Burna Boy Biography
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu better known by his stage name Burna Boy is a Nigerian afro-fusion singer and songwriter. He rose to fame in 2012 after releasing the lead single “Like to Party” from his debut studio album, L.I.F.E (2013). In 2017, Burna Boy signed with Bad Habit/Atlantic Records in the United States and Warner Group internationally. His third studio album Outside marked his major-label debut.
Burna Boy Age.
The musician is 28 years old as of 2019. He celebrates his birthday every 2nd of July.
Burna Boy Height.
The Nigerian musician stands at a height of 1.85 meters.
Burna Boy Net worth.
The on the low singer has Has been touring most continents for the better part of 2018 and 2019. He has had shows in Kenya, America, the USA, England and more. The artist has performed in Coachella which is one of the biggest music festivals in the USA. He has amassed himself an estimated networth of $10 million as of 2019.
Burna Boy Early Life.
Burna Boy was born on the 2nd of July, 1991 in Ahaoda, Rivers State, Nigeria. He moved to Lagos State at an early stage of his life and began his music career there. Burna Boy had his early education in the Montessori International School and from there moved to have his secondary education at Corona, Agbara, Lagos State after which he moved to the United Kingdom to complete his studying. Talking about his music career, Burna Boy draws his inspiration from Nigerian legend artist, Fela Kuti. He came into limelight after dropping his hit song, ‘Like To Party‘. The video was directed by Adasa Cookey for the Square ball Media.
Burna Boy Family.
Damini’s parents are Samuel Ogulu and Bose Ogulu. He was raised along with her sister called Nissi Ogulu. Burna Boy has attributed his musical success from being raised in a humble background in Nigeria. He came from a nobody musician to an international musician who is now recognized in most continents.
Burna Boy Music
2012–2015: L.I.F.E and On a Spaceship
.Aristokrat Records released Burna Boy’s debut studio album L.I.F.E on 12 August 2013. It serves as the follow-up to his second mixtape, Burn Identity(2011). L.I.F.E sold 40,000 copies on the first day of its release. Aristokrat Records later sold the album’s marketing rights to Uba Pacific for ₦10 million. The release of the album was preceded by five singles: “Like to Party”, “Tonight”, “Always Love You”, “Run My Race” and “Yawa Dey”.
Produced entirely by Leriq, L.I.F.E features guest appearances from 2face Idibia, M.I, Timaya, Olamide, Reminisce, and Wizkid. Nigeria Entertainment Today ranked the album 10th on their list of the 12th best albums of 2013. The music of L.I.F.E draws heavily from the music of Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, and Bob Marley. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who applauded its versatile production. It was nominated for Best Album of the Year at the 2014 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. In August 2013, L.I.F.E peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart.
In 2014, Burna Boy split from Aristokrat records In 2015, he created his own record label called Spaceship Entertainment. He released his second album On a Spaceship on 25 November 2015 In September 2016, he released the 7-track EP Redemption, with the lead single “Pree Me” debuting on Noisey.
2018–present: Outside and African Giant
In January 2018, Burna Boy was featured on “Sunshine Riptide”, a track from Fall Out Boy’s Grammy-nominated seventh studio album, MANIA (2018). He released his third studio album Outside on 26 January 2018. Described as a mixtape by the singer, Outside consists mostly of Afrobeats, dancehall, reggae and road rap. It features guest vocals from English musicians J Hus, Lily Allen, and Mabel. Outside was supported by six singles: “Rock Your Body”, “Streets of Africa”, “Koni Baje”, “Sekkle Down”, “Heaven’s Gate” and “Ye”.
Its production was handled by Leriq, Baba Stiltz, Jae 5, Juls, Chopstix, Steel Banglez, Fred Gibson, Phantom, and FTSE. The album received critical acclaim and was ranked by Pulse Nigeria and Nigerian Entertainment Today’s the best Nigerian album of 2018. It won Album of the Year at the 2018 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. In February 2018, Outside debuted at number 3 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. The album’s biggest single “Ye” ended up atop most Nigerian publications year-end list as the biggest song of 2018.
On 7 October 2018, Burna Boy performed before a sold-out crowd at London’s O2 Academy Brixton A day prior to the show, he held a pop-up event at Red by Little Farm and sold limited boxes of his Space Puffs cereal, as well as custom notepads, lighters, and graphic tee-shirts. On 9 October 2018, Burna Boy was announced as one of Spotify’s New Afro Hub Takeover Artist. The announcement coincided with him being named YouTube’sArtist on the Rise for 3 months.
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.
Burna Boy’s fourth studio album African Giant was released on 26 July 2019. It has been supported by five singles: “Gbona”, “On the Low”, Killin Dem”, “Dangote” and “Anybody”, a cover of Angelique Kidjo’s song “We We”. He began recording the album in 2018. He told Billboard magazine that the album is his most personal yet. He first revealed plans to release the album in April 2019 and held a private listening session in Los Angeles. Photos and videos from the listening session were shared on social media. African Giant was initially announced as a 16-track album. In order to promote the album, Burna Boy will headline the African Giant Returns tour, the second leg of his African Giant tour.
On 24 June 2019, Burna Boy won Best International Act at the 2019 BET Awards. In July 2019, Burna Boy was announced as Apple Music’s Up Next artist. His inclusion into the program was accompanied by a Beats 1interview with Julie Adenuga and a short documentary
Burna Boy Songs & Albums.
Albums.
- L.I.F.E (2013)
- On a Spaceship (2015)
- Outside (2018)
- African Giant (2019)
Selected singles
| Year | Title | Album | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | “Shobeedo” (Freestyle) | Non-album single | |
| 2012 | “Like to Party” | L.I.F.E | Leriq |
| “Tonight” | |||
| 2013 | “Run My Race” | ||
| “Yawa Dey” | |||
| “Celebrate” | Non-album single | GospelOnDeBeatz | |
| “Won Da Mo” (featuring D’banj) | DeeVee | ||
| 2014 | “Rockstar” | Leriq | |
| “Don Gorgon” | Spellz | ||
| “Check and Balance” | |||
| 2015 | “The Realest” | On a Spaceship | Simba Tagz |
| “Rizzla” | J Fem | ||
| 2016 | “Pree Me” | Redemption | Leriq |
| “Mandem Anthem” | Non-album single | Fresh | |
| 2017 | “Gba” | Chopstix | |
| “Koni Baje” | Outside | P2J | |
| 2018 | “Rock Your Body” | Juls | |
| “Heaven’s Gate” (featuring Lily Allen) | Fred Gibson | ||
| “Sekkle Down” (featuring J Hus) | Jae5 | ||
| “Devil in California” | P2J | ||
| “Ye” | Phantom | ||
| “On the Low” | African Giant | Kel P | |
| “Gbona” | |||
| “Killin Dem” (featuring Zlatan) | |||
| 2019 | “Dangote” | ||
| “Anybody” | P2J |
Burna Boy Awards & Nominations.
| Year | Event | Prize | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Nigeria Entertainment Awards | Best New Act of the Year | Himself | Won |
| The Headies | Next Rated | Nominated | ||
| South South Music Awards | Best Pop | “Like to Party” | Won | |
| 2014 | MTV Africa Music Awards | Best New Act | Himself | Won |
| The Headies | Best R&B Single | “Don Gorgon” | Nominated | |
| Best R&B/Pop Album | L.I.F.E | Nominated | ||
| Hip Hop World Revelation of the Year | Nominated | |||
| Album of the Year | Nominated | |||
| Nigeria Entertainment Awards | Best Album of the Year | Won | ||
| 2015 | Best Pop Artist of the Year | Himself | Nominated | |
| 2019 | Soundcity MVP Awards Festival | Listener’s Choice | “Ye” | Won |
| Song of the Year | Won | |||
| Best Male MVP | Himself | Won | ||
| African Artiste of the Year | Won | |||
| BET Awards 2019 | Best International Act | Himself | Won |
Burna Boy Instagram
Burna Boy Youtube.
Burna Boy News.
English singer, Elton John gives a shout out to Nigerian singer Burna Boy.
We won’t be wrong when we say that this has been quite a year for Burna boy. He is among the Nigerians who are now receiving airplay from all over the world. One of them liking African songs is singer Elton John. In his Rocket Hour radio show, he described Burna boy’s music as great new stuff in the music industry. He said, “I’m Elton John and this is my Rocket Hour where we play you great new stuff like Burna Boy on African Express.”
The On The Low hit singer could not hide his excitement and shared a reaction video in his Instagram post thanking John.
Burna Boy On the Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
Burna Boy made his latest late-night appearance on Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show last night to discuss his latest album African Giant.
The artist appeared noticeably excited as he sat down for an interview with the host to discuss his success, being one of the biggest artists from the continent, appearing on Beyoncé’s Lion King: The Gift album, why he describes his music as “afro-fusion,” and the famous Coachella font incident that inspired the name of his album.
The artist shares that he learned the news while sitting on the toilet and felt he had to say something about how his name appeared on the bill in order to represent African artists. “I expressed myself because everyone coming after me shouldn’t have to go through that,” he said. “It’s only right,” he added. To which Trevor responds: “I’m not going to lie, I feel like that was the Nigerian in you kicking in,” before going into his best Naija accent impression.
Earlier in the interview he tells a funny anecdote about how he first came across Trevor Noah while on a boat ride in South Africa. After the interview, the artist hit the stage to perform a medley of his hit singles “Ye” and “Anybody.”
Burna Boy On the Jimmy Kimmel Live.
June 24, 2019.
Burna Boy was the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, performing his single “Anybody.” The song comes from the Nigerian singer’s upcoming fourth album African Giant, which is due out this Friday (July 26). Standing on a sandy stage, Burna put on an energetic show, backed up by a full band, which stretched out with sax breaks and a fiery final guitar solo.
“Anybody” is the fourth track Burna Boy has released from African Giant ahead of its release, following 2018’s “Gbona” and “On the Low,” and this year’s “Dangote.” On Monday, the singer also posted the excellent “Pull Up” from the album, providing additional evidence of stylistic eclecticism we can expect from the release.