Story highlights Kidjo: I learned when I was 9 that skin color was used to divide people

Now I use my microphone to help build bonds with people, she writes

Angelique Kidjo is a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and an activist. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. This is part of "The first time I realized I was black" series.

(CNN) "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent."

You might remember this line in Robert De Niro's movie, "A Bronx Tale." But with what I have experienced in my life, I would rephrase it to say: "The saddest thing in life is wasted human connection due to fear."

My whole life has been a long journey through countries, cultures and languages. I have traveled the whole world with my music and I have discovered the many things we have in common. With the help of my microphone -- which I called my weapon of mass loving -- I have been able to forge bonds with incredible human beings of all origins. Am I a hopeless and naïve idealist? I don't think so!

Angelique Kidjo

I was lucky to be born into a big family with 10 children and raised by educated and open-minded parents in Benin, West Africa. Without fear, they opened the doors of their home to everyone: the French expatriate, the Chinese table tennis coach or the English engineer. There was no lock on that door.

My first realization that color could matter happened when I was 9 years old and I first saw the cover of Jimi Hendrix's album "Bold as Love." When I asked my brother where Hendrix was from, he told me that he was African-American, a slave descendant. This was the first time I learned about slavery. It was a concept that I could not fully grasp at that young age, but it troubled me.

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