Burna Boy: Taking Nigerian Music Beyond African Shores
There is no doubt that Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu popularly known as Burna Boy, is one of the most successful musicians in Nigeria today. With his fusion of dancehall, reggae, Afro-beat, and pop, Burna Boy emerged in the early part of the 2010s as one of Nigeria’s fastest-rising stars
Burna Boy, a singer, rapper and songwriter rose to prominence in 2012 after releasing “Like to Party”, the lead single from his debut studio album L.I.F.E done in 2013.
Four years ago Port Harcourt born artist signed with Bad Habit/Atlantic Records in the United States and Warner Music Group internationally. His third studio album Outside marked his major-label debut.
In 2019, he won Best International Act at the 2019 BET Awards, and was announced as an Apple Music Up Next artist. His fourth studio album African Giant was released in July 2019; it won Album of the Year at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards and was nominated for Best World Music Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
He was also awarded the African Artist of the year at the 2020 VGMA’s.
Still in 2020, his album Twice as Tall was nominated for the same category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making him the first Nigerian with back-to-back nominations at the Grammys.
Amazingly, Burma Boy won the award for Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards held this year.
The Grammy Award is one of the most prestigious musical awards globally and is presented by the Recording Academy to recognize achievement in the music industry of the United States.
However, Burma Boy musical fame has continued to soar. Only recently, the Grammy award winner performed to the over 20,000 foreign fans who joined in his songs in Paris show.
TRUE VISION gathered that the fast growing musician received an overwhelming show of love and support from his fans as the auditorium was filled to the brim with thousands of music lovers who also sang the African Giant’s hit songs word for word.
With the successful outcome of the show, his fans on social media heaped accolades on the music star for taking Nigerian music beyond the shores of Africa.
Burna Boy was born in Lagos in 1991. He began making music at just ten years old when a fellow classmate at school gave him a copy of the production software FruityLoops. Armed with these means, he began to create his own beats on an old computer. After he graduated, he moved to London to attend university, but he dropped out after two years and moved back to Nigeria. In 2010, the 19-year-old Ogulu traveled to Nigeria’s southern coast, where a mutual acquaintance, Producer LeriQ, had some studio space. This marked a period when he began to connect to the music of his native country, having spent most of his youth immersed in American acts like DMX. He delved into the dancehall and reggae music his father listened to and explored the Afro-beat music preferred by his grandfather. As a result of his new discoveries, Ogulu created a confluence of genres that would become his signature sound.