Akon
.jpg)
Akon (born April 16, 1973 in St. Louis , Missouri as Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam ) is an American musician , songwriter and record producer of Senegalese origin. His musical styles are based on hip-hop , rap , contemporary R&B , pop and traditional African music . He is also the founder of the music labels Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution .
life and career
Akon was born the son of the well-known Senegalese percussionist and jazz musician Mor Thiam in St. Louis , Missouri , and spent the first years of his life in Senegal. At the age of seven, Akon and his family moved back to Union City , New Jersey, USA . It was there that he came into contact with R'n'B for the first time and after a while he got into criminal circles. Akon also stated in some interviews that he was a Muslim .
According to his own statements, a prison sentence of several years inspired him to write his single Locked Up . Furthermore, his stepbrother, the choreographer Divine Stevens , who wanted to get him out of crime, is said to have discovered his talent as a musician and secretly sent his demo recording to labels. Eventually he got a response from Street Records Corporation , who offered Akon a recording deal . In June 2004, the Senegalese released his debut album Trouble . The first single from the album Locked Up reached the top ten of the US Billboard - Charts . After a few months' delay, it rose to number five in the UK single charts in March 2005 and was among the 20 best-selling singles in Germany. In May 2005 he reached number 1 with Lonely in the German and British singles charts. In the song, he uses a pitched (pitch-changed) sample from Mr. Lonely by Bobby Vinton .
Akon also founded his own music label called Konvict Muzik in 2005 together with Melvin Brown . In almost all of his songs the word "convicted" (in German: "condemned") occurs, mostly even at the beginning of the song, which is a kind of trademark of Akon. This music label includes Jeffree Star , Lady Gaga and T-Pain , among others .
After it was announced at the end of 2009 that his fourth studio album Stadium would be released the following year , but the completion was delayed due to work with other artists and released songs such as Angel (2010), Hurt Somebody (2012) and So Blue (2013) When singles that were not on albums or part of a mixtape were advertised, five singles were released on January 1, 2015 with the note that the stadium would consist of five parts, each assigned to one of the genres Euro, Pop, Urban, Island and World. In 2018 Akon made a guest appearance on Bushido's album Mythos , rapping the song Immortality with Bushido .
Controversy
In April 2007, Akon hit the headlines after a concert at a club in Trinidad after asking an underage female fan onto the stage, dancing and practicing simulated sex with her. Akon apologized for the incident, but defended himself by not recognizing the girl's age and also relying on the club's age limit. He dedicates two verses of his song Sorry, Blame It on Me to this incident , in which he apologizes to the girl, but continues to blame her parents and the club's operators. The incident had no legal consequences, but the US company Verizon stopped its support of Akon's concerts and ended the partnership. He was also noticed at his concerts the next year when he pushed a teenage fan off the stage and attacked two girls at a show in Guyana .
In July 2009, Akon was attacked by his white tiger, which he is keeping in a cage in his garden. His doctor confirmed that Akon suffered severe upper body injuries and minor injuries to his face after attempting to lead the animal through the garden. After this incident, some animal rights activists demanded that Akon should give the tiger to a pet shop because he was keeping the big cat in a cage measuring only 12 m². But as was found out later, the tiger has a large piece of meadow and forest in Akon's garden as an enclosure.
Akon is also the founder of the charity "Konfidence", which is dedicated to helping underprivileged children in Africa. He is also the owner of a diamond mine in South Africa.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 2004 | Trouble |
DE24 (18 weeks) DE |
AT32 (13 weeks) AT |
CH31 (21 weeks) CH |
UK1  (33 weeks)UK |
US18th (72 weeks)US |
Initial Release: June 29, 2004
Sales: 1,515,000 |
| 2006 | Convicted |
DE69 (6 weeks) DE |
- |
CH23  (26 weeks)CH |
UK16 × 2
(58 weeks)UK |
US2 × 3
(68 weeks)US |
First published: November 14, 2006
Sales: 4,200,000 |
| 2008 | Freedom |
DE82 (3 weeks) DE |
AT75 (1 week) AT |
CH22 (28 weeks) CH |
UK6th (50 weeks)UK |
US7 (38 weeks) US |
Initial Publication: December 2, 2008
Sales US: 762,000 |
Web links
- Homepage (English)
- Akon at Discogs (English)
- Akon at laut.de
- Akon in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Works by and about Akon in the catalog of the German National Library
- Akon at Allmusic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Akon Apologizes - I Didn't Know She Was Underage (TMZ.com)
- ↑ Verizon Ends Partnership With Hip-Hop Star Akon Following Simulated Rape ( Memento of the original from December 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (FOX News)
- ↑ Akon: So what if I own a diamond mine? (The Independent)
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
- ↑ Jason Lipshutz: Akon Previews 'Akonic' Album at NY Listening. Billboard , September 22, 2010, accessed November 10, 2014 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Akon |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Thiam, Aliaune Damala Badara Akon (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | US-American rapper |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 16, 1973 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Louis , Missouri , United States |