Akon 'cons' Trinidad
'Dance for a trip to Africa'
Nigel Telesford
ntelesford@trinidadexpress.com
Saturday, April 14th 2007
admirer: Senegal-born superstar Akon and one of the "volunteers" during his performance at the Zen nightclub on Thursday night in Port of Spain.
International superstar Akon lived up to his name as he conned seven ladies into dancing onstage during his performance on Thursday night at the Zen nightclub in Port of Spain.
The star from Senegal managed to convince the ladies, who made their way onstage, that they were taking part in a global contest and that they could earn a fabulous grand prize trip to Africa if they won.
The competition was then filmed by Akon's crew and later revealed to be a mere sham for the entertainment of the audience present, and an even greater potential global audience, as he promised to upload the footage onto the popular Internet video website
www.youtube.com.
After performing his string of hit singles, including "Ghetto", "Locked Up", "Soul Survivor" and "I Wanna Love You", Akon requested and secured seven volunteers "to represent Trinidad" in the contest. He claimed that he had done this "everywhere he went", and that "Africa was currently ranked number one", with "Atlanta" and "London" coming in second and third, respectively.
He said: "We've never done this in the Caribbean before, but my DJ assures me that Trinidad has the best winers. Is that true? Well, y'all gotta represent here. Come on up now. Don't be scared."
The star then assured the audience that the local winner would compete in the finals against "Africa". As the contest began, each lady tried to out-wine the other to the sounds of Akon's recent collaboration, "Smack That", which features hip-hop star Eminem.
The crowd roared their approval of the eventual winner, who was then taken two short steps "to Africa" by Akon and promised that she could name her prize herself, if she defeated the best of Africa: none other than Akon himself.
Later on, Akon would have his way with the petite young lady: turning, twisting and even flipping her body, while mimicking sexual positions and acts all over the stage for three consecutive rounds.
His DJ, Virgin Islands native Benny D, even joined in during the second round and together they sandwiched the young lady on the floor of the stage. In the end, Akon declared himself the winner, even though the crowd adjudged that his female volunteer had won the contest.
A prolonged chant from the audience for a soca selection to settle the dispute went unheeded, although the singer did perform a soca-esque version of his latest single.
The African phenomenon, whose latest single, "Don't Matter", is currently ranked number one on the Billboard World Singles Chart, thrilled the capacity audience for just over 40 minutes, but left many patrons disappointed and wanting more of the star from Senegal.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index...s?id=161129187 
Akon 'cons' Trinidad 
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