A blast of Angela Kidzo there, performing at the World Economic Forum's opening concert.

For over 40 years, she spread the music of Africa far and wide,

picking up five Grammy Awards along the way,

and taking up the button as an advocate for girls' education. the Born in Benin, West Africa, this singer-songwriter rose to fame in Paris, where she settled in the

1980s after Kudetatar and political crisis. She's a musical globe trotter who sings in French and English, and she doesn't like the term world music.

So much of the popular music we listen to, she says, has roots in Africa and its rhythms.

As a UNICEF and Oxfam Goodwill Ambassador, she's interested in

helping those at the sharp end of power and she doesn't hold back.

I mean when the European people migrate to Africa, nobody tells them you're too many. You have to go back. It's

always on our side that we are not welcome.

Welcome to Power Play, Politico's interview podcast, where we talk to some of the world's most

influential people on either side of the Atlantic.

I'm Anne McElvoy and let's welcome Angela Kitzer to Power Play.

Hi there, Angela.

I'm happy to be here.

The work that you do as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and as an advocate for girls education and for humanitarian aid

more broadly is so much part of your life as a performer and as an advocate. Especially so in Africa, how do you assess how this year has been?

We're at post-Covid but we are in a stressed situation in many areas of the world.

How is your kind of optimism dial at the moment?

My optimism is always there because if you lose it and lose hope, what's the point of living? And you would think that after the pandemic we're going to come out of it and feeling that we're

going to come out of it and feeling that we need to get together within our shared humanity.

And actually, the world starts unraveling in rather a very dramatic way and the question I have for me is how do we get here?

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