In 2019, Nigerian music took the world by storm, riding on the growing influence of a newly created genre, Afrobeats. Since its grand entry on the global music stage, it has been a steady rise for practitioners. The year 2023 was more rewarding for leading ambassadors of the genre as Afrobeats – arguably Nigeria’s most popular music form at the moment – reached unprecedented heights and broke barriers. While Asake and Rema shone as some of the youngest and brightest stars, Damini Ogulu aka Burna Boy continued his winning streak by selling out concerts and getting prestigious music awards and nominations.
Burna Boy began the year on a strong note after the release of his sixth album, ‘Love, Damini,’ in 2022. The 32-year-old embarked on a world tour which earned him his fourth Grammy nomination in a row.
He continued with the ‘Love, Damini’ world tour in 2023 and performed in some of the biggest arenas and stadiums around the world while making history.
A landmark achievement for him was embarking on a global tour that saw him performing at packed stadiums and concert halls across America, Europe, and Africa between 2022 and 2023. ‘Last Last,’ his infectious hit single from the sixth album became irresistible for audiences as many cities yearned for Burna Boy’s performance.
In June 2023 he went on to emerge the first African artist to headline a stadium show in the UK. A sold-out crowd of 60,000 fans screamed the Grammy award-winner’s Afrobeats lyrics back to him at the London Stadium.
In the same vein, July 2023 provided Burna Boy with another opportunity to make history as the first African singer to sell out a stadium show in the United States of America. The ‘Last Last’ singer sold out the 41,000-capacity Citi Field Stadium in New York City.
After performing at these venues, the singer and his team had their eyes set on further conquering Africa when they announced preparedness for a concert to take place at the 94,736-capacity FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Further complementing his musical achievements and success, Burna Boy joined a select list of singers to headline the 2023 UEFA Champions League Final Kick-Off Show by Pepsi. He, again, had the opportunity to perform to 77,087 football fans who gathered to watch the final inside the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.
Not ready to rest on his oars, the star released his seventh album, ‘I Told Them…’ a few months after rounding off his world tour in 2023.
Yet the accolades and awards continued rolling in all through 2023 while his streaming numbers and record sales kept going through the roof.
According to various album certification bodies across the world, Burna Boy’s ‘Last Last’ raked in millions for the singer. The single was certified platinum in the United States by RIAA with over one million unit sales, United Kingdom by BPI with over 600,000 unit sales, Australia by ARIA with over 70,000 unit sales, two-time platinum in Canada by Music Canada with over 160,000 unit sales, diamond in France, according to SNEP with over 333,000 unit sales, platinum in New Zealand, and Switzerland.
Burna Boy displaced Tanzanian singer, Diamond Platnumz as the most streamed Sub-Saharan African artiste on YouTube in 2023. As of December 5, 2023, he had amassed over 2.52 billion streams on the platform as against the 2.37 billion streams by the Tanzanian star.
In September 2023, the Nigerian star made history as the first African with a UK Number 1 album. He pulled off the feat with his seventh album, ‘I Told Them.’ To reward him for the feat, he was presented with a plaque by the British record chart company in commemoration of his record.
In October 2023, Burna Boy made history again as the first artist with one billion streams on a streaming platform, Boomplay, with his ‘I Told Them…’ album.
As of December 2023, the ‘African Giant’, as he loves to be addressed, emerged first Nigerian artist to surpass one billion career streams on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Audiomack and Boomplay.
As he has been getting since he broke out to the global space in 2019, Burna Boy has continued to garner flowers for his recordings and albums.
Since gaining a nomination with his first shot at the Recording Academy Awards and Grammys, he has remained an item on the global music landscape.
Burna Boy’s ‘Love, Damini,’ was nominated in the Best Global Music Album category, alongside other albums from international music stars for the 2023 Grammys. The singer was also nominated for Best Global Music Performance for his hit track, “Last Last.” With over 15 nominations in various globally acclaimed music awards platforms that include BET, Grammys, Soundcity MVP Awards, All Africa Music Awards, and the Headies, he got at least seven awards in 2023. He won the BET Best International Act, Headies Song of the Year, Headies Best R&B Single, Headies Afrobeats Single of the Year, AFRIMA’s Album and Artist of the Year, Soundcity MVP Awards’ African Artist of the Year.
Burna Boy will start 2024 hoping to nab his third Grammy after being nominated alongside four Afrobeats stars from Nigeria: Asake, Olamide, Ayra Starr and Davido.
The organisers of the Grammys have released the nominations for the 2024 edition with the star grabbing four new nominations – making his total career Grammy nominations eight.
He has also been nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance, Best Global Music Performance, Best African Music Performance, and Best Global Music Album.
On the back of such an outstanding year, he is naturally this newspaper’s Entertainer of the Year.
