"My mother's magic word was hope," Angélique tells BET. "She lived longer than me on this earth to understand that hope is the ultimate thing we have to hold on to, especially when times are difficult."

For the artist, hope is not blind optimism. It is action. It is vision. It is the thing that keeps people moving forward when the future feels uncertain. "Without hope, will you be talking to me today?" she asks. "How do you get up and get on to your stuff?"

That belief became especially important after the loss of her mother in June of 2021. The album took years to complete because, as Angélique explains, grief could not be rushed. "That's why it took me 5 years to do this album," she says. "It's a work in progress, and you have to be patient."

The loss changed her in ways she is still processing. Both of her parents are now gone, a reality that forced her and her siblings into a new chapter of life. Still, she found comfort in the lessons her mother left behind. "I have held hope that my grief one day gonna diminish. It's never gonna go away, but it's gonna allow me to continue doing what I love to do the most."

That ability to move forward has defined much of Angélique’s career. As a woman navigating the music industry, she says perseverance was never optional. As an African woman, I often felt the challenges were even greater. "When you are a woman in this music business, it's complicated," she says. "And when you're an African woman, it's a double-edged sword."

Over the years, she encountered assumptions about her worth, capabilities, and identity. But she refused to let other people's perceptions dictate her path. "My parents have taught me that I can't let anybody define who I am," the 66-year-old says. "That if I'm hopeful and I'm doing what I love to do, I'm doing with my heart, with my guts, with all my being."

That confidence became the foundation for a career that has crossed genres, languages, and borders while remaining rooted in her culture. For many artists, success brings pressure to become more commercially acceptable. Angélique never felt compelled to make those compromises. "No one can force me to do whatever I don't want," she emphasizes. "This is what I am, this is who I am, this is where I come from, this is my culture, this is what I do. From the get-go, who I was is who I am still today. I never waver or water it down because I don't know how to do otherwise."

That conviction helped make Angélique one of the most influential cultural ambassadors Africa has ever produced. Long before Afrobeats became a global force, she believed the continent's influence would eventually become impossible to ignore. “It will sound like bragging, but I knew this was going to come," she says.

That belief came from years spent traveling across the continent as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador from 2002 and through the work of her Batonga Foundation. Along the way, she witnessed the ambition, creativity, and determination of young people. "I never lost contact with the youth… The youth of Africa, they have dreams, big dreams," she says. "You can't stop people from dreaming to have a better life."

Still, she believes the current celebration of African culture is only the beginning. "Let us not say hooray, hooray yet," she says. Her next challenge is ensuring that Africa's global momentum benefits the entire continent. She envisions Afrobeats as a broad umbrella that can create space for sounds and stories from every region: "Let's, in that space, create as much as we want."

That commitment to future generations extends to her relationships with younger artists. On HOPE!!, she collaborates with Ayra Starr, one of Nigeria's biggest stars and a fellow artist with Beninese roots. But the Woman King actress states she never entered music thinking about influence or legacy. "You don't choose to be a musician because you expect to be somebody," she says.