Burna Boy Biography – Net Worth, Songs, Age, Albums, Music Career And General Life Style
In recent times, Nigerians have been regaled with wonderful music from this artiste. He has also gone on to be nominated for several local and international awards. This article is about Burna boy biography, his net worth, songs, albums and general music career and life style.
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu aka Burna Boy, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, rapper and dancer. Like his song, Way To Big, he is one of the biggest Nigerian Artistes there is. He rose to limelight after his album L.I.F.E launched in 2012.
Burna Boy Biography – Net Worth, Songs, Age, Albums & Music Career
Let’s look into more details into everything that there is to know about the Nigeria musician!
Burna Boy Birth, Age And Early Life
Burna boy was birthed on the 2nd of July 1991. He was named Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu by his mother, Bose Ogulu. His place of birth was in Rivers State Nigeria. His father was a welding company manager and his mother worked as a translator. History has it that Burna boys grandfather Benson Idonije once managed Fela Kuti.
Education Background
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy attended Corona Secondary School in Agbara. Upon graduation, he relocated to London to further his studies. He is a graduate of Media Technology from the University of Sussex, and also a graduate of Media Communications and Culture from Oxford Brookes University.
Burna Boy Music career
Burna boy biography reveals that as a teenager, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy used to make music using FruityLoops. And on the 12th of August 2013, Burna Boy released his debut studio album L.I.F.E. The album was a follow-up to his second mixtape Burn Identity released in 2011. On the day the album was released, it sold 40,000 copies. Aristokrat Records later sold their marketing rights to Uba Pacific at the price of ₦10 million. Prior to the release of the album, five singles “Like to Party”, “Tonight”, “Always Love You”, “Run My Race” and “Yawa Dey” preceded it.
The album L.I.F.E was produced by Leriq. It featured guest artists like 2face Idibia, M.I, Timaya, Olamide, Reminisce and Wizkid to name a few. The album was a huge success and was ranked the tenth out of twelve best albums of 2013 by Nigeria Entertainment Today. Burna Boy mentioned that his inspiration and sounds were drawn from the music of the likes of Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade and Bob Marley. It received positive reviews from music critics. They lauded the efforts put into the production and vocals. In August 2013, the album L.I.F.E peaked at the seventh position on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. In 2014, the album was nominated for Best Album of the Year at the Nigeria Entertainment Awards.
In the year 2014, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy left Aristokrat records. The following year, precisely In February 2015, he formed his own record label, Spaceship Entertainment. This happened to be exactly eight months after he left Aristocrat Records.
After Burna Boyformed his record label, he released his second album On a Spaceship on 25 November 2015. Not too long after that, his 7-track debut EP Redemption was released in September 2016. The EP’s lead single “Pree Me” debuted on Noisey.
The year 2018 began on a good note and in high spirits for Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy. In January 2018, he was featured on “Sunshine Riptide”, which is a track from Fall Out Boy’s seventh studio album MANIA released in the year 2018. Shortly after that, Burna Boy, went ahead to release his third studio album Outside. The album’s release date was on the 26th of January 2018. The production was handled by Leriq, Baba Stiltz, Jae 5, Juls, Chopstix, Steel Banglez, Fred Gibson, Phantom and FTSE. The album featured guest vocals from English musicians like J Hus, Lily Allen and Mabel. It was also supported by six singles: “Rock Your Body”, “Streets of Africa”, “Koni Baje”, “Sekkle Down”, “Heaven’s Gate” and “Ye”. A brief description given of the album says it as mixtape consisting of the following genres Afrobeats, dancehall, reggae and road rap.
The album was positively criticized and ranked as the best Nigerian Album of 2018 by Pulse Nigeria and Nigerian Entertainment Today. The album, Outside, won Album of the Year at the 2018 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. Outside debuted at number 3 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart in February of the year 2018. The biggest single of the album “Ye” ended up as the bigger song of 2018.
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy, performed before a sold-out crowd on the 7th October 2018 at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. A day before the show, a mini-event was organized at Red by Little Farm. He sold boxes of his cereal, Space Puffs alongside custom notepads, lighters and graphic tee-shirts.
On the 9th of October 2018, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu aka Burna Boy was announced as one of Spotify’s New Afro Hub Takeover Artist. Within the same timeframe, he was also named as YouTube’s Artist on the Rise for 3 months.
The year 2019 began with lots of fireworks careerwise for Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy. On the 3rd of January 2019, Burna Boy was announced alongside Mr Eazi as one of the artists that would be gracing the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with their performance.
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy won four awards at the Soundcity MVP Awards Festival. They included African Artiste of the Year, Listener’s Choice and Best Male MVP.
On 21st day of March 2019, Burna Boy released a collaborative EP containing four tracks with Los Angeles-based electronic duo DJDS. The Extended Playlist was titled Steel & Copper. The EP had a blend of Burna Boy’s signature upbeat melodies with the characteristic DJDS’ slinky trap beats. The EP Steel & Copper has a combination of dancehall and reggae music with Afropop and trap.
On the 24th of June 2019, Burna Boy won Best International Act at the 2019 BET Awards. It was not a surprise considering his consistency and hard work, however, the country was in an uproar. In July of the same year 2019, Burna Boy was announced as an Apple Music Up Next artist. After he was included in the program, he was interviewed by Julie Adenuga, a Beats 1 OAP and a short documentary was done.
Burna Boy recorded “Ja Ara E” which is a Yoruba song, loosely translated as “wise up” or “use your head”. The recording was for Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift. He was the only guest artist that had his own track on the soundtrack album.
The fourth studio album, African Giant was released on 26 July 2019 by Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy. It was supported by six singles: “Gbona”, “On the Low”, Killin Dem”, “Dangote”, “Anybody” and “Pull Up”.
Burna Boy mentioned that he began recording the album in 2018, and in an interview with Billboard magazine, he said the album is his most personal album yet. Plans to release the album were long underway and was scheduled to be in April 2019. He held a private listening session in Los Angeles and photos and videos from the listening session were shared on social media.
April 2020 saw Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu alias Burna Boy performing in the One World: Together at Home special.
On the 19th of June 2020, Burna Boy was featured on the remix of South African producer Master KG’s viral song “Jerusalema”. The remix made the song to enter several charts. Burna Boy used his signature Afrobeats style on the song and he also partly sang in the isiZulu language. He was also featured on Sam Smith’s single “My Oasis”. Its release day was on the 30th of July 2020.
Twice as Tall was the fifth studio album by Burna Boy. Its release date was on the 14th of August 2020. The album was executively produced by Diddy and Burna Boy’s mother Bose Ogulu fondly called Mama Burna. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard World Albums Chart. It is his highest-charting project yet.
The 24th of November 2020, saw Burna Boys Album ‘Twice As Tall’ get Nominated under the World Music Album category in the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. It was nominated alongside other entertainers and Artistes like Antibalas, Bebel Gilberto, Anoushka Shankar and Tianariwen.
This is the second year consistently that Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu aka Burna Boy got nominated in this category. He also won an Edison award in the World Album category for African Giant, and the Best International Act at the MOBO Awards on December 9. He dusted off other contenders for the award like Drake, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby and Roddy Ricch.
The evidence of how far he has gone embedded himself in the hearts of people showed after his song, “Destiny″ was included in the playlist at the Inauguration of Joe Biden.
Burna Boy music list
Studio albums
L.I.F.E
On a Spaceship
Outside
African Giant
Twice as Tall
Mixtapes
Burn Notice released in 2011.
Burn Identity released in 2012.
EPs
Redemption released in 2016.
Steel & Copper (with DJDS) released in 2019.
Singles
“Like To Party”
“Tonight”
“Run My Race”
“Yawa Dey”
“Celebrate”
“Won Da Mo”
“Rockstar”
“Don Gorgon”
“Check and Balance”
“Soke”
“The Realest”
“Rizzla”
“Pree Me”
“Mandem Anthem”
“Hallelujah”
“Rock Your Body”
“Streets of Africa”
“Koni Baje”
“Sekkle Down”
“Heaven’s Gate” (featuring Lily Allen)
“Ye”
“On the Low”
“Gbona”
“Killin Dem” (featuring Zlatan)
“Dangote”
“Anybody”
“Pull Up”
“Money Play”
“Odogwu”
“Wonderful”
“20 10 20”
“Monsters you made”
“Real Life” (featuring Stormzy)
“Way too big”
Burna Boy Net Worth
The CEO of Spaceship Entertainment is said to worth around $10 million (₦3.8 billion), making him one of the richest musicians in Nigeria. Having such a huge amount in his account should be enough to afford him luxury cars, houses and other things common with celebrities all over the world.
Meanwhile, in a report, Burna Boy Reacts To The Report That Says He Worth $3.5 Million (See What He Said)
“Oluwa Burna” as he loves to call himself makes his money from sales of music online and other platforms available. He is also the current ambassador to major brands such as Globacom, Star Lager beer, Nigerian Breweries Plc., and Mortell Cognac. He also earns a lot of cool cash from music tours and concerts, where tickets are mostly sold out abroad.
Controversies
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu aka Burna Boy has been embroiled in quite a number of controversies.
In July 2019, he had a Twitter fight with South African rapper, AKA who made tweets that sounded xenophobic after South Africa lost to Nigeria at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt. Burna Boy took to his Twitter account and cleared him, making some threats in the process.
There was an outrage online, after Burna Boys Side Chic, came out to speak about the promises he made to her yet continued winging it with Stefflondon.
Awards and accolades
2013
South-South Music Awards winner for Best Pop.
Nigeria Entertainment Awards winner for Best New Act of the Year
The Headies nominee for Next Rated and Best R&B Single.
2014
MTV Africa Music Awards nominee for Best New Act.
The Headies nominee for Best R&B Single, Best R&B/Pop Album L.I.F.E, Hip Hop World Revelation of the Year and Album of the Year.
Nigeria Entertainment Awards winner for Best Album of the Year.
2015
Nigeria Entertainment Awards nominee for Best Pop Artist of the Year.
2019
Soundcity MVP Awards Festival winner under the Listener’s Choice category, Song of the Year category, Best Male MVP and African Artiste of the Year.
BET Awards winner for Best International Act.
The Headies nominee for Viewer’s Choice and winner for Artiste of the Year. Nominee for Best Recording of the Year, Best Pop Single, Best R&B/Pop Album and Album of The Year. Winner for Song of the Year and Best Collaboration.
MTV Europe Music Awards winner for Best African Act.
African Muzik Magazine Awards nominee for Best Collaboration “Killin’ Dem” (featuring Zlatan), Video of the Year, Best Live Act, Best Male West Africa, Crossing Boundaries with Music. Winner for Song of the Year and Artist of the Year.
All Africa Music Awards winner for West African Male Artiste of the Year and Album of the Year.
2020
Soundcity MVP Awards Festival winner for Song of the Year category, African Artiste of The Year and Best Male MVP. Nominee for Best Collaboration, Listeners’ Choice and Viewers’ Choice.
Grammy Awards nominee for Best World Music Album.
Brit Awards nominee for Best International Solo Act and Song of the Year.
BET Awards winner for Best International Act.
Edison Awards winner Best World Album (African Giant)
MOBO_Awards winner for Best International Act
2021
Grammy Awards nominee and Winner for Best Global Music Album, Twice as Tall. Burna Boy Won Best Global Music Album For ‘Twice As Tall’ | 2021 GRAMMY Awards Show
Personal life, Relationship And Marriage
Another thing to know in Burna boy biography is that Burna Boy is unmarried but is in a relationship with his love interest, Steff London as the time of this post.
Conclusion On Burna Boy Biography
We definitely cannot wait to see what Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu aka Burna Boy has up his sleeve this year. Undoubtedly, the year began on a good note for him being nominated for a Grammy. This is every music Artistes dream and heart desire. It will be a huge win for him when it comes through and we are all rooting for him.
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