Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (; born April 16, 1973), also known mononymously as Akon, is a Senegalese-American singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur from New Jersey. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of “Locked Up” (featuring Styles P), the first single from his debut album Trouble (2004), followed by the second single “Lonely”.
Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (; born April 16, 1973), also known mononymously as Akon, is a Senegalese-American singer, songwriter, record producer, and investor from New Jersey. He rose to emphasis in 2004 in the same way as the pardon of “Locked Up” (featuring Styles P), the first single from his debut album Trouble (2004), followed by the second single “Lonely”.
He unconventional founded two well-off record labels, Konvict Muzik and KonLive Distribution. The labels served as home for many booming acts, such as Lady Gaga, T-Pain, R. City, Kardinal Offishall, Jeffree Star and Red Café, among others. His second album, Konvicted (2006), received three Grammy Award nominations for Best Contemporary R&B Album, and for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Smack That” (featuring Eminem) and “I Wanna Love You” (featuring Snoop Dogg). Both singles became Billboard Hot 100 summit ten hits, followed in the works by “Don’t Matter” and “Sorry, Blame It on Me”. His third studio album Freedom (2008) was led by the single “Right Now (Na Na Na)”.
He is the first solo player to sustain both the number one and two a skin condition simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice. Akon has had four songs recognized as 3× platinum, three songs approved as 2× platinum, more than ten songs recognized as 1× platinum and exceeding ten songs certified as gold in digital sales. Akon has sung songs in extra languages including Hindi and Spanish. He was listed by Guinness World Records as the number-one selling performer for master ringtones in the world.
Akon often provides vocals as a featured performer and is currently ascribed with exceeding 300 guest appearances and higher than 35 Billboard Hot 100 songs, resulting in five Grammy Award nominations. He has released six solo albums and has handled the majority of production on his solo feign and guest features. Alongside his recording career, Akon has a concurrent career in producing archives mainly for artists on his respective labels, as well as for new mainstream acts such as Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Lionel Richie, Leona Lewis, Sean Paul, and Whitney Houston.
Forbes ranked Akon 80th (Power Rank) in the Forbes Celebrity 100 in 2010 and 5th in the 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa list, in 2011. Billboard ranked Akon No. 6 upon the list of Top Digital Songs Artists of the decade.