Akon paid $1 million in special request to perform in front of just three people
Akon was paid $1 million for an unusual special request in which the singer said he was asked to do the 'craziest thing'.
The hitmaker, real name Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam, remembered the Middle Eastern gig he was booked for by a family of 'royalty' as he featured on the FLAGRANT YouTube podcast.
The 53-year-old appeared on the podcast alongside hosts Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh in which he discussed his career, including highlights like working with Michael Jackson and Eminem and discovering Lady Gaga.
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But when asked about the craziest private booking during his career, the musician lifted the lid on one specific gig which he only performed to three people, despite thinking it was a major performance.
In a booking that 'easily cost $5m', Akon revealed details about the concert but refused to name who it was for. He explained: "It was funny because where it was in the Middle East. I can't say which family, but for the most part it was the craziest thing because they booked me for a million dollars, right?
"And was like, you know, we want you to perform for the family. We have this huge event my daughter's the biggest fan. I said, okay, amazing. We get prepared. They do everything. I even had a dressing room with all my condiments, everything on my rider. It was topnotch.
"I go in and I'm getting ready for the show and everything else. It was interesting because I'm like, the castle is so big I don't hear any music, right?
"So I'm like, "wow, this is this is huge.' They're walking me to the show, they walk me through this huge hall but there's only three chairs, monster stage, LED lights, lasers and everything, and I'm sitting on the side of the stage waiting for my audience."
As hosts of the podcast began laughing at the story Akon added: "Yo, three people came. The daughter, the son, and the wife, and she's sitting in the middle. She's just cheesy and can't wait."
But the story didn't stop there, as the musician said he was shortly after asked to stop the show and sing his 2004 hit 'Lonely' on repeat for the entire hour, later joking he could've just 'done karaoke' and saved the family millions.
He is currently on the co-headlining Nights Like This global tour alongside NE-YO and performing the American leg of dates.
"I walk out and it's like, 'okay, this is my audience,'" he explained. "Wow. So I go into my show and in the middle of it she said 'no, stop. Stop'. And I was like, 'What's going on sweetheart? Everything okay?'
"She's like 'I want to hear Mr Lonely'. I said 'that's it?' and she said 'yes. Can you just play that first?' I said 'okay, no problem'. So we start singing Lonely, the song finished and she's like 'ahh again!'. The whole hour. That's all we performed. That's it.
"My whole team was there. My sound guy, my lighting guy, road manager, business manager. We thought it was like a major show. Like I mean they they agreed to everything on the rider, bro. That's a million dollar stage.
"And they set it up, in a hall. It was crazy. It was an easy $5 million budget. In my mind, I'm like, I wish they would just told me specifics because I would have just saved them all that money, took half of that, and just went in the living room and sang with her like karaoke for an hour."
Topics: Music, Celebrity, Entertainment, World News
James Holt