By Peter Makossah
The African giant, Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter and performer Burna Boy has lost the two categories he was nominated for at the 65th edition of the Grammy awards 2023.
The London-educated Nigerian Afro-Pop, dancehall and Afrobeat kingpin, Burna Boy, real name, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu missed out the 2023 world’s most prestigious music accolades, which was held on February 5, 2023, at the Microsoft Theatre in the US.
The Last last singing sensation was nominated alongside top acts including Africa’s all-time great songstress, Angelique Kidjo in the ‘Best Global Album’ category and Uganda’s music royalty Eddy Kenzo in the ‘Best Global Performance’ category.
The ‘Best Global Album’ category, where he received his 5th grammy nomination with his studio album ‘Love Damini’, was won by Masa Takumi with the album; ‘Sakura.’
The singer’s ‘Last Last’ performance also lost his 6th grammy nomination in the ‘Best Global Performance’ category to a collaboration by top acts, Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode with ‘Bayethe.
Burna Boy was born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in Nigeria. His mother, Bose Ogulu, worked as a language translator and his father, Samuel, managed a welding company.
His maternal grandfather, Benson Idonije, once managed Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti. His mother later became his manager.
Ogulu grew up in southern Nigeria and began making his own beats using FL Studio.
He attended Corona Secondary School in Agbara in Ogun State and relocated to London to further his studies.
He later studied media technology at the University of Sussex from 2008 to 2009, then studied media communications and culture at Oxford Brookes University from 2009 to 2010.
Burna Boy’s debut studio album, L.I.F.E , was released on 12 August 2013, serving as the follow-up to his second mixtape Burn Identity (2011).
The album sold 40,000 copies on the first day of its release. Aristocrats Records later sold its marketing rights to Uba Pacific for ₦10 million.
In 2019, he won Best International Act at the 2019 BET Award and was announced as an Apple Music Up Next artist.
His fourth studio album, African Giant, was released in July 2019 and won Album of the Year at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards and was nominated for a Best World Music Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
He was awarded the African Artist of the year at the 2020 VGMA’s.
Burna Boy released his fifth studio album, Twice as Tall, in August 2020, which was nominated for the same category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making him the first Nigerian artist with back-to-back nominations at the Grammys.
He won best international Act at BET Awards. In 2021, Twice as Tall won the Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
He won best international act at the 2021 BET Awards,
In July 2022, Burna Boy released his sixth studio album, Love Damini, which also became the highest debut of an African album on Billboard 200, as well as charts in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and France.
In October, Burna Boy was given the award of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic for his achievements in music.
In 2023, Rolling Stone, ranked him at number 197 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
However, it seems Burna Boy is still in shock after his recent Grammy loss against South African singers Zakes Bantwini, Nomcebo Zikode, and Wouter Kellerman and has not yet gotten over it.
The trio won in the Best Global Music Performance category at the 2023 Grammy Awards held on 5 February at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles beating the self-anointed African Giant to a pulp, black and blue.
Burna Boy took to Instagram in a rant, saying: “The Grammys is full of shits and lies. We all know that. Nobody else deserves that shit but me. They can’t stop me now not ever.”
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