“I’m always adventurous and I believe in music being a universal language,” she tells InDaily, explaining why she first decided to work with a classical orchestra and contemporary classical composer.

“Music is music and it doesn’t matter who is doing it as long as it is a form of communication and we are doing it together.

“I like pushing boundaries and takings risks … I’ve always done that.

“For me, I can’t get bored. If I get bored, I’ll stop singing.”

She says it was after the artistic director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Timothy Walker, heard her sing in New York and told her he thought her voice would sound magnificent with an orchestra that she approached her composer friend Philip Glass about a possible collaboration.

The resulting three-movement philharmonic piece “Ifé” was born from a discussion in his kitchen. It is based on three creation poems from Yoruba mythology set to music by Glass, sung by Kidjo and first performed with the Orchestre Philharmonique Du Luxembourg in 2014.

Just over a year later, Kidjo released Sings, a collaboration with the Luxembourg orchestra featuring orchestral arrangements by conductor Gast Waltzing and guitarist David Laborier of nine songs from her previous albums plus two original tracks. It was this month named the winner of the 2016 Grammy for Best World Music Album.

Kidjo says she was surprised how good her music sounded with an orchestra, with the first live performance receiving five standing ovations.

“I was like – What? Really? What is going on here? I was really surprised.”

Waltzing and Laborier will both join Kidjo for the exclusive WOMADelaide performance on the festival’s opening night (March 11), alongside the 60-strong Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The show will feature “Ifé”, George Gershwin’s “Summertime”, and several original pieces written by Kidjo and her musician husband Jean Hebrail.

Kidjo believes strongly in the power of music to break down boundaries and unify people of different cultures, and has said she hopes her classical collaborations will help change the meaning of “African music” and “classical music”.

As well as having recorded 12 albums and collaborated with artists ranging from Alicia Keys to Otis Redding, she also travels the world as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and regularly tops lists of Africa and the world’s most inspiring and influential women.

Her previous album, Eve, which won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album, was dedicated to the women of Africa. That year in her acceptance speech, she described music as “a weapon of peace”; at this year’s Grammys, she reiterated her belief that the world could “say no to hate and violence through music”.

“The thing that we don’t even think about most of the time is that we are free to listen to music,” she tells InDaily.

“It is one of the only things that we do without anyone lecturing us and telling us what to do. We can listen to music whenever we want to … with total freedom. That’s why it is the first work of art that any dictatorship removes.

“My main concern today is that there is a lot of violence around and it’s scary … we just get used to it as everyday violence and it’s just not acceptable. It’s not acceptable for anyone to impose any violence or religion on anyone.

“I believe that it’s about time that we musicians really come together and use our music to say no to those forms of violence.”

Angelique Kidjo will perform with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on the opening night of WOMADelaide in Botanic Park on March 11.