Akon

Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (born April 16, 1973), known mononymously as Akon, is a Senegalese American singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur.

Relationship with Lady Gaga

In January of 2008, while working on Doll Domination (2008) for the Pussycat Dolls, Akon had a writer block and asked RedOne if he knew someone to help him. RedOne brought Gaga to the studio and while she was demoing a song, Akon recognized her vocal talent. He later called Jimmy Iovine to request that Lady Gaga be signed to Kon Live Distribution, Akon's international label.

Akon: "I was like 'Yo, I want to sign that right there, she needs to be under my umbrella' - Jimmy [Iovine, chairman of Interscope Records] was like 'Yeah, whatever you want, take her, let's get it done.'"

RedOne: "After that, we did all the [iconic] songs: “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” “LoveGame”…and Akon said, “Red, hold on to that file. Don’t give it to anybody until I come for it, because I want to take these songs to Jimmy so we can make her a priority!”

After helping with the label, Akon was featured in the music video for "Just Dance" shot in March and did a few promo appearances and interviews with Gaga in August of 2008.

In a radio interview, Akon was asked about his current involvement with Gaga:

“	Actually I cashed out. I got out while the gooding was hot. It's like a business, you build it to sell it. When I got it to the peak of where I felt it couldn't go nowhere, and there was nowhere left to go but down, I cashed out, in other words I sold my share and got out before it was too late.	”
—Akon to Sway in the Morning on March 24, 2014

Prior to that interview, Kon Live last release with Gaga was A Very Gaga Holiday (EP) in November of 2011. ARTPOP was the first album released without his label in 2013.

Productions with Lady Gaga

He worked with Lady Gaga on the following song(s):

Songs from The Fame (2008):

• "Just Dance" (featured artist)

Songs currently unreleased:

• "Royal Treatment" (2008)
• "Miss It B4 You Kiss It" (2008)
• "Freakshow" (2008)

Songs written for other artists:

• "Eyes On Me" (Tami Chynn - 2008)
• "Hypnotico" (Tami Chynn - 2008, Jennifer Lopez - 2011)
• "Killa Love Song" (Tami Chynn - 2008)

Other

(2008)

(Mar 31, 2008)

"Just Dance"

(Aug 12, 2008)

(Aug 14, 2008)

(Aug 15, 2008)

(Aug 15, 2008)

(Aug 22, 2008)

(Aug 24, 2008)

(Aug 24, 2008)

(2009)

(Dec 8, 2009)

(Jan 31, 2010)

Trivia

• For undisclosed reasons, Gaga have never sung 'Konvict' (as in RedOne/Konvict, their producing duo name at the time) in "Just Dance" opening lyrics while she sing "RedOne" and "Gaga" that are before and after 'Konvict'.
• Akon was a spokesperson for Maranello watch. He gave one to Gaga and she wore it throughout 2009.

Link

• Official website