[drumming]
Quimbara quimbara quma quimbamba
Hello everyone. My name is Angélique Kidjo. 
I'm here today to talk about
the music of Celia Cruz and the impact 
she had on my life.
The most important thing in Celia Cruz's music
that I want to talk about here
is her owning and carrying
her Africananity in the music all the time
with the way she sings —
she sings rhythmically. The song that we're gonna
perform later, gonna be a proof of that.
First of all, the music from Cuba comes with the
slaves that left from West Africa — where
I am originally from — and they came in
with the clave of 6/8. And what Celia has been
able to do is to vocally, rhythmically
keep the 6/8 going on while the 4/4
that has been transformed from 6/8 is playing.
That's — that is absolutely mind-blowing.
I'm gonna introduce my —
one of my percussion players.
He is from Puerto Rico — Marcos Lopez gonna
come with me and then we can demonstrate
what we're talking about. Marcos.
The clave is that, that I'm playing my hand — goes like this.
[clapping]
Go ahead and play.
[clapping and drumming]
And now the 4/4, with the salsa.
[drumming]
[clapping and drumming]
That's the 4/4 right there.
It's not that far from the 6/8.
Now we're gonna try to sing the verse of
"Quimbara" that is typical salsa and how in
the ad lib she becomes — the second percussion,
or the primary percussion of that song.
Mi vida es tan solo eso
Rumba buena y guaguancó!
Ee Mama Ee Mama
Ee Mama Ee Mama
Quimbara quimbara quma quimbamba
Si quieres gozar
Si quieres bailar
Quimbara quimbara quma quimbamba
You have both. You have the 4/4.
You have the 6/8, always in there.
So what is important also to remember here is the
way she used her voice as a
complementary percussion because Quimbara
is not just like putting the word that
you go Quimbara quimbara quma quimbamba
Quimbara quimbara quma quimbamba
In that one, already you already have 4/4 
and you have 6/8 in it.
That was the thing that — things that
as a teenager when I heard it,
I'm like this woman is definitely African.
I decided to pay tribute to Celia
because of her Africanity
that she always reclaimed in her music,
and from the get-go, she never deny that
her African roots was really important to her.
I am Angélique Kidjo and I am turning the tables for real.
