Yewhe Yeton

Musician Gbetognon Houenou (stage name: Yewhe Yeton) promotes Beninese indigenous heritage through his artistic and cultural work.

As a member of the groups DiFlex and Benin International Musical (BIM) and then as a solo artist, Yewhe has appeared in more than one hundred concerts internationally, including a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall in New York, Radio France FIP in Paris, and Les Nuits D’Afrique in Montreal. With three group albums to his credit, his new solo album LOKO layers Beninese rhythms and melodies from vodoun convents, as well as those inspired by his origins on the banks of the Ouémé River, with hip hop.

He has been selected for several residencies, including Fondation Camargo (France), EU-West Africa Fusion Artists (Ghana), Purchase College (New York, USA), Mémorial ACTe (Guadeloupe, May 2025), and Africatown (Alabama, USA, August 2025).

He was also Music and Culture Curator for Purchase College’s 2023 Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad. Prizes include: RFI’s Prix Découvertes; First Prize EU-West Africa; Prizes for Best Flow and Best Album, R&R Awards. In addition, Yewhe is engaged in ongoing collaboration with a French sociolinguist to create original music based on audio recordings of African tirailleurs, which he has performed at the Musée Quai Branly, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève (May 2025).

Finally, Yewhe is the founder of Atche Binon Art & Culture, an organization whose mission is cultural transmission through arts education.