Burna Boy: Nigeria’s No. 1 Isn’t a Win

Burna Boy an award winning Nigerian musician and songwriter caused a lot of outrage on the internet when he dropped his two cents on what upcoming musicians should focus on. 

Burna Boy has always been known to take controversial standings and be direct, so it came as no surprise when he made a post many Nigerians might perceive as disrespectful.

Burna Boy posted on his Instagram story advising Nigerian artists not to let twitter polls deceive them as Nigerians cannot fill a stadium in any part of the world.

Burna Boy's disses Nigerians

Burna Boy also advised Nigerian artists in his second post to aim higher and stop celebrating their songs being number 1 on any streaming platform in Nigeria.

Burna Boy’s Analysis

Burna Boy did not stop there he went further to advise both upcoming and established musical artist to aim higher and also get involve in businesses that will earn them more by the side.

Burna Boy backed up his claim by offering insight into the different earnings an artist stands to gain when a song is streamed in Nigeria, USA and Europe. According to him 1 million streams equals 3,000 pounds or 3000 dollars if the streams are in the United Kingdom or USA. As this will be compared to a meagre 300 dollars if the streams where Nigerian-based. Burna Boy also added that celebrating your song on #1 position is not worth it as the pay is too low. 

Nigerians React to Burna Boy's Post

Burna Boy's posts sparked reactions and comments from fans and foes alike. One X user accused Burna Boy of always ridiculing Nigerians.

An X user replied Burna Boy

Another Instagram user using sarcasm reiterated how the social media space in Nigeria is over-rated as witnessed by Peter Obi during the 2023 presidential election.

Comment from Instagram user

Another user suggested that Burna Boy is may be talking about Ruger whose album is being criticized but he is selling shows with the same album.

Comment from X user

Trust Nigerians to create a case file for Burna Boy due to his criticism. Another X user dug up an old post where Burna Boy was celebrating his song as being number one in one of Nigerian's music streaming app - an irony to the exact advise given by Burna Boy.

Burna Boy's old post resurfaces

Conclusion

Burna Boy's post drew a lot of criticism from online users but many also took time to point out that Burna Boy is not far from the truth as Nigerians online space is always given more power than it deserves. Some school of thoughts are of the opinion that Nigeria has a low purchasing power, for instance, Nigerian premium subscribers pay 900 naira on Spotify and 1700 naira on YouTube compared to 10 pounds and 17 pounds paid by UK subscribers.

However, critics may only be pointing out that Burna Boy should be grateful to his grassroots and should also recognize that an artist must conquer Nigeria before he or she will be recognized internationally.

The above is true when we talk about rich Nigerian musicians like Wizkid, Davido, Rema, Asake, Oma Lay, etc.