Burna Boy is one of the hottest names in the game right now. His sixth studio album Love, Damini dropped earlier this year to rave reviews from both critics & fans alike.
The album features the smash hit Last Last, and has quickly catapulted Burna's career to a whole new level - Which is saying something, seen as the levels were damn high before this drop.
Love, Damini follows the African Giant’s Grammy Award Winning album, Twice As Tall and was written as Burna Boy’s personal letter to his fans. Each track was inspired by significant life events that have impacted Burna. The record marks a coming of age into his and captures Burna Boy's new sound as he turns the page on a new musical era.
But the more we vibe on Burna's tunes, the more we want to know about him. We put this list together for anyone who is feeling the same thing!
1. Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu – AKA Burna boy - was born and raised in Nigeria.
Burna Boy’s hometown Port Harcourt, Rivers State is in Southern Nigeria. He went to high school in Nigeria, before moving to London to further his studies.
2. He studied media at University before taking up a yearlong internship in radio.
Burna has always had a keen interest in the entertainment industry, he even put in the hard yards at University, attending the University of Sussex from 2008 to 2009 to study media technology, before moving to Oxford Brookes University to spend another two years studying media communications and culture.
Following his studies in London, Burna returned home to Port Harcourt and took up an year-long internship at Rhythm 93.7 FM – a commercial hip hop radio station.
3. His mother is his manager.
Bose Ogula – popularly known as Mama Burna - is Burna Boy’s long standing manager. And as it turns out, music management runs in the family.
His maternal grandfather, Benson Idonije, once managed Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti.
4. He started making beats when he was just 10 years old
He started producing music when he was ten years old. His father always listened to dancehall and reggae music. His grandfather experimented with Afrobeat music. This is where his early influence and music style stems from.
Burna Boy first started working on music via FruityLoops, a renowned tool for bedroom producers. Burna was making beats in Nigeria before he left for London.
5. Launching his music career in Lagos, Burna released a number of mixtapes before his debut record L.I.F.E.
Burna released two mixtapes, which were significant building blocks in creating the loyal fanbase he has today. But it was when he dropped his debut record L.I.F.E. in August 2013 that things started really moving for Burna - the album sold 40,000 copies on it’s first day of release,
L.I.F.E included the smash hit Like To Party, which started gaining traction up around the world, and was the first really big moment in Burna’s star power lighting up.
6.Burna is credited for bringing Afrobeats to a mainstream audience
While Burna is sometimes incorrectly credited for creating the genre Afrobeats, there’s no double Burna Boy’s critical acclaim and mainstream popularity have helped put Afrobeats on the global map – With many other Afrobeats artists now receiving mainstream attention.
7. Burna was the first Nigerian artist to receive back to back Grammy nomination, winning his first Grammy in 2021
Burna has received three Grammy nominations so far, most recently in 2022, he was up for Best Global Music Performance.
In 2021, he took out the win for Best Global Music Album with Twice As Tall. This album featured smash hits Wonderful & Real Life ft. Stormzy.
Burna also received a nod for his album African Giant back in 2020 for the same category – Making him the first Nigerian artist to receive back to back Grammy nominations.
And the Grammy’s are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to accolades for Burna Boy. He has previously won big at the BET Awards, the MTV Africa Music Awards, MTV Europe Music Awards, MOBO Awards, Brit Awards, NME Awards & The Headies.. Just to name a few. Man’s gotta have one fine as hell trophy cabinet.
8. Last Last has surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify – the first African song to reach the milestone
Burna Boy's Last Last has recently become the most streamed African song on Spotify with over 100 million streams.
Last Last is included on Burna Boy’s new album Love, Damini, a compilation of work that fuses different sounds and genres together with features from the likes of Ed Sheeran, J. Balvin, Khalid, Kehlani & more. It even features New Zealand’s own Rory Noble as a producer on the penultimate track How Bad Could It Be.
The album & Last Last’s phenomenal success continue to elevate Burna Boy’s talents on the world stage.
We can’t wait to see what’s next for Burna!
