Burna Boy is a Nigerian Afrofusion artist whose real name is Damini Ogulu who became popular after releasing his single “Like To Party” in 2012. He is also known as Oluwa Burna.
He sings and writes songs in reggae and dance genre and is known for his great Afrobeat.
Journalists often speak of him as the Nigerian 50 Cent which is very much connected to his way of acting and the lavish life he leads.
Early years
He was born as Damini Ogulu on July 2, 1991 in Ahoada in Rivers State in Nigeria where he has lived for a few years until his family relocated to the State of Lagos. He has a sister who he loves very much.
Damini was a pupil at the Montessori International School after which he enrolled secondary school in the town called Corona.
Career development
In the spring 2012, he released “Like To Party” which gave him recognition in his genre.
It was in winter 2012 that the video for this single named “Like to Party” has finally released.
After a few days, he released another single named “Tonight” and a video for this song.
He was known to the police in London due to his often getting in trouble and breaking the law.
He is known for his controversial stage performances such as for example when he stripped on the stage, taking off his trousers and staying only in pants.
His biggest role model was Fela, a known African artist. He is known as Fela Kuti and he was multinstrumentalist from Nigeria who died of AIDS. He was one of the most popular and prominent Nigerian artists of all time.
His mother is named Ogulu and she was his manager at the beginning of his career. Afterwards, he hired someone else to manage his music business.
After finishing Nigerian school he was sent to London by his parents to continue his education but he did everything but that.
He made trouble and often showed his bad temper. That unfortunately brought him under strict police attention and after being warned many times he was finally deported back to Nigeria and was banned to return in near future.
One of those controversies included him slapping a salesgirl in London in 2013. This brought huge controversy on him and was the last drop for the police.
While growing up his biggest role model in music was Fela and there was even a deeper connection with Fela due to the fact that Burna Boy’s grandfather was managing Fela’s career. He was named Benson Idon.
His first single which achieved some recognition was a song named “Abeg Abeg”.
It was recognized by fans and was listened to for a while but it wasn’t listened for long.
In 2012 came his real breakthrough with the single named “Like to party”.
This was his first big oportunity to be enrolled into the music industry and he held it strongly. He wasn’t about to loose the attention he received with his song so he started working even harder on his songs and his career.
He realesed the video for the samenamed single the same year, in 2012, expanding to social media and internet music platforms.
He didn’t want to wait long for the release of the new single because he wanted to keep the media attention on him.
That is why he released the new single very soon, titled “Tonight” but it was i teresting that this single was more classical and gentle than the first. It didn’t have as much Afrobeat as the first one.
This single was released and produced by Aristocrats records. This record label offered him a contract which he accepted and sign.
These two singles, along with other of his songs, were released in his first album named “Burn Notice”.
The album which followed it was similarly called “Burn Identity”. This album had huge sucess.
In 2013 he realesed “L.I.F.E – Leaving an Impact for Eternity”.
In 2014, he had a dispute with his record label Aristocrats Records and it was the same year his mother stopped being his manager.
In 2015 came “On a Spaceship” and a year later he released an EP named “Redemption”.
He is well liked artist in Nigeria. In 2013 he received the Nigeria Entertainment Award for Best New Act of the Year.
He also won the Best Pop Award for his single “Like to Party”.
In 2014 he won the award for Best New Act at MTV Africa Music Awards.
At Nigeria Entertainment Awards he won the award for Best Album of the Year for the album “L.I.F.E – Leaving an Impact for Eternity “.
In 2016 he signed a very well paid contract to be a brand ambassador for Martell Cognac. This brought him high endorsement income and made him even reacher.
Burna Boy, the character from which he gained his stage name, is an Ork from a video game that is described as “the creature who cannot stop making fire”.
In 2018 he started touring all across America and even in United Kingdom which means he is not banned any more.
Personal life
He likes to lead a lavish lifestyle and spend money on expensive items. He shows off as a lot of Amrican stars did, such as 50 Cent and Tupac Amaru Shakur.
He is a big fan of cars, especially SUV cars.
He owns six cars: a Mercedes Benz G-Class, a Range Rover, Lexus Saloon and three more.
He is romantically involved with a girl named Edith Williams. He keeps his life very private so it was just a few years ago that he shared his birthday wishes to her on her Instagram channel, confirming that she is probably his future wife.
There is only one picture of his girlfriend from the youth and they have been together since he was 16.
He has an Instagram channel with over 1,2 million followers. He posts about his performances a lot and posts photos from his concerts.
Quick summary
Full name: Damini Ogulu
Date of birth: July 2,1991
Birthplace: Ahoada, Rivers State, Nigeria
Age: 27
Profession: singer, songwriter, artist
Height: 1,85 m
Weight: NA
Net Worth: $10 million
