Indian women, the most beautiful: Akon

International singer Akon seems to have bonded well with superstar Shah Rukh Khan during his previous visits to India and when quizzed the R&B singer echoes similar sentiments even today. “Yes Shah Rukh Khan is a good friend of mine.  I also had the pleasure of meeting Kareena Kapoor once and I look forward to meeting many others during my trip this time around.”

The singer, whose birthday co-incidentally falls in the midst of the tour says that he is looking forward to exploring Gurgaon (Delhi) and Bengaluru as he performs there for the first time on April 16 and 17. So isn’t he disappointed to be working on his birthday?

“I’m really looking forward to sharing my music with the great fans of India. I can’t think of a better birthday present,” he counters.

Ask Akon to pick a favourite from all of his numbers and he instantly says, “That would be Right now. It’s got more of a pop feel. The story is more about me being in a present relationship, but I’m reminiscing on a relationship from back in the day—before my success. Around that time, the relationship was just completely raw. It’s like you have nothing to lose and just want to have fun. That was even the concept for the video.”

Elaborating, Akon smiles, “Whereas now, with my current relationship, everything is cool. I’ve got money now, but my lady is also rich and she’s more conservative. So it’s also about a lot of things she wouldn’t normally do because of her status. It’s about a lot of things from your past relationships that you miss. You’re like, “Damn, I wish I never really broke up. I wish I could just link up and do the things that we used to do.”

Harking back, Akon says that he treasures his associations with late iconic singer Michael Jackson till date.

“The collaboration with Michael Jackson was the best and most exciting in my whole career. That was one of the highlights of my career simply because I never thought it could happen. But that was always my goal. I put together a five-year-plan. Mike was like the last goal. But it happened way before. He was the most humble guy. On a parting note, ask him his opinion on Indian women and he says cheekily, “Well, they are the most beautiful women in the world.