Akon Smack That Party - The Konvicted Tour
By Wendy Tan
Akon Smack That Party - The Konvicted Tour
August 18, 2007
D'Marquee, Downtown East
Singapore
On tour to promote his second album Konvicted, Senegal born singer-songwriter Akon was in Singapore for a one-night-only show -- Akon Smack That Party, which sadly, was not sold-out.
Starting out with the first song on the Konvicted album, "Shake Down," Akon had the crowd transformed into a noisy, gyrating mass. Akon performed about 17 songs in total, including his Grammy Award nominated single "Smack That," which had the very excited audience vocalizing along with him, in a short one-hour set.
As on his albums, Akon took the audience back in time and into his past with songs like "Ghetto," and the reggae-sounding, "Mama Africa." The latter showed off a less commercial side of Akon rarely seen, or heard, with a more African, earthy feel to the song.
The crowd favorites and billboard hits were all there -- "Locked Up" (the song that shot him to fame back in 2004), "Don't Matter," and "Lonely." In-between each of the songs, Akon would share tidbits with the audience about the incidents that inspired the songs, allowing the crowd to connect with their idol.
Another huge hit of his, "I Just Wanna Love You," made great audience participation when Akon allowed the audience to fill in the blank "I Just Wanna ____ You," making the song highly unsuitable for the young. It was a good attempt at censorship though.
When the music for the song "The Sweet Escape," one of Akon's many collaborations came on, the crowd seemed to collectively hold their breath, in the hope that Gwen Stefani might turn up. Instead, Akon only performed his part of the song, making that song the shortest of the night.
Akon's interaction with the audience was very high, with him standing on the barricades and practically falling on the crowd at one point, if not for security holding him up. The crowd was singing along with him the whole concert and not one person in there looked nothing less than appreciative.
Overall, the whole show was amazing, and a whole lot of energetic fun. Although there were no fancy lighting or costume changes, Akon gave it his all, and for that, the crowd loved it and it was definitely worth the two hour wait. If only he had come out for an encore.
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