Afrobeat has become Nigeria’s biggest music export in the last 10 years. Undoubtedly, the trio of Burna Boy, Davido, and Wizkid have been the biggest promoters of the genre globally.
Read below a brief bio of the powerhouse trio.
BURNA BOY
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu popularly known as Burna Boy was born on 2 July 1991. He is a Nigerian singer, Songwriter, and record producer. 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 (2018) marked his major-label debut. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential African artists of all time.
In 2019, he won Best International Act at the 2019 Bet Awards and was announced as Apple Music Up Next artist that year. His fourth studio album, titled African Giant, was released in July 2019. He won Album of the Year at the 2019 All African Music Awards and was nominated for Best World Music Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. He was awarded African Artist of the Year at the 2020 Ghana Music Awards. Burna Boy released his fifth studio album, Twice As Tall, in August 2020. It won Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards and Best International Act at the 2021 BET Awards.
Burna Boy’s sixth studio album, Love Damini, was released in July 2022 and became the highest debut of an African album on the Billboard 200 chart. It also became the highest-charted African album in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and France. In October, Burna Boy was awarded the Member of the Order (MoN) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for his achievements in music. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked him number 197 on its list of the 200 greatest singers of all time.
Burna Boy won Best International Act at the 2023 BET Awards, making it his fourth win in the category. He won The Headies Afrobeats Single of the Year 2023 category and also the Song of the Year for his song “Last Last”.
On January 1, 2023, during the Lagos leg of his Love, Damini tour, a visibly upset Burna Boy denied the nightclub shooting rumor and rumors about his mother being a former backup dancer for Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. In April 2023, Burna Boy released a song titled Mera Na Ft Sidhu Moose Wala, In which he gave tribute to Sidhu, Mera Na charted on various international charts including Billboard Global 200, Canada Hot 100, and New Zealand Hot Singles chart. In June, he released the single “Sittin’ On Top Of The World”, which heavily samples American singer Brandy’s 1998 hit single “Top of the World“.
On June 10, 2023, Burna Boy became the first artist from Africa to perform at the UEFA Champions League Final Kick-Off Show by Pepsi. The singer took the stage at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, in front of more than 71,412 supporters and an audience of over 700 million people. In July, he became the first African artist to headline a sell-out stadium show in the United States, headlining at Citi Field in New York.
He was named by Billboard magazine as the top Afrobeat artist of the year 2023. At the 2023 Billboard Music Awards, burna was awarded the inaugural best Afrobeat award becoming the first African artist to win a BBMA as lead artist alongside Rema who won best Afrobeat song that night. In November he was nominated for four Grammy awards, making him the most nominated Nigerian artist in Grammy history with ten total career nominations and the first Nigerian to have nominations in five consecutive years, from 2019 to 2023. He was named as the 2023 most streamed Sub-saharan African artist globally on Spotify, making it his second year in a row. While congratulating African artists for their Grammy nominations, The Recording Academy described Burna Boy as the biggest artist in Africa.
DAVIDO:
David Adedeji Adeleke known as Davido was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Davido relocated to Lagos at a very young age. His debut album Omo Baba Olowo, released in 2012, was supported by the singles “Back When” featuring Naeto C; Dami Duro”, “All of You”, “Overseas” featuring Sina Rambo, “Ekuro”, “Gbon Gbon” and “Feel Alright” featuring Ice Prince. Between the years 2013 and 2015, Davido released the singles “Gobe”, “One of a Kind”, “Skelewu”, “Aye”, “Tchelete (Goodlife)” featuring Mafikizolo, “Naughty” featuring DJ Arafat, “Owo Ni Koko”, “The Sound” and “The Money” featuring Olamide. The aforementioned singles were reportedly intended to be singles off the album, The Baddest.
Davido’s second studio album ‘A Good Time’ was released on November 22, 2019. The album featured the previously released singles “If”, “Fall”, “Assurance”, “Blow My Mind” and “Risky”. Davido recorded A Good Time in Atlanta. He told Vibe magazine he wanted to record in a new environment. He described the album as one for everybody and would consist predominantly of Afrobeats but would incorporate elements of other genres.
Davido revealed the album’s title at an event in Lagos in September 2019 and said it would be released the following month. He also unveiled excerpts of four songs from the album during the event. Following his performance at Powerhouse 2019, Davido spoke with Power 105.1’s DJ Self and said the album will feature collaborations with artists including Summer Walker, Gunna, A Boogie, and Chris Brown. All but one of the tracks on A Good Time were produced by Nigerian producers. The album’s cover art features Davido, his father, and a sculpture of his mother.
In May 2020, Davido announced that his upcoming third studio album would be titled A Better Time and that it would include 11 tracks, with features from Nicki Minaj and Tiwa Savage. In July, he performed on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and was seen in the studio with rapper Nas. On August 31, 2020, Davido returned to social media after taking a three-month break to chat with the Grammy Museum on Instagram Live about the rise of Afrobeats and other issues within their industry.
During the Live session, Davido also revealed that he has completed work on his ‘A Better Time’ project. On September 10, 2020, Davido returned with the single, “FEM”, alongside its music video. On 31 October 2022, Davido lost his three-year-old first son and third child, David Ifeanyi Adeleke Jr., who drowned in a swimming pool at his Banana Island compound.
In February 2021, he appeared on Time magazine’s Time 100 Next List. Davido released Timeless, his fourth studio album, on March 31, 2023. He is a cultural ambassador for Nigeria and a prominent voice of human rights in Africa. He is also one of the most-followed African artists on Instagram and Twitter.
Davido received a Grammy nomination for Best Global Music Album for Timeless alongside two other nominations; Best Global Music Performance for “Feel” and Best African Music Performance for “Unavailable”. It marked Davido’s first nomination at the Grammy Awards.
In June 2022, Davido told Rolling Stone magazine his fourth studio album Timeless was nearly complete. On March 21, 2023, he announced on Instagram the album would be released on March 31. A theatrical trailer composed of tour footage accompanied the announcement. Timeless was Davido’s first album in three years. He told CNN the album’s title, which record producer Don Jazzy suggested to him, is a manifestation of his goal for the album to be remembered for decades as a classic.
He also told the news channel the album went through three phases before its final version. The 17-track album includes collaborations with Skepta, Angelique Kidjo, Asake, Focalistic, The Cavemen and others. Its production was handled by Magicsticks, Rage, Darmie, Blaisebeatz, 1da Banton, Caltonic SA, Young Alpha, and others. Primarily an amapiano record, Timeless explores musical styles such as dancehall, ragga, konto, highlife, and Afropop. The album’s cover art features an image of Davido’s head, two enclosed elephants, and a pathway that leads to a large hourglass. The second single from the album “Unavailable” gained traction and charted across the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Suriname where it reached the top 5. On 18 August 2023, Davido released the remix for “Unavailable” featuring American rapper, Latto.
WIZKID:
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun (born 16 July 1990), known professionally as Wizkid, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. Wizkid is regarded as one of the biggest and most influential African artists of all time. He began recording music at the age of 11 and released a collaborative album with the Glorious Five, a group he and a couple of his church friends formed. In 2009, Wizkid signed a record deal with Banky W’s Empire Mate Entertainment (E.M.E). He later rose to the limelight after releasing “Holla At Your Boy”, the lead single from his debut studio album, Superstar (2011), which also spawned the singles “Tease Me/Bad Guys” and “Don’t Dull”.
In September 2014, he released the self-titled second studio album, Ayo. The album was supported by six singles, including the song “Jayie Jayie”. Wizkid left E.M.E. after his contract expired. In 2016, Wizkid achieved international recognition following his collaboration with Drake on the hit single “One Dance”, which reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in 14 additional countries. The song broke multiple records, making Wizkid the first Afrobeats artist to appear in the Guinness World Records. In March 2017, he signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records and released his third studio album Sound From The Other Side, later that year. The album was supported by five singles, including “Come Close” featuring Drake.
In 2018, he was featured on the song “Checklist” by Normani and Calvin Harris, which reached number one on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. The following year, he was featured on Beyonce’s project The Lion King: The Gift on the single “Brown Skin Girl”, which also reached number-one on the World Digital Song Sales chart, and won him a Grammy Music Video Award. In October 2020, he released his fourth album, Made In Lagos, which received commercial success and acclaim, reaching number one on the Billboard World Album Chart. The album includes the single “Essence” featuring Tems, which became the first Nigerian song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top ten following a remix released by Justine Bieber. Wizkid’s fifth album More Love Less Ego was released on 11 November 2022.
Wizkid’s contributions to the Nigerian music industry have earned him several achievements, including the Grammy Award for Best Music Video as a lead artist on Beyoncé’s “Brown Skin Girl”; his first ever Grammy Award. He is the most awarded African artist at the BET Awards (3), Soul Train Awards (3), Billboard Awards (3), iHeartRadio Music Awards (2) and MOBO Awards (6). He is also a recipient of an ASCAP plaque for his songwriting contributions to Drake’s “One Dance”, which also earned two Guinness World Records, for being the first song to reach a billion streams on Spotify, and at the time being the most streamed song on Spotify.
Wizkid was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2019. He is also the most awarded artist in The Headies award history. He was nominated in the Best Global Music Album and the Best Global Music Performance categories in the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for Made in Lagos Deluxe Edition and “Essence” respectively. In November 2021, Apple Music Awards announced him as the winner of Artist of the Year (Africa).
