Angélique Kidjo & Youssou N’Dour Chimes of Freedom Tour

About the Performance

For over four decades,Angélique Kidjo and Youssou N’Dour have revitalized West African music and reached audiences around the world. With roots in Benin and Senegal, respectively, they have each created a distinctive musical style, blending traditional rhythms with soul, funk, jazz, and pop. Both have made an impact far beyond the world of music and are considered among the most significant African artists of our time.

Their paths have crossed several times over the years, and they’ve shared the stage, but they’ve never toured with a joint concert program. With the Chimes of Freedom Tour, they’re now bringing their musical worlds together in a concert featuring some of their most beloved songs and specially arranged duets. Both have previously performed at UKK—Kidjo in 2023 and N’Dour in 2024. Now they return to the Main Hall for a new chapter in two extraordinary careers.

Angélique Kidjo

With her powerful voice, infectious energy, and musical curiosity, Angélique Kidjo has become one of Africa’s most acclaimed artists. Born in Benin, she blends West African musical traditions with influences from soul, funk, jazz, and Latin American music. Throughout her long career, she has been honored with five Grammy Awards, and in 2023 she was awarded the Polar Music Prize. In addition to her music, she is committed to promoting girls’ and young women’s right to education through her organization Batonga.

Youssou N’Dour

Youssou N’Dour is one of Senegal’s most influential artists and a central figure in West African music. With his expressive voice and his development of the rhythmic musical style known as mbalax, he has reached audiences far beyond his homeland’s borders. He has collaborated with international artists such as Peter Gabriel, Sting, and Neneh Cherry, with whom he scored an international hit with the duet “7 Seconds.” In 2005, his album *Egypt* won a Grammy.

UKK x Selam

Uppsala Konsert & Kongress continues to develop its programming through collaboration with leading experts in the music industry. Since 1997, the cultural organization Selam has successfully enriched Swedish cultural life with music from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, while also bringing Swedish music to the world. The UKK x Selam collaboration, which began in 2022, is a multi-year initiative aimed at presenting three to four major concert experiences in Uppsala each year.

The collaboration has so far resulted in concerts featuring, among others, Polar Music Prize winners Angélique Kidjo (Benin) and Youssou N’Dour (Senegal), ethio-jazz legend Mulatu Astatke (Ethiopia), Orchestra Baobab (Senegal), Fatoumata Diawara (Mali), Brazilian superstar Marisa Monte, Spain’s queen of flamenco Estrella Morente, and Nigerian Afrobeats artist Mr. Eazi, as well as several of Cuba’s leading salsa bands.