EDITORIAL
Why Burna Boy Is Bigger Than Many American Artists
Afrobeats megastar Burna Boy yesterday sparked a hot debate among netizens with his latest interview with the Los Angeles Times, wherein he states that there are a lot of Nigerians who still think there is no way someone like him can be bigger than an American artist.
He states: To this day, there’s many Nigerians who can tell you an American rapper who just started their career, and they’ll say they’re bigger than Burna Boy’, he says. ‘They don’t understand it. They’ll say, “There’s no way someone who talks like me, can even be on the same level as an American artist.”
In this article, you will find out why Burna Boy is currently bigger than many American artists.
Who is Burna Boy?
Burna Boy was born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria on 2 July 1991. His career began in 2012 when he released ‘Like To Party’, followed by his debut album ‘L.I.F.E’, an album which helped get his name in the nominees’ list of the car-prize Next Rated award for the 2013 Headies Awards.
2018 saw Burna Boy’s big or international breakthrough come true, after the release of his platinum-record ‘Ye’. Since then he has been on a roll, releasing five critically acclaimed albums in six years, selling out large stadiums around the world and winning a Grammy award!
Why Burna Boy is Bigger Than Many American Artists?
It’s surprising that there are people who still believe that Burna Boy is ‘only a Nigerian artist’ in 2023. He is a global artist, and not only a Nigerian artist. Just last month (in July) he became the first African artist to sell out a US stadium; before the US stadium, he had sold out stadiums across the UK, France, and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of American artists that cannot fill up even the London’s O2 Arena, or any big-capacity venues outside their country for that matter. Even in their home country – America – not many of them have filled up a stadium as Burna Boy did. We have seen the like of Dababy, a popular American rapper, cancel his shows due to low ticket sales. In September 2022 Dababy canceled a 14,000 capacity venue show in New Orleans after selling only 500 tickets!
In only 2023, Burna Boy sold out not only 41,000 capacity New York’s Citi Field Stadium, but also London Stadium of 60,000 capacity, La Défense Arena, a Paris stadium of 40,000 capacity and Gelredome Stadium, Netherlands. In addition, he has sold out the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena twice and has performed in large-size venues in countries across Europe and North America.
Except big American artists like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar who can boast of selling out stadiums back-to-back, none of these new-age American artists have achieved what Burna Boy did. In fact, many of them would pay hefty money to work with him.
Afrobeats is one of the biggest genres in the world currently. Gone are those days when a Nigerian artist taking a picture with an American artist would make our Newspapers’ headlines and be celebrated like a national merit. That said, Burna Boy is on the same level as some American artists and even bigger than some!
*Novice2STAR’s Author’s Opinion is the viewpoint of an author. It does not represent the opinion of the company, Novice2STAR.
