Madcon (short for Mad Conspiracy) has lately also been a great success on South African radio. The hit Beggin' has been on music charts for weeks and Madcon’s latest album – So Dark the Con of Man – has been the featured album on 5FM.
Madcon is made up of Tshawe Baqwa (Kapricon) and Yosef Wolde-Mariam (Critical). Kapricon was born in Germany to South African parents, but grew up in Oslo. Critical was born in Norway to parents from Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Madcon has collaborated with a variety of artists in Norway, but first received real commercial recognition for their work with its partners from Paperboys. The track Barcelona from Paperboys feat. Madcon was a massive hit in Norway - Barcelona won the prize for most requested video of the year from Nordic channel ZTV, and was an important factor in Paperboys winning "Spellemannprisen" - the Norwegian equivalent to the Grammys.
Tshawe and Yosef have been hosts for two TV-shows - The Voice of Madcon on the Norwegian music channel "The Voice" and a game show on the Norwegian TV-channel TV2 called Kan du teksten? which means Do you know the lyrics?
Tshawe participated in the 2007 season of Skal Vi Danse?, the Norwegian rendition of Dancing with the Stars, with Tshawe ending up as the winner.
The hit Beggin', has sold 8 times (Norwegian) platinum, and reached number one on Norwegian sales charts. Madcon won two "Spellemannpriser" – the best hip hop album and the best song (Beggin') – in 2008.