Ferdinand Ekechukwu
Rave of the moment, Burna Boy has once again been taken to a new level barely a week after winning his first Grammys. In a fresh collaboration, the Nigerian superstar teams up with Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber to deliver on the new song ‘Loved by You’. The song is on Bieber’s sixth album, Justice, which was released last Friday, with Burna Boy’s feature on Track 14 currently trending on Nigerian Twitter space following the release which has become a favourite among music lovers.
Interestingly, Nigerians on Twitter has been hailing the ‘African Giant’ for his 30 seconds verse on the song. In this impressive new feature co-produced by Nigerian music producer, LeriQ, their mutual respect for one another’s sound direction shone through their individual levels in a mesh of distinctive vocals and rich instrumentation in ‘Loved by You’. Easy on the ears, Bieber is a wizard in this track as a cascade of sounds bounce off in his breathy lines. For Burna Boy’s innate authenticity and musical innovation in an engagement of anecdotes and lines from deep within, is auditory gold.
The multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, Justin Drew Bieber became the first artiste to have seven songs from a debut record chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009, debuted on the US Billboard 200 in 2010 with his global anthem ‘Baby’ and became the youngest solo male act to top the chart in 47 years. He has built quite the list of notable features with over 30 collaborations with the industry’s biggest names including Major Lazer, Nicki Minaj, Chance The Rapper, Usher, Ludacris, and Travis Scott.
For BET’s Best International Act, singer and songwriter, Burna Boy who has always been big on international collaborations from the early days of his career, has a number of international collaborations with artistes across genres, eras, and continents including Sam Smith, Dave, Stormzy and Ed Sheeran, Pop Smoke, Jorja Smith, Major Lazer, Mahalia, J Hus, and Lily Allen. Soon after his recent collaboration with Australian global superstar, Sia in ‘Heyboy’, Burna Boy featured on a Becky G’s song, ‘Rotate’ which is now a part of Pepsi’s new football campaign.
Real name Damini Ogulu, the talented singer clinched his first Grammy laurel at the just concluded 63rd Grammy Awards and has been basking in the euphoria. The afro-fusion artiste bagged the much-coveted Grammy award in the Best Global Music Album (formerly Best World Music Album) category for his ‘Twice as Tall’ album. He edged out contenders Antibalas, an American Afrobeat band that is modelled after Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Africa 70 band; Brazilian-American singer Bebel Gilberto; British-Indian sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar; and the Malian band, Tinariwen.
The winning album is his fifth studio album and featured international collaborations with Chris Martin, the lead vocalist of the British band, Cold Play; American rap group, Naughty by Nature as well as Senegalese legendary singer, Youssou N’Dour. This is the second consecutive time Burna Boy has been nominated for the Grammys. His previous album, ‘African Giant’ was nominated at the 62nd Grammy Awards for ‘Best World Music Album’. The award went to Beninoise singer, Angélique Kidjo, who dedicated the award to Burna Boy and said he was leading the pack of young Africans who will shake up the global music space.
With a captivating performance at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, Burna Boy was a spectacle as he brought down the house in a powerful medley of his songs, starting with the chorus of “20:10: 20” to “Level Up” to “Onyeka” and “Ye”, complemented by his band, “The Outsiders” whose reworked musical arrangement was nothing short of ethereal excellence for the singer, who has sold out London’s Wembley Arena and broken a UK music chart and a Spotify streaming record with his Afrobeats and dance-hall style.
