Delhi, you are all party animals

After the fiasco of the Bryan Adams concert in February, the city finally got its big party as Senegalese-American pop star Akon enthralled a jam-packed audience in Gurgaon on Saturday night. Thousands of fans sang happy birthday for the singer, who turned 38 that day. “Delhi, you guys are all party animals,” screamed Akon at a crowd of over 2,000 people at the HUDA grounds.

A large part of the rapper’s performance involved gimmicks — from singing inside a zorb-ball and crowd surfing, to splashing 20 bottles of water into screaming fans.

The rapper got everyone grooving to songs such as Smack That, Don’t Matter and Party Animal. At one point he stripped off his shirt and jumped into the crowd, calling on fans to take off their shirts too.

Despite the antics, some felt the show was thanda. “I attended Akon’s last Delhi concert and the energy was much better. Tonight, he seemed more focussed on gimmicks than on music,” says Rajat Sharma, 22. “It was difficult to get into the mood! The show was on and off, and he even went off stage for five minutes,” says Sharda Sinha, 21.

However, Akon’s not bothered. He had such a blast, he hopes to come back next year. “India is like my second home. I think I’ll be buying a house here. We’re also planning a vacation in India, let’s see,” he says. Completing his desi-connection for the night, was his wife Rosina, who wore lehenga-choli. He says he plans to don a desi-avatar too. “Yeah, I’ll wear something Indian soon.”

On-stage antics
He crowd surfed in a zorb-ball and moved about in the crowd on his bodyguard’s shoulder
Splashed close to 20 bottles of water at fans, saying, “Is it getting hot in here.”
Cut a birthday cake on stage and hand fed some fans standing close to the stage