Angélique Kidjo and Ayra Starr Share Full-Circle Global Moment in New Single & Music Video “Aye Kan” | Shore Fire Media

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27 March, 2026Print

Angélique Kidjo and Ayra Starr Share Full-Circle Global Moment in New Single & Music Video “Aye Kan”

Kidjo’s Forthcoming Album HOPE!! with Pharrell, Quavo, Davido, IZA, Nile Rodgers, PJ Morton, and More Out April 24 (Parlophone / Warner Music)

Listen / Watch “Aye Kan” ft. Ayra Starr: https://angeliquekidjo1.lnk.to/ayekan

 

March 27, 2026 // Angélique Kidjo returns today with “Aye Kan (Are You Coming Back?)” 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

Pre-order HOPE!!: https://angeliquekidjo1.lnk.to/storeAY 

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Arriving alongside the single is the official “Aye Kan (Are You Coming Back?)” music video, an intimate, warmly cinematic visual set inside the legendary New York studio, Power Station. 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 (Are You Coming Back?)” 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.’”

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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.

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.

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 organization 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

 

TOUR DATES:

March 28, 2026 - Somerville, MA - Somerville Theatre

April 9, 2026 - North Bethesda, MD - The Music Center at Strathmore

April 11, 2026 - Princeton, NJ - McCarter Theatre Center

April 25, 2026 - Stanford, CA - Bing Concert Hall

May 3, 2026 - La Jolla, CA - The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

May 6, 2026 - Cenon, Nouvelle-Aquitaine - Le Rocher de Palmer

May 8, 2026 - Halle (Saale), Germany - Georg Friedrich Handel Halle

May 12, 2026 - Paris, France - L'Olympia

May 13, 2026 - Luxembourg - Luxembourg Philharmonie (Gast Waltzing & Friends)

May 16, 2026 - Brighton, England - Brighton Dome

May 24, 2026 - Würzburg, Germany - Wurzburg Africa Festival

June 5, 2026 - Dublin, Ireland - National Concert Hall (Ife, with the Irish National Symphony)

June 25, 2026 - Niort, France - Niort Jazz Festival

July 6, 2026 - Vienne, France - Jazz à Vienne (w/ Fatoumata Diawara)

 

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