing it to you anytime. You’re like a child to me.’”
The new release is the latest glimpse into HOPE!!, Kidjo’s full-length follow-up to 2021’s GRAMMY-winning Mother Nature.
Across 16 tracks, HOPE!! is a groove-heavy and galvanising body of work dedicated to Kidjo’s late mother, and it features an all-star list of collaborators, including Pharrell, Quavo, Davido, Nile Rodgers, Charlie Wilson, IZA, PJ Morton, with additional contributions from Diane Warren, plus production from Pharrell, Shizzi, and others.
The album’s first single, “Fall On Me” (feat. PJ Morton), is out now.
Kidjo has had a tremendous past few years, including being named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People list, and winning the Polar Music Prize in 2023.
She also performed “Jerusalema,” a song featured on HOPE!! that earned Kidjo her 16th GRAMMY nomination, at the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame in Paris in 2024.
In September 2025, Pharrell Williams invited Kidjo to his Grace For The World concert in St Peter’s Square of Vatican City.
From that encounter were born three original songs produced and written by Pharrell in his Parisian studio and tailored to Kidjo’s personality and voice.
“For Me” is an anthem to self-celebration of one’s accomplishment in the face of challenge, featuring Charlie Wilson from The Gap Band.
“No Stopping Us” was born out of a conversation between Kidjo and Pharrell on the future of social change.
“Bando,” a slang word for an abandoned house, is a celebration of the true roots of popular trends born out of street life, and features vocals from Pharrell and Quavo.
HOPE!! is dedicated to Kidjo’s late mother, Yvonne, an homage to her resilience and optimism.
Kidjo says that her mother’s favorite song was “Malaika,” and the album concludes with an emotional, philharmonic rendition of the song arranged by Derrick Hodge and featuring French singer Florent Pagny.
Recorded in Paris and Los Angeles over the past three years, HOPE!! was crafted alongside many of Africa’s most electrifying musical voices.
They include Lagos-based neo-High Life duo The Cavemen (“I’m On Fire”), Congolese legend Fally Ipupa on “Nadi Balance,” along with horns from Kokoroko’s Sheila Maurice-Grey, Franco-Congolese artist Dadju (“Superwoman”), Tanzanian musician Diamond Platnumz (“Kakua”), and more.
Creating a vibrant bridge to South America, the album also highlights IZA—a Latin Grammy-nominated powerhouse and global cultural icon who is redefining the landscape of modern Brazilian music through a seamless blend of R&B, soul, and Afro-Brazilian rhythms—on the track “Oyaya.”
Made with producers like Shizzi (a Nigerian musician who’s worked with Fireboy DML, DaBaby, and Meek Mill), French jazz musician/composer Philippe Saisse, fast-rising Nigerian producer Louddaaa, and more, the result is a groove-heavy and galvanising album that boldly transcends genre while endlessly showcasing Kidjo’s larger-than-life presence and captivating voice.
Written by Diane Warren (a 17-time Oscar nominee who’s penned songs for Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Rihanna), the Grammy-nominated “Sunlight To My Soul” brings Kidjo’s force-of-nature voice to a full-hearted expression of gratitude and love—an element echoed by the exuberant harmonies of the Soweto Gospel Choir, a world-renowned South African group who contributed to several songs on HOPE!! and first performed with Kidjo at a 2003 benefit concert hosted by Nelson Mandela.
As the latest offering in a catalog that’s continually shown the transformative power of music, HOPE!! solidifies Kidjo’s legacy as a visionary artist whose sense of purpose has only grown stronger over time.
“Sometimes it feels as though the world is losing hope at such a rapid pace that it’s endangering our humanity,” says Kidjo.
“With all the music that I create, I want to show that anything and everything is possible—and that despite what the political rhetoric might have us believe, we are all deeply connected.
My hope is that these songs bring happiness to everyone, but also remind them that we were all put here to help and love each other.
With that sentiment in mind, it’s important to highlight that Kidjo has passionately devoted herself to humanitarian work all throughout her career—an undertaking that’s included launching her own charitable foundation, Batonga (an organisation dedicated to fostering the education of adolescent girls on the African continent), as well as advocating on behalf of children all over the world through her work as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
She has earned recognition as one of the 100 most inspiring women in the world (The Guardian) and the most influential woman in Africa (Forbes), in addition to winning the admiration of such prominent cultural figures as musician/actor/civil-rights activist Harry Belafonte, who commended for Kidjo “using her work and growing fame to change the way the world perceives Africa.”
TRACK LIST:
- Bando feat. Pharrell and Quavo
- Aye Kan feat. Ayra Starr
- No Stopping Us
- Fall On Me feat. PJ Morton
- Oyaya feat. Nile Rodgers and IZA
- Superwoman feat. Dadju
- I’m On Fire feat. The Cavemen
- You Can
- Kakua feat. Diamond Platnumz
- Sunlight To My Soul feat. Soweto Gospel Choir
- For Me feat. Charlie Wilson
- Big Heart
- Jerusalema
- Joy feat. Davido
- Nadi Balance feat. Fally Ipupa, The Cavemen, Sheila Maurice-Grey
- Malaika feat. Florent Pagny
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