Akon

Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, aka Akon, is a well-known American singer/rapper/lyricist/record producer and an actor as well. He was born on 16th of April 1973 in St. Louis, Missouri to Mor Thiam and Kine Gueye Thiam, a dancer. His dad being a well-known jazz percussionist, Akon mastered five instruments which include drums, guitar, as well as djembe. He grew up in New Jersey after his family moved to Union City when he was seven years old. Akon was a drop out at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, after which music became his world.

He first recorded on his own in 2003. 29th of June, 2004 release, ‘Trouble’ was his claim to fame, in which ‘Ghetto’ was a super hit. 2004 saw one of his best releases and nomination in two categories for the Grammy Awards, ‘Best Contemporary R&B Album’ for Konvicted and ‘Best Rap/Snug Collaboration’ for the popular ‘Smack That’ and the song ‘I Wanna Love You.’ ‘Konvict Muzik’ and ‘Kon Live’ are two of his successful contributions. Being the first solo artist to get his name in the first two positions on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ list, Akon’s list of achievements is endless.

He has been number #1 selling artist for ring-tones by the Guinness Book of Records. Akon has featured with various prominent artists like ‘ Eminem This guy changed the course and history of music a >> Read More... ’ and Michael Jackson Story soon >> Read More... . He has also sung in different languages like Spanish, Tamil, Hindi and got nominated for the Filmfare award for the song ‘Chamak Challo’. Forbes power ranking given to Akon is 80. Akon was awarded triple platinum for his album ‘Konvicted’ by RIAA on 20th of November, 2007. Following this Akon established his clothing store, “Konvict Clothing” featuring Urban Street-wear, T-shirts, Jeans, etc. and “Aliaune” meant for the high-end fashion stop. His other releases include ‘Freedom’ on 2nd December 2008 and the latest ‘Stadium’ in 2015. ‘Freedom’ was certified as Platinum.

In 2008, July a mix between Akon and the legend MJ was presented to the audience through the song ‘Hold My Hand’ which is known to be the last record of MJ. Akon in 2014 initiated a project titled ‘Akon Lighting Africa’ which is intended to provide electricity in 15 different countries of Africa.

Other than producing and co-starring in various albums, Akon has also been a part of 2 films- ‘Black November’ in 2012 which was his debut to the film industry, and ‘ American Heist Click to look into! >> Read More... ’ in 2014 which was directed by Sarik Andreasyan. Akon is married to Tomeka Akon, claims having six children with three different women. He wishes to keep his family protected from the media. Akon even had to face controversies about his exaggerated criminal background, of being part of an auto-theft ring that prison barred for three years, and an unexpected agitation on stage. He is also known to own a diamond mine in South Africa and his own foundation in Africa for unfortunate children, ‘Konfidence’.