Yes, Angelique Kidjo drops a lot of names. But you would, too, if you knew and worked with all the people she does; and you probably wouldn't do it as entertainingly as she does. Like classical-pop singer Josh Groban, who appears in a starring cameo role on her upcoming album, "Djin Djin" (out May 1 on Razor & Tie Records) -- and whose show Kidjo will open at Raleigh's RBC Center tonight.

"We met a few years ago, when Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize," Kidjo says, calling from a tour stop in Philadelphia. "Josh told me, 'I am a huge fan of your music,' and I thought, 'OK, who am I to say to the contrary?' Then I thought he was amazing, his voice and the way he sings. We kept meeting here and there. The second time was in Rome at 'We Are the Future: You Are the Answer,' a concert for children in countries at war. So finally, I called to have him come sing with me, and he did when he was in New York to do 'Good Morning, America.' "

Kidjo also reports that Groban does the wickedest impersonation of Bob Dylan you've ever heard, which is probably nothing you'll hear him do on a stage. But if Kidjo moves in rarefied circles, it's a privilege she earned with her distinctive voice and sensibility.

A native of Benin, Kidjo is an unmistakably African singer with a taste for Western pop and a gift for crossing over. You're as likely to hear her cover Billie Holiday or Jimi Hendrix as a song in her native tongue, which has made her a popular choice to provide exotic vocal cameos for the likes of Carlos Santana and Dave Matthews.

Kidjo called in some favors for "Djin Djin," which features Groban, Santana, Durham saxophonist Branford Marsalis, Ziggy Marley, Joss Stone and Peter Gabriel. Getting the Gabriel track, a ballad called "Salala," was particularly involved because Gabriel is known for taking his time in the studio.

"I sent him the song, and then I called him," Kidjo recalls. " 'I was just about to call you,' he said. 'Good spirits always meet,' I said. Then he said he loved the song and asked what it's about. And I said, 'It's about the mystery of birth and joy and the feeling of children being born, how happy we are when they are born healthy. We want to sing and rejoice, so go back to the feeling you had when your son was born. Every child is born the same way, not as a conflict of color but as a human being with a role to play on the planet. So we rejoice and do everything to make the future of that child be the best.'

" 'OK,' he said, 'I get it. You know me, I'm slow!' But this time he was fast. He called us in the studio three days later to say he was finished. He brought it to a whole other level. It's like he was there in spirit when I wrote the song."

But much of "Djin Djin" turned out the way it did out of fortunate happenstance. That's how teenage British soul belter Stone wound up on the album's cover of the Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter" -- she and Kidjo were both working at Electric Lady Studio in New York on the same day.

"You meet a lot of artists there," Kidjo says. "The day I was there with Josh Groban, Joss was downstairs editing her album. She came right up: 'Can I please sing on something? Please please please?!' No problem, I said, I'm doing 'Gimme Shelter.' 'Oh, can I please sing on this? It's wicked, it's cool, I love it!' If I had planned that, it would not have worked. It's why I don't plan anything. I let the music guide me to people who will be good for the project."