Akon Is Making a Shocking Genre Switch for His New Album and Re-Imagined Versions of His Greatest Hits

During a podcast appearance in April 2026, Akon confirmed his plans to dip his toe into country music. The R&B icon shared the news on Won of One: A PLLRS Podcast, and has previously mentioned plans to re-imagine his biggest hits with country stylings.

Akon explained that the decision to release original music in the genre wasn’t something he’d thought a lot about until recently. But he’s always had an interest in country music, he said, with his R&B hits rooted in the genre. Akon said that he didn’t realize people had an interest in a full-length country album from him until he did some in-depth research.

Akon Plans To Release countrified Greatest Hits Album After Original Music

“Now, I’m making original country songs,” he said. “We got to the point where we did real research. I didn’t realize how many country music fans wanted to hear an Akon album. They were like, ‘We want to hear you do original records.’ So, we started to pivot to doing original records.”

For fans who’ve been following Akon’s hints about his countrified greatest hits album, he assured his audience that the album is still coming. “I’m going to do a specialty album with all of my hits redone in country after I release the [original country music album],” he explained.

And for those who are wondering where this shift to country is coming from, Akon clarified that too. Apparently, the genre has always influenced him. Despite being confined to hip-hop and R&B for the majority of his career, there has always been a secret country element to Akon’s biggest hits.

Country music has always been an inspiration for Akon

“All my songs are inspired by country music,” said Akon. “When I came from Africa, I only listened to reggae and country. I didn’t know what hip-hop was. I was introduced to hip-hop when I got here. If you listen to a lot of my songwriting, it’s all been storytelling. And that’s all country music ever been. When I wrote songs, I wrote from the mindset of country [music].”

Country music has also become more than just a songwriting influence for Akon, as he’s already experimented with the genre directly. In 2025, he released the single “Hold The Umbrella” with Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts.

That same year, Akon was featured on Josh Ross’ track “Drunk Right Now (Na Na Na)”. This re-imagining of his 2008 single “Right Now (Na Na Na)” appeared on Ross’ debut album. Perhaps that track was the catalyst for Akon’s interest in countrifying more of his biggest hits.

The post Akon Is Making a Shocking Genre Switch for His New Album and Re-Imagined Versions of His Greatest Hits appeared first on VICE.

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