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Often going by the shorter Aliaune Thiam (born 14 October 1981 in St. Louis, Missouri; raised in Dakar, Senegal), and better known by stage name Akon, is a Grammy Award-nominated Senegalese hip-hop and R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, and record executive.
Akon is the son of jazz percussionist Mor Thiam. He grew up in Senegal until he was seven, split time between Senegal and the U.S. until he was fifteen. Akon began writing and recording tracks in his home studio. The tapes found their way to SRC/Universal, which released Akon's debut LP Trouble in June 2004.
Akon's solo debut album, Trouble was released on June 29, 2004. It spawned the hit singles "Locked Up" and "Lonely," as well as "Belly Dancer (Bananza)," "Pot Of Gold," and "Ghetto." "Locked Up" reached the top 10 in the U.S. and the top five in the UK. In 2005, he released the single "Lonely" (which samples Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely"). The song reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the charts in Australia, the UK and Germany. His album also climbed to number one in the UK in April, 2005. In 2005, Akon gained more popularity after being featured on Young Jeezy's debut album, Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, on the song "Soul Survivor" which became a top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100. |
| Akon's sophomore album, entitled Konvicted, was released on November 14, 2006. Konvicted included collaborations with Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Styles P. Late August 2006, Akon released the single "Smack That" featuring Eminem, from the album. This single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for five weeks. It is a collaboration between Akon and Snoop Dogg. This single earned Akon his first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and Snoop's second. "I Wanna Love You" topped the U.S. charts for two consecutive weeks. In January 2007, Akon released his third single "Don't Matter" which so far has reached five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Konvicted debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 285,000 copies in its first week. After only six weeks, Konvicted sold more than one million records in the U.S. and more than 1.3 million worldwide. Currently it has sold more than 1.5 million records in the U.S. and 2.2 million worldwide.
On the week of October 5, Akon broke a record on the Hot 100, as he achieved the largest climb in the chart's 48-year-history with "Smack That" jumping from number 95 to number seven.
In December 2006, Akon's "Smack That" was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.
He was featured on Gwen Stefani's latest album, The Sweet Escape. The song was produced by him. On December 10, 2006 both Akon and Stefani appeared as musical guests on Saturday Night Live.
Akon is set to embark on a world tour in 2007. |
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