Admin l Tuesday, October 2018
LAGOS, Nigeria – Burna Boy has continued to improve on his craft and establishing himself as a force to reckon with in the afrobeats industry. Since the release of the ‘Outside’ album, which topped many music charts, the afro-fusion artiste has continued to push himself and exceed expectations.
Earlier this year, the Life on the Outside US tour took him to eight cities in the United States, and proved to be a huge success. Burna Boy followed that up with collaborations and new releases, which were instant hits, and a Life on the Outside UK tour of which the highlight was his sold-out concert at the 02 Arena, Brixton. He also received a plaque from the Academy Music Group for a sold out and safe concert, launched a limited edition line of cereal, and was listed as one of two Nigerian artistes on Spotify’s new Afro Hub.
Showing no signs of slowing down, Burna Boy recently bagged the award for ‘Best African Dancehall/Reggae Act’ at the 2018 African Muzik Magazine Awards (AFRIMMA). It wouldn’t be so far-fetched to say this has been Burna Boy’s year, and it’s exciting to watch this artiste continue to redefine what it means to be a performing artiste both at home and abroad.
Burna Boy is a Nigerian based Afro-fusion singer, songwriter and performing artiste signed to his record label Spaceship Entertainment. Born Damini Ogulu in Port Harcourt to parents Bosede and Samuel Ogulu, he is the only son and eldest of three children.
Burna Boy founded and led a band called “Def Code” in his high school days at Corona. He headlined a performance at the national stadium as one of the highlights of the 50th anniversary of corona schools. The quest for knowledge took him outside the shores of Nigeria to the United Kingdom to study Media Technology at the University of Sussex from 2008 – 2009 and Oxford Brooke’s University from 2009 – 2010 to study Media Communications and Culture. Immediately after that, he did a one year internship with Rhythm 93.7 FM Port Harcourt before officially launching his professional music career when he was signed on to Aristocrat records, prompting a permanent relocation to Lagos.
After having a fairytale year in Port Harcourt, releasing two mixtapes and winning several grass root awards, Burna Boy rose to prominence in 2012 following the release of ‘Like To Party’, the first single off his debut album ‘L.I.F.E’ (Living an Impact for Eternity). The album had a 19 song tracklist including his mega hits ‘Yawa Dey’, ‘Don Gorgon’ ‘Check and Balance’ and ‘Run my Race’.
Following the success of his ‘L.I.F.E’ album, Burna Boy released his sophomore album ‘On a Space Ship’ (OAS) as an announcement of his elevation as an artist. The 19 track record opens with ‘OluwaBurna’, delivered in his usual pidgin and Yoruba combination. It’s a direct response to his critics. Produced by Spellz, the song is somewhat a reminiscent of his 2015 hit, ‘Check & Balance’. The album also had his mega hit song ‘Soke’. Following the OAS album, Burna released a 2016 Ep titled ‘Redemption’. The success of his album and singles earned Burna Boy various awards including Best New Act of the Year Nigeria Entertainment Awards, Best Pop South South Music Awards, Best New Act MTV Africa Music Awards and Album of the Year Nigeria Entertainment Awards.
In May 2017, Burna Boy headlined his first US show at the PlayStation Theatre, and in November 2017, he sold out a 5,000 seat show at the Apollo Eventim Theatre in London. He was recently featured on Drake’s project More Life on the track titled “Get It Together” ft. Jorja Smith which has been featured on multiple episodes of OVO Sound Radio.
On the 26th of January, 2018, Burna Boy released his fourth album, titled ‘Outside’. The 13-track album was preceded by singles “Sekkle Down” ft. J Hus, “Koni Baje,” and “Heaven’s Gate” ft. Lily Allen which were accompanied with a music video. The “Outside” album debuted on Billboard’s Reggae Albums Chart at the Number 3 spot topping his debut album “L.I.F.E” which peaked at number 7 on August 31, 2013. The release sparked a global rave and Burna kicked off his ‘Life On The Outside’ tour which took him to 8 cities across the United States. While on tour the artiste also signed a Publishing deal with Universal Music USA. The deal gives Burna Boy the privilege to manage his songs and ensure he receives all the royalties from the back end as he is entitled to and will also seek and issue licenses for Burna’s work. This is, of course, in addition to administrative duties, tracking, exploitation of copyrights, and collection of monies generated from the exploitation of those copyrights.
Still riding the wave of the Outside album’s global success, Burna has started the #OutsideUKTour and will be visiting 7 cities in October. He has also released visuals for Devil in California and Ye, and released new singles All My Life (in collaboration with Major Lazer) and Gbona, both of which were accompanied by videos.
Burna Boy is the only featured artist on Fall Out Boy’s currently released album Mania, Rita Ora’s “Your Song” remix, and J Hus’ “Good Time”. His ever-changing but unique style of music is seen by many music buffs as having a significant semblance to that of music legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who incidentally was as at a time managed by Burna Boy’s maternal grandfather, the iconic Benson Idonije.
Burna Boy is one of the few figures in the Nigerian music industry with a distinct voice that evokes memories of many music greats, dead and living, from all over the world; something that has aided him in his rise to global prominence. An indigene of Rivers State in Southern Nigeria, Burna Boy has worked with several A-list Nigerian and international artists like 2face Idibia, WizKid, Sarkodie, Phyno, Flavor, Dbanj, WizKid to mention a few. He is also known and respected for having some of the most creative and top grade music videos on the African continent.
