Akon

Akon, born Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam on April 16, 1973, in St. Louis, Missouri, grew up in a musical family: his mother, Kine Gueye Thiam, was a dancer, and his father, Mor Thiam, was a Senegalese percussionist and drummer. After an early false start with Elektra in the 1990s, he was developed through his relationship with Devyne Stephens and broke through in 2004 with Trouble, powered by "Locked Up" and "Lonely." He quickly became one of the defining hook-makers of the 2000s, adding major guest spots such as "Soul Survivor" and then reaching a bigger commercial peak with Konvicted in 2006, whose singles "Smack That" with Eminem, "I Wanna Love You" with Snoop Dogg, and "Don’t Matter" made him one of the era’s biggest hitmakers. Freedom followed in 2008 with "Right Now (Na Na Na)," "Beautiful," and "I’m So Paid," while his work outside his own albums expanded through Konvict Muzik and KonLive Distribution, which became part of the early story of artists including T-Pain and Lady Gaga; he also co-wrote Lady Gaga’s "Just Dance." After a long stretch of singles, features, and delayed album plans in the 2010s, Akon returned to full-length form in 2019 with the Latin-leaning El Negreeto and the Afrobeats-focused Akonda. In the following years he kept moving across styles and markets, appearing on Don Omar’s "Good Girl" in 2022, joining Steve Aoki and Trinix on a new version of "Locked Up" in 2023, releasing "Akon’s Beautiful Day" in 2024, and featuring on Josh Ross’s "Drunk Right Now (Na Na Na)" in 2025. In 2026 he rolled those newer strands into Beautiful Day and launched the joint Nights Like This tour with Ne-Yo.

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