Kidjo’s Forthcoming Album HOPE!! with Pharrell, Quavo, Ayra Starr, Davido, Nile Rodgers, PJ Morton, and More Out April 24
(Parlophone / Warner Music)
Listen “Aye Kan” ft. Ayra Starr: [https://angeliquekidjo1.lnk.to/ayekan ]
Watch https://youtu.be/RmwQ7ruwjcM
March 27, 2026 // 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.
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 realized 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 galvanizing 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 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, including 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 galvanizing album that boldly transcends genre while endlessly showcasing Kidjo’s larger-than-life presence and captivating voice.
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