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Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu MFR[3] (born 2 July 1991),[2] known professionally as Burna Boy, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and record producer.[4][1][5] He rose to stardom in 2012 after releasing "Like to Party", the lead single from his debut studio album, L.I.F.E (2013). In 2017, Burna Boy signed with Bad Habit/Atlantic Records in the United States and Warner Music Group internationally. His third studio album, Outside, marked his major-label debut.[6]
In 2019, he won Best International Act at the 2019 BET Awards, and was announced as an Apple Music Up Next artist. His fourth studio album, African Giant, was released in July 2019 and won Album of the Year at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards and was nominated for a Best World Music Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.[7][8] He was awarded the African Artist of the year at the 2020 VGMA's. Burna Boy released his fifth studio album, Twice as Tall, in August 2020, which was nominated for the same category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making him the first Nigerian artist with back-to-back nominations at the Grammys.[9] In 2021, Twice as Tall won the Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.[10]
In July 2022, Burna Boy released his sixth studio album, Love, Damini which also became the highest debut of an African album on Billboard, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France.[11] In October, Burna Boy was given the award of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic for his achievements in music.[12]
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu was born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.[13] His mother, Bose Ogulu, worked as a language translator and his father, Samuel, managed a welding company. His maternal grandfather, Benson Idonije, once managed Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti.[14][15] His mother would later become his manager.[16] Ogulu grew up in southern Nigeria and began making his own beats using FL Studio.[14][17] He attended Corona Secondary School in Agbara (Ogun State) and relocated to London to further his studies.[14][18] He later studied media technology at the University of Sussex from 2008 to 2009,[19] then studied media communications and culture at Oxford Brookes University from 2009 to 2010.[20] He then returned to Port Harcourt and took up a year-long internship at Rhythm 93.7 FM.[20] He launched his music career after returning to Lagos.[20]
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