Burna Boy has won the Best Global Music Album award at the 63rd Grammy awards. ENIOLA OYEMOLADE discusses how the musician rose to fame, his style of music, among others.
M ARCH 14 will always be a day to remember for music lovers and Nigerians as Burna Boy clinched Best Global Music Album award for his album ‘Twice As Tall’ at the 63rd Grammy awards.
His album won the award over records by Antibalas (FU Chronicles), Bebel Gilberto (Agora), Anoushka Shankar (Love Letters), and Tinariwen (Amadjar).
This is the first time a Nigerian will win in this category and also, Burna Boy has become the first Nigerian with back-to-back nominations at the Grammys.
Burna Boy, whose real name is Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, had lost the 2020 Best World Music Grammy award to veteran Beninese singer, Angelique Kidjo.
Kidjo had dedicated the award to Burna Boy as she declared that Burna Boy is part of the new generation of African musicians that will take the world by storm.
As 29-year-old Burna Boy accepted the Best Global Music Album award, he declared that “Africa is in the house, men! Africa, we are in the house! You get me? This is a big win for Africans of my generation all over the world and this should be a lesson for every African out there.
“No matter where you are, no matter what you plan to do, you can achieve it no matter where you are from because you are a king. Look at me: Grammy award-winning Burna Boy,” he added.
Interestingly, the Afro-beat/pop singer already predicted that one day “I go carry Grammy” in his ‘African Giant’ song.
With this win, many are of the opinion that Afrobeats has come to stay and will continue to be embraced by people.
The award, which used to be called Best World Music Album was changed in November to Best Global Music Album, with the recording agency saying it’s a step toward “a more relevant, modern, and inclusive term.”
The statement added: “The change symbolises a departure from the connotations of colonialism, folk, and ‘non-American’ that the former term embodied while adapting to current listening trends and cultural evolution among the diverse communities it may represent.”
Burna Boy rose to prominence in 2012 after releasing ‘Like to Party’, the lead single from his debut studio album L.I.F.E in 2013.
In 2017, Burna Boy 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 ‘Africa 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 awarded the African Artist of the year at the 2020 VGMA’s.
His ‘Anybody’ track, from his ‘African Giant’ album was listed among former United States President Barack Obama’s favourite songs of 2019 and he won the BET Best International Act in 2020.
On 3 January 2019, he was announced alongside Mr Eazi as one of the artists performing at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. He won four awards at the Soundcity MVP Awards Festival, including African Artiste of the Year, Listener’s Choice and Best Male MVP.
On 21 March 2019, Burna Boy released a 4-track collaborative EP with Los Angeles-based electronic duo DJDS, titled Steel & Copper. It blends Burna Boy’s upbeat melodies with DJDS’ slinky trap beats. Steel & Copper combines elements of dancehall and reggae music with Afropop and trap.
In July 2019, Burna Boy was announced as an Apple Music Up Next artist. His inclusion into the program was accompanied by a Beats 1 interview with Julie Adenuga and a short documentary. He recorded ‘Ja Ara E’ (Yoruba: ‘wise up’ or ‘use your head’) for Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift and was the only guest artist with their own track on the soundtrack album.
He won an Edison award in the World Album category for ‘African Giant’, and the Best International Act at the MOBO Awards on December 9, shaking off stiff competition from Drake, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby and Roddy Ricch.
Burna Boy′s ‘Destiny’ was included in the playlist at the Inauguration of Joe Biden.
Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Burna Boy’s father managed a welding company and his mother worked as a translator. His grandfather, Benson Idonije once managed Fela Kuti, a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist, who is regarded as the pioneer of Afrobeat.
Burna Boy grew up in southern Nigeria and began making his own beats using FruityLoops,a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. He attended Corona Secondary School in Agbara, Ogun State, Nigeria, and relocated to London to further his studies. He later studied Media Technology at the University of Sussex, followed by Media Communications and Culture at Oxford Brookes University.
Burna Boy’s mother, Bose Ogulu is his manager.
Just like the great Afrobeats legend, Fela, Burna Boy also uses his music to encourage Africans to unite. Through his beats and lyrics, Burna Boy expresses Fela’s ideals.
Burna Boy believes the #EndSARS protest was a pivotal moment for his country and has used his music to pay tribute to the protest victims.
At an interview, Burna Boy described the 2020 #EndSARS protest, a youth-led campaign against police brutality in Nigeria – unprecedented in scale and organisation, as one of the most important in Nigeria’s history.
In his song ‘20 10 20’ to mark October 20, 2020, Burna Boy sings about the Lekki killings, when some #EndSARS protesters were shot while some were injured.
The song dropped within nine days of the killings and many believed this underscores Burna Boy’s commitment to his social justice causes.
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