About 3 months ago, my wife and I were looking for a West African artist concert to go to, and that's how we ended up checking out Burna Boy. Based in Atlanta, Burna Boy is a very talented Nigerian artist who has managed to capture so many different audiences worldwide. One thing that obviously stood out to me while scouring through his music and concert lineups was that almost all his concerts were sold out for both his Europe and USA tours, even for those scheduled 3+ months ahead. This included his major shows in Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles.
And that is what caught my attention. In the back of my mind, I wondered if an African artist like him could captivate so many different people to the point of selling out his concerts 3 months ahead of time, in multiple/different time zones. Being that I had never been a fan of his music, mainly due to the lack of exposure, I figured there must be something extraordinary in him as an entertainer, artist, and performer, that made it possible for him to reach such a massive audience. It took me a while, but finally, I managed to get a couple of tickets for one of his concerts in Houston, Texas.
This concert we attended was almost like a festival. It took place in an open arena, and about 6,000 people pulled up to the event. We were fortunate to get seats on the first row in touching distance away from Burna. On a side note, I love musical performances, and I have been to a few African artist performances in the past few years. My biggest surprise of this specific show, though, came when Burna Boy showed up at his exactly scheduled time, 9pm. And as soon as he entered the stage, the crowd went wild! It was a very curiously and interestingly entertaining night.
First, let me take you back a little and talk about his mother and manager, Bose Ogulu. She showed up on the stage about 5 minutes before the show started in matching brown dress pants and top. She wore short hair colored in yellow and made her presence well known to the audience. She walked up to where the main DJ was set up and bluntly told him and his crew to pack up and leave the stage.
Their set for the night was over. Of course, they were not needed there. Typically, they wanted to take advantage of the pre-show performances they were conducting to stay up there and enjoy a better view of the Burna concert. However, Burna was set to perform with a live band and the DJs were an unnecessary crowd to deal with in his space during the performance. The stage was a piece of a state of the art, big, wide, and well-built with an A/V Media system that was one of its kind and built to handle/cater to big artists, performances, and audiences.
After everyone was kicked out by Burna's mama, the stage was left with only a backup singer and Burna's band crew. The location was now set and ready for the man of the hour. Burna showed up on the stage about 10 minutes after nine (allowing time for quick introductions and hype) and put up an electrifying uninterrupted performance for a full hour, in what I thought was a very satisfying and monumental performance. In that hour of his performance, I saw no one go to the bathroom or sit down; everyone's eyes were on the stage. We were all glued and, at the moment with Burna, and if I must say so, I believe we all had knowingly handled all our other distracting business (bathroom breaks, drinks, etc.) before his performance came. The only thing that accompanied us were our phones, and then we lit up the entire arena.
If you have never seen Burna Boy perform, well, maybe you can't understand, but to my experience, and compared to other concerts I have been to, I can tell you that this fella can entertain. I was impressed with his performance and the kind of following that he has, judging by the audience at the show.
It was very peculiar to me to see that about 70 percent of the attendees were young African Americans, and most of them knew the full lyrics to his songs. This made the entire experience even more impressive. This made me realize how much Nigerian artists have broken through the U.S.A music scene, a lengthy and arduous journey. It used to be that the significant foreign music that was popular to most Americans (especially African Americans) was Jamaican. But now, with Afro-beats, pop Artists like Burna Boy, Wiz Kid, are becoming heavy hitters on the American Music Scene, with such songs as Wiz Kid's “Essence “becoming the first African song to hit the U.S Billboard chart ever.
I believe that Burna's performance was breathtaking and a great experience for three main reasons: His supercharged energy on the stage, great song setlist, and his skillful connection to the audience. It was a one-of-a-kind performance. One that I hardly see in most of the African music concerts that I have gone to. Furthermore, his music composition is another attribute to his uniqueness. The blending in of the original Afro-beat from legendries like Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Sonny Okosun and a little glimpse of R&B beats crosses over not only geographical boundaries , rather, current existing generations.
If there is something one can learn to put up a well-coordinated and successful concert, Burna Boy and his team can surely be able to teach it. For those that have never seen his performances, I encourage you to go on YouTube and just search for Burna Boy's live performance, and even from that, you will be able to see how exciting this artist is. I am very proud to see that the African Music stage is getting bigger and has a broader audience. I hope that more and more upcoming African artists, not just from Nigeria, can help break the scene and take over the international music sphere in the USA.
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