Akon and Ne-Yo’s ‘Nights Like This’ tour took a strange turn at the O2 Arena as fans were soaked with water and ‘squished’ by the ‘Smack That’ singer during his performance
Two of R&B’s biggest icons, Akon and Ne-Yo, are currently touring globally together, but fans were left stunned when the music legends took to the stage at the O2 Arena last week.
The pair are presently midway through their ‘Nights Like This’ world tour, which has completely sold out. Across the UK, the R&B partnership is visiting London, Manchester, Birmingham and additional cities. However, following the opening London performance at the O2 Arena on May 8, numerous concert goers were baffled when Akon’s set took an unexpected twist.
The artist, born as Aliaune Thiam and who rose to fame with tracks including ‘Smack That’ and ‘Locked-Up’, stunned audience members when videos of him drenching the crowd with water began spreading across TikTok. Now fans fans took to social media to share their experiences.
“My £140 throwing water at me then assaulting me with a bottle,” Danielle quipped in her footage, which captured Akon onstage wielding a water bottle to drench fans before launching it into the audience, striking her camera.
Meanwhile, another attendee named Kerry was at the Dublin concert, where she documented the moment she was ‘squished’ by the performer when he crowd-surfed inside an inflatable human hamster ball.
“Nearly had to put ‘death by Akon’ on my tombstone,” she humorously captioned the video, which depicted the singer inside the oversized zorb struggling to maintain balance while the crowd propelled him throughout the venue.
However, he subsequently landed directly on top of Kerry before making his way across to another section of the audience.
Despite her initial remark, Kerry later described it as a ’10/10 concert experience’ in her post’s caption.
Social media users quickly flocked to the comments section to share their reactions. While many enquired about Danielle’s wellbeing following the water bottle incident, viewers found Kerry’s concert footage highly amusing.
“I love how EVERYONE is having a bad time,” one person remarked. In response, someone else added: “He looks scared lol.”
“I’M WHEEZING thank you for this POV,” a third person posted. Another user observed: “Imagine the crowd just never returned him to the stage.”
Meanwhile, one viewer suggested: “Might be an unpopular opinion but if people put the phones down and actually used both hands, this would’ve gone better. Not saying it would’ve been flawless, but it wouldn’t have been quite this bad.”
The two R&B icons will deliver back-to-back classics, including “So Sick” and “Smack That,” with London performances at The O2 scheduled from May 8-14, 2026.
Akon and the O2 Arena have been approached for comment.
