Plenty of celebrities donate meaningful items to charities and contests: A gold record. A trademark T-shirt. Maybe even an autographed instrument.
But a $300,000-plus Lamborghini? Buckle up, it’s true.
Akon, the R&B/hip-hop superstar responsible for ubiquitous hits “I Wanna Love You,” “Don’t Matter” and the recent earworm “I Just Had Sex,” from a “Saturday Night Live” digital short, has teamed with a new company, FanTrace.com, to steer the uber-giveaway.
“It’s easy for me to give [the car] up to a fan, because it’s the fans who gave me the opportunity to purchase it. Without that support, there would be no Lambo,” Akon said last week in the headquarters of his Kon Live corporation in Buckhead.
Stretched out on a carrot-colored couch in the sleek offices, Akon, a Sandy Springs resident who has been in Atlanta since 1996, talked about his affiliation with FanTrace, which chose the Senegal-born singer as its inaugural client.
“My main motive is to have better communication with my fans and I wanted to catch this idea while it was early,” Akon said, then added with a knowing smile, “That’s when you benefit. Plus, I thought this concept was really dope.”
FanTrace is currently situated in Atlanta to oversee Akon’s site, which launched last week at www.fantrace.com/akon.
While celebrity websites are a hardly a breakthrough, FanTrace hopes to fill a niche for devoted fans who crave a deeper connection with their idols.
The idea, said FanTrace President Fred Khalil, is to be a one-stop digital outlet for fans, whether they are looking for concert tickets, songs and CDs or even a link to purchase something from Akon’s upcoming men’s clothing line, Aliaune (Akon’s birth name).
While FanTrace intends to introduce sites for a couple of personalities per month, whether from the worlds of music, movies or sports, Khalil said Akon seemed like an ideal starting point.
Khalil said he first met the singer/songwriter/producer in Las Vegas during Akon’s collaboration with Michael Jackson on “Hold My Hand,” the R&B – and now, jazz chart – hit on Jackson’s posthumous “Michael” album.
“Akon is very stable. He’s very focused,” Khalil said. “And, he’s so open-minded and willing to work.”
One of the attractions of Akon’s FanTrace site is the ability to send “personalized” greetings from the star via phone or email.
Akon spent four days in an area studio recording more than 35,000 combinations of names, occasions (everything from happy Ash Wednesday to happy engagement) and relationships to the recipient (“Your business partner wanted me to wish you…”) for the feature, which can be further customized with a choice of 10 Akon songs.
Software strings the right words together and for $1.99 per message – 10 to 25 are included in fan club membership – a tailored clip from Akon is created and sent.
But the big bang of FanTrace’s Akon unveiling is the car giveaway, which fans can register to win on the website.
Akon hopes it's the first of many giveaways.
“I might want to give away the house!” he said with a laugh. “You think I’m joking! But depending on how this car thing goes, I might want to give away another. I have 23 and I don’t drive all of them and I feel guilty sometimes. It just feels good knowing that I can say to a fan, you helped me buy it, now you take it. The blessings will only come back to me 10 times. I really believe in karma.”
Tentative plans call for the giveaway to take place on April 16 – Akon’s birthday – with some type of live TV presentation. Khalil said a sponsor for the TV portion will also cover the considerable tax bill that likely would come with winning the car.
“I will literally hand the person the keys,” he said. “And I want it televised so people actually see it happen and know it’s not a game.”
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