Thursday, October 18, 2012

Akon touching down

Akon's hard-edged hip-hop and catchy dance floor hits are on the menu for his first Chinese mainland tour, on Nov 4 at Beijing's Mastercard Center, Nov 5 at Shanghai's Mercedes Benz Arena and Nov 7 at Guangzhou Stadium.

The multi-platinum superstar, who is the boss and broker of Lady Gaga, will bring his hit songs including Mr Lonely, Right Now, Beautiful and Oh Africa, which he sang for the World Cup in South Africa 2010.

"We had a show set up a few years ago and had to cancel for some reasons, but I am excited to finally get the chance to visit China and be able to perform. I hope that I have time to explore," the 38-year-old singer-songwriter says in an e-mail interview.

As a songwriter and producer with his own record label, Akon has influenced the music industry behind the scenes by working with many of the world's biggest names, from Lady Gaga to Justin Bieber and Eminem.

He is credited with 45 Billboard Hot 100 songs since he first rose to prominence in 2004 with the release of Locked Up and has six Grammy nominations, an American Music Award for favorite male R&B artist and four World Music Awards. The prolific artist also made it onto Forbes' 2011 list of hip-hop top earners.

Akon says that balancing his roles as a boss and a singer is the core to win in the market. In order to stay fresh, he listens to "everything but what I do". Traveling also has given him plenty of inspiration.

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