Angelique Kidjo & Ibrahim Maalouf - Queen of Sheba (2022)

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Angelique Kidjo & Ibrahim Maalouf - Queen of Sheba (2022)

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Ibrahim Maalouf and Angélique Kidjo have announced that their new album Queen Of Sheba will be released June 24. While these two superstars of international music have collaborated before, this is their very first album together. Maalouf is a world-renowned trumpeter, composer and multi-instrumentalist who has sold out the biggest arena in his home country of France and was recently a musical guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Kidjo is a 5-time GRAMMY winner (winning Best Global Album for her latest album Mother Nature at the 2022 Awards) and recently named a Time 100 Most Influential Person.

Queen of Sheba is bursting with a thrilling, vibrant energy. A soaring 7-part suite, it was inspired by, and reinvents, the myth of Queen Sheba, an African Queen who heard about the reputation of King Salomon and traveled to Jerusalem to witness the king’s wisdom. It’s an ancient story that’s appeared in the Bible, the Quran, the Talmud and in Ethiopian literature among countless other films and writings.

Queen Of Sheba was composed and scored entirely by Maalouf with all lyrics by Kidjo, and sung by Kidjo in Yoruba. In addition to masterful quarter-tone trumpet performance from Maalouf highlighted throughout the recording, he composed and arranged the music for a full orchestra including strings, horns, drums, percussion, guitar, bass and electric piano. Kidjo’s long-celebrated voice is full of power, grit and grace as she reimagines a myth that has long captivated the world in a thought-provoking, modern light.

Long in the making, the idea for Sheba first came together when Maalouf and Kidjo first met, in New York City, in 2018, and from the outset envisioned a project that would blend the music and culture of their backgrounds together: a fusion of the Middle East (Maalouf was born in Lebanon) and Africa (Kidjo was born in Benin). Queen Of Sheba doubles down on the dramatic, an ambitious set that touches upon rock, pop, orchestral music and sounds from across the spectrum of the Middle East and Africa. The album begins with “Ahan,” propelled by lightning-quick ostinato rhythms and instruments that seem to float and growl in equal measure. The mysterious “Eyin” follows, punctuated by snare drum snaps and an explosion of percussion. There are moments of somber reflection as well, as “Ife” begins, just Kidjo and guitar.