He becomes the first international Afrobeats artist to
secure a number one album in Britain, the UK’s Official Charts Company said on
Friday.
In a reaction on X Friday night, Burna Boy wrote: “I told
them I’m the highest!! Number 1”.
Later at a packed London Roundhouse Friday night, Burna Boy
took to the stage with his Number 1 Award in hand.
On the significance of his achievement, he told the crowd:
“This right here, this means more to me than any of you can imagine because
where I come from is a colony of this place. For me to be here today with the
Number 1, that just tells you that anything is f***ing possible. So this right
here is a big thank you to every one of you because you made this possible.
Without you, none of this is happening.”
The Nigerian-born global star, whose real name is Damini
Ebunoluwa Ogulu came close to earning the accolade with last year’s “Love,
Damini”, which climbed to second in the UK album rankings.
The new album was released on 25 August 2023. In France it
is 6th on the chart.
Homegrown British talents making Afrobeats music, such as J
Hus, have enjoyed chart-topping success but Burna Boy is the first foreign
artist to do so.
The feat marks the continued rise of the Afrobeats genre in
Britain and around the world, as artists like Wizkid and Davido also enjoy
mainstream success and increasingly shape segments of popular culture.
Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts
Company, paid tribute to Burna Boy for “blazing the trail” and landing a
“fantastic achievement”.
“British music fans have always been renowned for their love
of new music and embracing cultures from around the world, and the explosion of
interest in Afrobeats’ musical culture over the past decade has been a concrete
example of this,” he said.
Afrobeats takes its name from the Afrobeat musical genre of
the 1970s popularised by the music icon Fela Kuti and which exploded in
Nigeria.
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