Haitian singer Rutshelle Guillaume received the Nuits d’Afrique Prize for Francophonie on Monday, the day after her closing concert at the festival, during which thousands of people gathered to hear the woman nicknamed the “queen of kompa.”
“This recognition is a great source of pride for me and for the entire Afro-Caribbean community. Thank you for celebrating our culture and our music!” the artist said in a statement.
Each year, the prize is awarded to “an artist with international influence, who embodies a unifying vision of the Francophonie and the diversity of cultural expressions in the international Francophone space,” we can read in the same press release.
In the past, the Nuits d’Afrique Prize for Francophonie has been awarded to Manu Dibango, Salif Keita and Angélique Kidjo.