A Burna Boy fan recently wrote in the comment of his latest single review – Big 7, “0% understanding; 100% satisfaction”. He was saying like most of Afrobeats’ global followers that he cannot understand the lyrics, but he enjoys every bit of the music. But how do you enjoy a musical creation without understanding what the singer is saying? The answer lies in the uniqueness and universality of music. Music being a combination of sounds that inspire diverse emotion does not need the hearer to understand the words. The musician’s ability to create sounds that comes in the form of words, beats and other musical instrument created sounds gives the music its ability to give a satisfaction that is both original, universal, and even spiritual. This is the place where Burna Boy and other successful Afrobeat stars have found themselves. The world is asking for more, and Burna Boy is evolving into a musical instrument and vessel that keeps giving in ways that mesmerize. He can sing, rap, songwrite and produce.

Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu – aka Burna Boy, was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, on the 2nd of July 1991. His mother Bose Ogulu worked as a language translator, and his father, Samuel Ogulu, managed a welding company. His maternal grandfather Benson Idonije once managed one of the world’s greatest musicians – Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Burna Boy tentatively began his music career by perfecting the use of FL Studio. FL Studio is a digital audio workstation developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. It features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer that enables users to create beats and other musical configuration. Burna Boy attended Corona Secondary School, Agbara, Ogun State, Nigeria. He later studied Media Technology at the University of Sussex from 2008 to 2009 and Media Communications and Culture at Oxford Brookes University from 2009 to 2010. He relocated to Port Harcourt, Nigeria and took up a year-long internship at Rhythm 93.7 FM before starting his journey to global stardom.

Burna Boy’s success reinforces the fact that enduring success is never a coincidence or accident. It is often a confluence of talent, hardwork and judicious use of opportunities. The continued success of Burna Boy is a case study of how to become successful in any career. I believe it starts with talent discovery. But as the cliche goes – Talent is never enough. Everywhere you look, you will find very unsuccessful but highly talented individuals. If you look closely, you will also find not so talented but highly successful individuals. If you study the enduringly successful among the talented, one thing stands out – discipline. Discipline is a silver bullet. And no matter how talented you are, without discipline you will most likely amount to nothing. Knowledge, they say is power, however, applied knowledge empowers. In the case of Burna Boy and other creatively successful people, a detailed knowledge of their craft with discipline has always been the raft that took them to stardom.

Ata Ukuta – Editor, Towncryyers