Akon

Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam (born April 16, 1973),^[1] better known as Akon (pronounced /ˈeɪkɒn/), is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, businessman, record producer and actor.^[3] He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first single from his debut album Trouble.
He has since founded two successful record labels, Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution. His second album, Konvicted received three nominations for the Grammy Awards in two categories, Best Contemporary R&B Album for Konvicted album and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Smack That" and "I Wanna Love You".
He is the first solo artist to hold both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice.^[4] Akon has had four songs certified as 3× platinum, three songs certified as 2× platinum, more than ten songs certified as 1× platinum and more than ten songs certified as gold in digital sales. Akon has sung songs in other languages including Tamil, Hindi, and Spanish. He was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the #1 selling artist for master ringtones in the world.
Akon often provides vocals as a featured artist and is currently credited with over 300 guest appearances and more than 35 Billboard Hot 100 songs. He has worked with numerous performers such as Michael Jackson, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Whitney Houston, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and Gwen Stefani. He has had five Grammy Awards nominations and has produced songs for artists such as Lady Gaga, Colby O'Donis, Kardinal Offishall, Leona Lewis, and T-Pain.
Forbes ranked Akon 80th (Power Rank) in Forbes Celebrity 100 in 2010^[5] and 5th in 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa list, in 2011.^[6] Billboard ranked Akon No. 6 on the list of Top Digital Songs Artists of the decade.



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Garth Brooks

Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962), known professionally as Garth Brooks, is an American country pop singer and songwriter.^[1] His integration of pop and rock and roll elements into the country genre through multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances earned him immense worldwide popularity. This progressive approach has allowed Brooks to dominate the country single and album charts, while also crossing over into the mainstream pop arena.^[2]
According to the RIAA, he is the best-selling solo albums artist in the United States with 136 million domestic units sold, ahead of Elvis Presley, and is second only to The Beatles in total album sales overall.^[3] He is also one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 160 million records.^[4]
Brooks has released six albums that achieved diamond status in the United States, those being: Garth Brooks (10× platinum), No Fences (17× platinum), Ropin' the Wind (14× platinum), The Hits (10× platinum), Sevens (10× platinum) and Double Live (21× platinum).^[5] Since 1989, Brooks has released 20 records in all, which include: 10 studio albums, 1 live album, 3 compilation albums, 3 Christmas albums and 3 box sets, along with 77 singles. He won several awards in his career, including 2 Grammy Awards, 17 American Music Awards (including the "Artist of the '90s") and the RIAA Award for best-selling solo albums artist of the century in the United States.
Troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2009.^[2] During this time, he sold millions of albums through an exclusive distribution deal with Walmart and sporadically released new singles.^[6][7] In 2005, Brooks started a partial comeback, giving select performances and releasing two compilation albums.
In 2009, he began Garth at Wynn, a periodic weekend residency show at Las Vegas' Encore Theatre from December 2009 to January 2014. Following the conclusion of the residency, Brooks announced his signing with Sony Music Nashville in July 2014.^[8] In September 2014, he began his comeback tour, The Garth Brooks World Tour, with wife and musician Trisha Yearwood. His most recent album, Man Against Machine, was released on November 11, 2014, exclusively to his online music store, GhostTunes.
Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 21, 2012.

                                              From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia