Why Burna Boy, ‘Underrated Star’ Honoured Abroad

At last, Burna Boy got the recognition he long deserved. In the early hours of June 24, 2019, Nigerian superstar, Burna Boy won the award for Best International Act at the BET Awards 2019

The ceremony held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California.

Prior to this huge international honour, there has been a perception that the Star is being underrated after previously losing out on some awards and nominations when music lovers expected him to win.

Recall that Burna Boy had stormed out of the 2013 Headies Awards when a rising Afro pop star at the time, Sean Tizzle, was announced as winner of the Next Rated category.

The category is chosen to honour the most promising musician during the period of nomination. The award comes with a brand-new Hyundai Tucson SUV.

As soon as Sean Tizzle was announced as the winner, Burna Boy left the venue in anger. Some fans had at the time criticised the show for not picking the singer as winner.

Similarly, Burna Boy had in 2015 expressed his disappointment that he didn’t get any nomination in any of the 13 categories at the MTV Africa Music Awards.

However, MTV Base, organisers of the awards, mocked Burna Boy in their response to his Twitter rant.

How Burna Boy Made It To 2019 BET Awards

He rose to prominence in 2012 after releasing the lead single “Like to Party” from his debut studio album, L.I.F.E (2013).

All he did in 2017 was features like Airboy’s ‘Ayepo (Remix,’ Phyno’s ‘Link Up’ and ‘Gbefun One Time’ by Skales. The year undeniably went to DMW boss, Davido, but Burna set himself up.

Outside and Ye

In January 2018, Burna Boy was featured on “Sunshine Riptide”, a track from Fall Out Boy’s Grammy-nominated seventh studio album, MANIA (2018).

He released his third studio album “Outside” on January 26, 2018. Described as a mixtape by the singer, “Outside” consists mostly of Afrobeats, dancehall, reggae and road rap. It features guest vocals from English musicians J Hus, Lily Allen and Mabel. Outside was supported by six singles: “Rock Your Body”, “Streets of Africa”, “Koni Baje”, “Sekkle Down”, “Heaven’s Gate” and “Ye” which became fan-favorite.

‘Ye’ was the biggest Nigerian song of 2018. Burna followed it three more smash hits, ‘Gbona,’ ‘On the Low’ and ‘Killin Dem’ featuring Zlatan – which is largely a 2019 song.

It was after the release of “Ye” that the “On The Low” crooner earned a spot to perform at one of his biggest international stage performances at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.