Afrobeat superstar, Burna Boy, has fulfilled his lifelong dream and added a Grammy to his growing list of accomplishments.
After being nominated and losing to Angelique Kidjo for the 2020 edition of the Grammys, the Nigerian singer and songwriter has made a bigger comeback in the 2021 installment of the awards.
The singer won the best Global Music Album category for his latest body of work, “Twice as Tall”.
This marks their first career Grammy win. He is the first winner of the recently renamed category, formerly known as Best World Music Album.
He beats Brooklyn-based American afrobeat band, Antibalas; a group of Tuareg musicians, Tinariwen; British-Indian composer, Anoushka Shankar and Brazilian-American singer, Bebel Gilberto.
The self-acclaimed African Giant’s win makes him one of the only three Nigerians who will be returning home with the Grammy statuette.
Sikiru Adepoju is the first Nigerian to have won the Grammy. He won it in 2009 with the ‘Global Drum Project’, a collaborative album with Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain and Giovanni Hidalgo.
Ayo Balogun, the afrobeat superstar popularly known as Wizkid, is the other Nigerian who has won the Grammy. Coincidentally, he and Burna Boy got their first awards on the same day at the 63rd Grammy awards ceremony.
While Wizkid won for his collaboration with Beyonce and Blue Ivy on the song, ‘Brown Skin Girl’, Burna Boy who is dubbed “Odogwu”, won with his fifth studio album.
The news of Burna’s victory has fans gyrating all over the social media with many saying that the afrobeat superstar has now placed Nigeria back on the world music map.
