WHO IS BURNA BOY?… Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, known professionally as Burna Boy, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and rapper born on 2nd of July, 1991.
He rose to prominence in 2012 after releasing Like to Party, the lead single from his debut studio album L.I.F.E which was released in 2013.
In 2017, Burna Boy signed a major label deal with Bad Habit/Atlantic Records in the United States and Warner Music Group globally. His third studio album Outside was his major-label debut project.
Two years later, Damini Ogulu @burnaboygram won Best International Act at the 2019 BET Awards, and was announced as the first Apple Music Up Next artist from Nigeria.
His fourth studio album African Giant was released in July 2019 by Atlantic Records, and it instantly became one of the most successful albums out of Africa, winning the Album of the Year plaque at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA). The album equally nominated at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in the Best World Music Album category but lost to Angelique Kidjo’s album.
The following year, Burna Boy`s 2020 album Twice As Tall was nominated for a second time in the Best World Music Album category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, giving him and Nigerian her first back-to-back nominations at the Grammy Annual Awards ceremony.
Twice As Tall won the Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021 eventually securing his legacy as a record-breaking global artist from Africa and earning Burna his first Grammy Award.
Over the years, Burna Boy has made a name for himself not only for his ability to create the biggest bangers out of his brand of AfroFusion sound, a spinoff of Fela`s Afrobeat sound, but also on the basis of his Activism which seems like a part of Afrobeats that he`s been able to consciously enmesh into his music.
Although it`s quite obvious that Burna Boy is one of the biggest music exports out of Nigeria, it is equally important to reiterate that he`s more of a global star than a local one given that his songs enjoy much wider airplay and chart dominance outside the shores of Africa, especially in Europe and the United States.
Despite making a debut in the industry as far back as 2012, Burna Boy didn`t not reach mainstream acceptance until after his fourth studio album Outside. Although he`s built an occultic fan base through the impact of his early projects. It was clear from the onset that Burna Boy`s music was a little too conscious for the Nigerian scene and the minute he softened it up with a sprinkle of Afro-Fusion, his career caught fire and has been raging hard ever since.
Between 2012-2022, a little over a decade, Burna Boy has managed to remain one of the most controversial artists in the country. His first altercation was directed at the 2013 Headies Awards ceremony where Sean Tizzle won the Next Rated category over him. He made his displeasure known to the organizers of the show which eventually led to his ostracization from subsequent events.
Burna Boy has since then been known to be very vocal about any issues he has, always playing the role of the freedom fighter even in his childish stunts with his colleague, Davido.
Burna Boy is definitely on a really impressive roll as an artist based out of Africa, and we look forward to how much more his future projects will impact the world both through record breaking Afrobeats strides and their socio-cultural impact on everyone who shares a common heritage with the black people from Africa.
