Written by Aliaune Thiam, Giorgio Tuinfort, Claude Kelly / Published by Byefall Productions, Inc./Sony ATV Harmony (ASCAP), Piano Music/Sony ATV Tunes (BMI), Talpa Music Publishing (BUMA), Studio Beast Music/Warner Tamerlane Music Corp (BMI) / Produced by Akon for Upfront/Konvit, Giorgio Tuinfort for Piano Music, Michael Jackson for MJJ Productions, Inc. / Akon appears courtesy of Upfront/Konvict/SRC/Universal Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc./ Recorded by Mark 'Exit' Goodchild for Milk Money Consulting at Palms Studio's Las Vegas, US, Solitaire Studio's Atlanta, US, Metropolis Studio's London, UK, Wisseloord Studio's Hilversum, Netherlands and FC Walvisch Studio's Amsterdam, Netherlands / Recording Assistants: Mack Woodward, Justin Pintar, Matt Paul, Miguel Scott, Kory Aaron, Eelco Bakker and Ryan Wiese / Orchestra Recorded by Wessel Oltheten / Orchestra Recording Assistant: Dennis Krijnen / Mixed by Serban Ghenea / Mastered by Darius van Helfteren at Amsterdam Mastering, Amsterdam Netherlands / String Arrangement: Franck van der Heijden / All Instruments and Programming: Akon and Giorgio Tuinfort / Grand Piano: Giorgio Tuinfort / Violin: Arlia de Ruiter, Pauline Terlouw, Erica Korthals-Altes, Vera Laporeva, Sarah Koch, Linda Dumessie, Dennis Koenders, Seija Teeuwen, David Peijnenborgh, Wim Kok, Elizabeth Liefkes Cats, Feyona van Iersel, Vera van der Brie, Erik Jan Kromhout / Alt Violin: Mieke Honingh, Isabella Petersen, Iris Schut, Rani Kumar, Arjen de Graaf / Celli: Emile Visser, Maarten Jansen, Michiel Weidner, Jascha Albracht / Contrabas: Erik Winkelman / Horns: Pierre Buizer, Iris Oltheten / Choir Director: Leo Wheat Jr / Choir: Alan Austin, Anthony Brice, Antoria Caston, Richard Dale, Eric Echols, Charlene Gillead, Valencia Green, Cynthia Jones, Iris McGhee, Felicia Peavy, Michelle Roberts, Gina Taylor, Leo Wheat Jr, Dana Widener, Terance Wilson, Sandra Wright
…We talked about working together so I decided to take “Hold My Hand” over to him myself; I wanted to see how he would react to it and the advice he would give me. He liked it so we went to the studio and he sang it. That took it to a whole other level. It was devastating for us when a small leak ended up on the internet - it wasn't fully complete, there was a lot more we had to do to it. It's definitely bittersweet to be releasing this track without him here with me but now the fans can hear it the way it was meant to be heard…