Akon
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50 free Akon trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Akon was the voice of mid-2000s radio: a singer with a Senegalese upbringing, a jailhouse persona and a hook for seemingly every rapper who asked. Behind the hits sat a sharper story, with a talent scout's ear, a label that launched other stars, and a criminal legend that turned out to be shakier than the records suggested. This quiz game covers the whole career. Expect questions on his family and early years, the big albums, the singles and guest spots that filled the charts, the artists he signed, his film roles, and the ventures that took him back to Africa, from village electricity to a city that never got built. It is pitched for anyone who remembers the songs, with a handful of deeper cuts for fans who know the liner notes. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing more than the choruses.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Akon spent much of his childhood in Senegal, but in which American city was the singer born?
St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri, is where Akon was born in 1973, though he calls Senegal his hometown. He was seven when the family settled in New Jersey.
Q 02Akon pitched Akon City, planned for Senegal's coast, as a real-life version of which fictional nation?
Wakanda
Wakanda, the hidden high-tech kingdom of Black Panther, was Akon's stated inspiration when he announced the project in 2018. The plan was abandoned in 2025 with only a welcome centre partly built.
Q 03Guinness World Records once listed Akon as the world's best-selling act in which music format?
Ringtones
Ringtones cut from his original recordings, known as mastertones, had sold 11 million by December 2007, more than any other act had managed.
Q 04Which future pop superstar did Akon sign to his KonLive label after hearing her sing a reference vocal?
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga impressed Akon in the studio, and he persuaded Interscope boss Jimmy Iovine to share her contract with his own label. He went on to co-write her breakthrough single, Just Dance.
Q 05Which superstar recorded the duet "Hold My Hand" with Akon, released only after the star's death?
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson heard the song while Akon was in Las Vegas helping with his next album, and asked to sing on it. It had first been written with Whitney Houston in mind.
Q 06Many Akon tracks announce themselves with the word "Konvict" and which sound effect?
A cell door clanking
A cell door clanking shut became the audio signature of Akon and his label, a nod to the jailbird image behind his early career.
Q 07Akon Lighting Africa, co-founded by Akon in 2014, powers villages using which energy source?
Solar power
Solar power runs the street lights and home kits the project installs, and young locals are trained to maintain them. By 2015 it was working in 14 African countries.
Q 08Which rapper produced "Smack That" and joined Akon on it after the pair met at an Obie Trice session?
Eminem
Eminem had been wary of doing too many guest spots, so Akon flew to Detroit as soon as he got the call. The single spent five straight weeks at number two on the Hot 100.
Q 09Which Akon single, built on a sped-up 1960s vocal sample, topped the UK, Australian and German charts?
Lonely
Lonely borrows the chorus of Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely", pitched up until it sounds like a cartoon chipmunk. Label bosses who heard the demo flew straight to Atlanta to meet Akon.
Q 10Akon and Keri Hilson recorded "Oh Africa" as a Pepsi charity anthem for which 2010 sporting event?
FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup football came to African soil for the first time in 2010, and the video packs in cameos from Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba and Thierry Henry. Proceeds went to Akon's children's charity.
Q 11Which West Coast rapper joined Akon on "I Wanna Love You", the singer's first Hot 100 number one?
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg replaced the track's original rapper, who had been arrested that summer, and scored only his second chart-topper. The song also sits on his album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment.
Q 12Akon produced and sang the hook on "The Sweet Escape", a 2006 title track for which pop star?
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani said the beat Akon built for her pointed the way back to a No Doubt record. The single reached number two in the US and earned a Grammy nomination for pop collaboration.
Q 13Which French DJ made the 2009 club hit "Sexy Chick" with Akon in a single night in a London studio?
David Guetta
Q 21Which 2004 debut album by Akon slowly climbed the UK chart before reaching number one the following spring?
Trouble
Trouble entered the British album chart in February 2005 and took until the end of April to reach the top. In the US it was certified double platinum.
Q 22Akon's third studio album, Freedom, was first announced in 2008 under which courtroom-flavoured title?
Acquitted
Acquitted would have kept up the legal theme of his earlier records, but Akon changed the name before release. Freedom also became his first album without a Parental Advisory sticker.
Q 23Which Jamaican Olympic sprinter does Akon name in his opening verse of the 2008 single "I'm So Paid"?
Usain Bolt
David Guetta met Akon at a concert, and they rented a studio at once rather than wait. The track went to number one in Britain, Germany and Australia.
Q 14Which debut single, chosen to win over the streets before radio, gave Akon a US top ten hit in 2004?
Locked Up
Locked Up was picked as a street record to build a fan base first, with a more commercial ballad held back to follow it. It climbed to number eight on the Hot 100.
Q 15Which singer behind "Buy U a Drank" won a Konvict Muzik deal after reworking Akon's debut single?
T-Pain
T-Pain had rival offers as high as $900,000, but Akon won him over by promising to mentor him personally. The two later shared a top five hit with Bartender.
Q 16Which reggae legend has a writing credit on Akon's "Don't Matter", whose chorus draws on "Zimbabwe"?
Bob Marley
Bob Marley's 1979 track shaped the chorus, and Akon says No Woman, No Cry taught him to wrap sad words in a happy tune. The result was his first solo US number one.
Q 17Akon built his "Konvict" image on a claim that he once ran what kind of criminal operation?
A car theft ring
A car theft ring and three years inside was the story Akon told interviewers, and it gave his second album its title. Court records later showed a single conviction, for a gun charge, and probation.
Q 18Which investigative website used court records in 2008 to show that Akon had embellished his prison past?
The Smoking Gun
The Smoking Gun interviewed detectives on his case and found no trace of the long sentence he described. Akon replied that several shorter spells behind bars added up to three years.
Q 19At a 2007 concert in Fishkill, New York, what did Akon do to a teenage fan that led to a harassment plea?
Threw him into the crowd
Akon threw him into the crowd from his shoulders after security brought up the teen accused of hurling an object at the stage. The plea cost him a $250 fine and 65 hours of community service.
Q 20Akon's father, Mor Thiam, whose group was once invited to the White House, made his name in which musical role?
Percussionist
Percussionist Mor Thiam recorded his first album in 1973 to help the victims of a drought in Africa. Akon's mother, Kine, was a dancer.
Usain Bolt, fresh from his record-breaking Beijing Olympics, was a known fan of Akon's music. Swimmer Michael Phelps gets a mention later in the same song.
Q 24"Smack That" by Akon broke which Billboard Hot 100 record in October 2006, helped by 67,000 downloads?
Biggest one-week climb
Biggest one-week climb in the chart's 48-year history was the feat: the single vaulted from number 95 to number 7. The record has been beaten several times since.
Q 25Akon sang "Chammak Challo" for Ra.One, a 2011 superhero film starring which Bollywood icon?
Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh Khan plays a dual role in the film, and the song was named India's most downloaded of the year. It was Akon's first collaboration with Indian musicians.
Q 26Akon's first acclaimed guest spot came on "Soul Survivor", a 2005 single by which Atlanta rapper?
Young Jeezy
Young Jeezy placed the track on Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, which entered the Billboard 200 at number two. A year later the pair floated plans for a joint album.
Q 27Akon produced and sang on "I Tried", a 2007 top ten comeback hit for which Cleveland rap group?
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony reached number six with the song, their highest chart placing in ten years. Its theme is the struggles both they and Akon faced on the streets.
Q 28Akon joined the 2010 remake of which 1980s charity anthem to raise money after the Haiti earthquake?
We Are the World
We Are the World was re-recorded 25 years after the original famine-relief single, while many of the singers were in Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards.
Q 29Akon's 2019 album featuring Becky G and Farruko was his first recorded in which language?
Spanish
Spanish first appeared in his music on a 2018 duet with reggaeton star Ozuna, when he also adopted the nickname El Negreeto, later the album's title. It was his first studio album in 11 years.
Q 30Akon, who grew up partly in Senegal, has said that he never consumes what?
Alcohol
Alcohol is off the menu for Akon, who is Muslim and describes himself as a teetotaler. That makes him an unlikely voice on some of the best-known drinking songs of the 2000s.