Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu is a Nigerian musician who is popularly known by his stage name, Burna Boy.
He attained great heights in 2019 with his widely acclaimed fourth studio album, African Giant, which became the most streamed African album of 2019 as well as winning a host of awards this year such as the Artist of the Year in the recently held All Africa Music Awards (Afrima 2019).
Burna Boy’ album, African Giant, was also nominated for a 2020 Grammy Award under the World Music category alongside the likes of Celia (Angelique Kidjo), Gece (Altin Gün) What Heat (Bokanté & Metropole Orkest Conducted By Jules Buckley) and Fanm D’Ayiti (Nathalie Joachim With Spektral Quartet).
Angelique Kidjo won the award but that in no way diminished Burna Boy’s achievement. So, no doubt, the artist has rightly earned the right to be compared among the finest musicians of this era such as fellow Nigerian and African artists, Davido, Diamond Platnumz, Wizkid, Yemi Alade, amongst others.
Burna’s 2019 African Giant album was also nominated by Edison Award for Best World Album in the Netherlands.
Burna Boy’s most recent work, Twice as Tall, a 15-track album, released on Friday 14 August appears on course to be his most successful body of work yet.
In presenting Burna Boy biography, it would be shown that the artist’s rise to stardom has not really been meteoric as some might assume, Burna Boy has been around for a while, although his popularity has kind of grown exponentially in recent times. We will majorly discuss this in his music career section, but for now, let us get some background facts about him.
10 quick and interesting facts about Burna Boy
1. Burna Boy is just 28 years old despite how much older he looks.
2. He sings a special genre called Afro-fusion that combines Afro beats, reggae, dancehall and hip hop.
3. Burna’s real name is Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu.
4. He was born in Port Harcourt but grew up mostly in Lagos.
5. Burna Boy studied in London before dropping out to pursue a career in music.
6. From a young age, he had been making his own beats using FruityLoops.
7. He made two less-known mixtapes back in 2011.
8. After leaving Aristokrat Records, he created his own record label, Spaceship Entertainment in 2015.
9. Burna Boy’s hit track Ye was recorded in 10 minutes in Shina Peller’s Quilox studio.
10. He currently has two contractual obligations with two international record labels: Atlantic and Warner Music.
Burna Boy Biography: Early Life
Damini Ogulu, best known by his stage name Burna Boy, was born on 2nd July 1991 to Nigerian parents, Samuel Ogulu and Bose Ogulu, in Port Harcourt. His father managed a welding company while his mother was a language translator. The artist has a Yoruba middle name, Ebunoluwa, which is likely courtesy of his mother, who also has a Yoruba first name. Mrs Bose Ogulu reportedly speaks at least three foreign languages including French, Italian and German.
Given that Burna Boy’s middle name is in Yoruba, there are speculations from some quarters that the singer is of Yoruba ethnic group.
But, is Burna Boy Yoruba?
Well, if you count one’s ethnicity as patriarchal bestowed as we are wont to do in Nigeria, then, strictly speaking, Burna Boy is not Yoruba. He might have some Yoruba blood in his veins but we are not certain on that score.
Burna Boy’s patriarchal lineage seems rooted in the South-South – Rivers State. However, his lineage from his maternal side may include some Yoruba blood. We know that his maternal grandfather, the renowned music critic Benson Idonije, is from Edo State but we don’t know who his maternal grandmother is/was. She may/might have been Yoruba as it’s customary in Nigeria to give ethnic names to one’s children. Bose is a Yoruba name, and it’s conceivable that her mother is/was Yoruba. So, to that extent, Burna Boy has some claims to Yoruba ethnicity.
It should be noted that this is only an educated opinion and not strictly fact. We don’t know for certain as neither Burna Boy nor any of his family members had thought it necessary to clear the speculations, perhaps in keeping with Burna Boy’s vision of uniting Africans.
However, Burna Boy early years were spent in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. However, when it was time to go to secondary school he was moved to near Lagos. During this time, he frequently spent a lot of time with his grandfather, Benson Idonije, and it is reported that it was from this period that he developed a love for music. Burna Boy would later leave Lagos for his higher education in London, UK.
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Burna Boy Biography: Burna Boy’s sister, Nissi Ogulu
Burna Boy has a younger sister named Nissi Ogulu who is his only sibling. Despite spending most of her time outside Nigeria, the music industry heard about her when she released a track in 2016 titled: Pay Attention. Not much else is publicly known about her except that she is also interested in painting as well.
Is Fela Kuti Burna Boy’s Father?
Some have speculated that Burna Boy is actually Fela Kuti’s son. This speculation is borne of the fact that the legend of Fela extended beyond music and activism. Nigeria’s Afrobeat pioneer was popular for his escapades with many women, and he had 27 wives and an unknown number of concubines as well.
Also, this idea was further given traction because Burna Boy’s mother, Bose Ogulu aka Mama Burna, was rumoured to be a former dancer in Fela’s band. However, her father Benson Idonije rubbished the rumours, calling it a “wicked lie.” Speaking with Punch, Idonije says:
“Burna’s Boy mother was not one of Fela’s dancers. It’s a wicked lie. The guys saying that are just being wicked and malicious. Burna’s mum never went to the shrine. They are just concocting stories.”
The musician was also well known to have relationships with some of the women dancing in his troupe. There is a viral photo on Nairaland that shows Fela lying on one of his dancers who many say is Bose Ogulu.
However, some people are speculating that Burna Boy lifestyle replicates that of Fela in many aspects. He smokes just as heavily and samples many of the late singer’s songs. Even his performances are styled to look like Fela’s in many ways. The rumour that Burna Boy might have been fathered by Fela is also given impetus by his age. He was six when Fela died, which some people seem to interpret as fitting the narrative that Fela may have fathered Burna Boy.
However, whatever the stories are, the official detail is that Samuel Ogulu is the father of Burna Boy. And unless the people involved come to say otherwise, saying that Fela was the father of Burna Boy is just rumours that have no basis, more so as the very basis of the rumour, namely that Bose Ogulu was a dancer for Fela’s band, has been dismissed as false by the one person – Benson Idonije- who would know.
Burna Boy Biography: Music career
Many trace Burna Boy’s love for music to his maternal grandfather, Benson Idonjie. Benson, who is now 83 years, is one of the most revered music icons alive in Nigeria. He had worked as a broadcaster and music critic but known famously as the first band manager of the Afrobeat legend and pioneer, Fela Kuti.
When one sees the impact that Fela’s music has had on Burna’s style, the earlier mentioned origin of his love for music does not seem far-fetched, yet Burna Boy was too young to have directly been influenced by Fela, who passed away in 1997. So, it’s likely that his love of music must have been piqued by some other factor. Whatever that factor happens to be, saw Damini Ogulu start experimenting with music using the FruityLoops app.
Eventually, Burna Boy graduated from experimenting with music to actually making music after he was signed to the record label Aristokrat Records. Albeit not being well known, in 2011, he released two mixtapes titled Burn Identity and Burn Notice, likely inspired by the Hollywood movie series, Bourne Trilogy, which was popular back then.
Burna Boy Biography: Burna Boy’s music style
It is easy to see Fela’s influence in Burna Boy’s works, yet Burna Boy was too young at the time of Fela’s death to have visited the Shrine (where Fela used to perform) in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. Moreover, Burna Boy’s early years were spent in Port Harcourt and not in Lagos, so he had even less chance to have encountered the late Afrobeat icon.
According to Benson Idonije, Burna Boy was exposed to Fela’s music while he was in secondary school. In an interview with Punch, the Octogenarian explained that during that time, Burna was exposed to Fela music when he visited him (his grandfather). In addition, a young Burna Boy also “listened to jazz, Miles Davies, Manu Dibango, Jimmy Hendrix and so on.” The influence of these iconic singers can be seen in Burna Boy’s music style, described by his grandfather and music critic as “eclectic“. it is to see why because as Idonije explains:
“Burna’s music has elements of every music category. You find jazz, rock, country, reggae, and everything (in it). This is what Fela did not do; he just infused his jazz with African music. Burna Boy’s music is spreading to more countries and people. That’s the advantage he has; his music is eclectic.”
In nutshell, Burna Boy’s music style or genre can be described as an infusion of Afrobeat (originally developed by Fela) with other music genres.
Burna Boy describes it as Afro-fusion, a marriage of Afrobeat, dancehall riddims, reggae, American rap and R&B. This hybrid of music is what Ebunoluwa Ogulu has used to thrill the world, cutting beyond borders normally separating genres. It is a sound that is easy to the ear and appealing to a wide range of people transcending geography, language, assumed musical tastes and race. The genre has also allowed Burna Boy to sample sounds from other singers indiscriminately, in a manner of speaking.
Burna’s first album: L.I.F.E
Not one to be discouraged, on the back of the relatively unsuccessful release, Burna Boy dropped a single titled Like to Party. The song was an immediate hit and was included in his debut album, L.I.F.E, which was released on the 12th of August 2013.
L.I.F.E, an acronym for Leaving an Impact for Eternity, was Burna Boy’s first widely acclaimed project. It featured popular singles like Like to Party, Tonight, Always Love You, Run My Race and Yawa Dey. On the first day of its release, the album sold 40,000 copies.
Each of the above-mentioned tracks was dropped as singles and they had massive airplay giving the artist his first major following. Artists like 2Baba (then known as 2face Idibia), M.I., Timaya, Olamide, Reminisce and Wizkid featured in the project.
The album was selected among the Best Album of the Year at the 2014 Nigeria Entertainment Awards and also ranked 7th on the Billboard Reggae Albums charts. Also, because it was different from what was common in the Nigeria music scheme, and brought some form of Nostalgia, it sounded a lot like African music from greats like Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade and Bob Marley.
So massive was the success of the album entirely produced by Leriq, that Uba Pacific paid N10 million to Aristokrat Records for the marketing rights of the album.
However, the relationship between Burna Boy and his record label thereafter went downhill and in 2014, the parties parted ways. Damini Ogulu would go on to establish his own record label, which he named Spaceship Entertainment.
Burna Boy’s second album, On A Spaceship, fumbled
Under his new record label, Burna Boy, on 25th November 2015, released his second album titled On a Spaceship. The album contained 20 tracks (with one of them being an intro). It featured other artists like Nyanda on Mine Tonight, Wizkid on Single, Phyno on Duro Ni Be and Flavour on Before. Wande Coal, AKA, Da Les and Kid X also appeared on the album.
However, the album was not well received. Many online websites seem to prefer pretending it existed only in name. On Amazon, it has a 1-star rating to show how low it fell. There was no definite figure of how many copies the album sold but the absence of the information indicates that it must have been very poor.
Burna Boy’s fans also showed their disappointment, and many feared they might have hoped for too much after the success of the previous project.
However, the failure of the album to gain acceptance was just a blip in the Burna Boy’s career as he was far from done, and his next pieces of work showed that.
Burna Boy signed by new labels in 2017
Before climbing back on the pedestal he had been placed on, in 2017, Damini Ogulu, aka Burna Boy, signed a deal with Bad Habit/Atlantic Records in the United States. He also got signed internationally to Warner Music Group.
Currently, Burna Boy belongs to the following record labels: Spaceship, Bad Habit, Atlantic and Warner Music.
Atlantic Records is popular for hosting the likes of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. Not to take anything away from the artist’s talent, but it seems under the tutelage of the recording company, Burna was able to take back the Nigerian music scene by storm.
He released Rock Your Body in 2017 and the song’s catchy bridge became a nationwide party anthem almost immediately. But that was just the beginning. His impressive performance on the remix of Skale’s Temper was also a much talked about feat so much so that many wondered who originally owned the song. Another single that made Burna much talked about in that same year was Unruly, was highly received by music lovers.
His singles in 2017, made the 2018 album a success. Let us delve into this in the next part.
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2018 and international recognition
When news broke in January 2018 that Burna Boy had been featured on the track Sunshine Riptide by the American rock band, Fall Out Boy, it did not mean much but a flimsy international feature. But on the 26th of the same month, the singer released his third album titled, Outside.
Burna Boy’s album Outside is considered a masterpiece because it also brought out his songwriting skills. Further, it features masterfully engineered genres from Afrobeats to dancehall, and also touched reggae and road rap. The fusion of these genres seems to have been his major strength and he likely knows this.
The album had many contributors that include English musicians J Hus, Lily Allen and Mabel as guest vocalists. This time around Leriq had to work with other producers to make the project a major success. Baba Stiltz, Jae 5, Julks, Chopstix, Steel Banglez and Phantom are also among the credited producers who worked on the project.
Outside contained major hit songs like the aforementioned Rock Your Body, Streets of Africa, Heaven’s Gate, and Ye, which is arguably the biggest track. So strong was the influence of the work’s output that major Nigerian entertainment outlets were naming it the best album of 2018.
At the 2018 Nigeria Entertainment Awards, the album won the Album of the Year award. In the international space, Outside peaked at 3rd spot on Billboard Reggae Albums. The single, Ye, was chosen by radio stations, TV, and online publications as 2018’s biggest song.
On the strength of these impressive displays, Burna Boy’s concert at the popular London’s O2 Academy Brixton filled to capacity. Tickets were sold out at the 7th October 2018 concert. Burna Boy also sold out all boxes of his limited edition Space Puffs cereal as well custom made notepads, lighters and tee shirts.
Spotify also included the musician among the New Afro Hub Takeover Artist and YouTube named him Artist on the Rise for about three months.
In 2019 Burna Boy became an African Giant
From the beginning of 2019, Burna Boy never looked back. He kept rising to the summit with his steady grinding. As early as January, he was announced (along with Mr Eazi) as the Afrobeat musician(s) to perform at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. This was a big deal because American trending singers like Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Wiz Khalifa, Kanye West and Donald Glover were also going to perform at the festival.
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Nigerian and African award community also started to recognise and reward Burna Boy’s work. At the Soundcity MVP Awards Festival, he claimed four major awards including African Artist of the Year and Best Male MVP. It also proved to be a busy year for the singer as he had many projects released in the short space and he also managed to squeeze in performances.
At the 2019 BET Awards, Burna Boy won the International Act award and the next month in July, Apple Music pronounced him their Up Next Artist.
In the same month of July, Burna Boy recorded the track Ja Ara E for Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift album. He is also the only artist besides Beyoncé, on the album, who had his track without featuring any other artist.
However, in the midst of all these impressive deliveries, it seems a huge ask to expect Burna Boy to put together a good body of work.
But that was exactly what Burna Boy did. He released the album: African Giant and cemented his place at the top. Since the album’s release, his name features in all top African music listings. African Giant’s popularity was pushed by six singles spanning from September 2018 to July 2019.
Gbona, On the Low, Killin Dem, Dangote, Anybody and Pull Up were lead singles for the album. They paved the way for its impressive rise by preparing the minds of music lovers.
Speaking about the album, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu (popularly called Burna Boy) told Billboard magazine that the album was his most “personal” project yet. He also stated that it touched on topics like the Nigerian political climate and violence as well.
The album was engineered in Los Angeles and London by Jesse Ray Ernster. The name, African Giant, was coined after Burna Boy’s calling out of the organisers of the 2019 Coachella Festival after they had printed his name in small font on the festival’s poster.
The features on the album were also magnificent. Zlatan was on Killin Dem and Jorja Smith appeared on Gum Body. Future, Damian Marley and Angelique Kidjo also featured on different tracks.
Burna Boy Biography: 2020 Grammy win
The 62nd edition of the Grammy announced that Burna Boy’s African Giant was nominated in the Best World Music Album category. He contested with four other artists for the prize in 2020 and many tout him for the win. Although he was not the first Nigerian singer to be nominated for the prestigious music award nor the only one in 2020, it was still a major feat.
Burna Boy was beaten by Beninese Angélique Kidjo at the 62nd edition of the event. Angelique Kidjo is a 59-year-old singer, songwriter, actress, and activist who is noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos.
She is a Grammy veteran and her 2020 win marks her fourth win in the World Music Album Award category. The loss had enraged many fans of Burna Boy but it was difficult to argue about the fairness of Kidjo’s win given the quality of her Celia album that won the award.
Twice as Tall (2020) and more honours
On 14th August 2020, Burna Boy released Twice as Tall, the follow-up album of his record-setting African Giant project. Twice as Tall was released under Spaceship Entertainment, Atlantic Records and Warner Music record labels.
