adminNEW YORK. – Just seven years ago, Burna Boy was playing before just 1 800 fans at the PlayStation Theatre.
Now, he has become the first African artist to fill up a major United States stadium after making history by headlining a sold-out show at Citi Field before 41,800 fans.
It’s been a huge talking point in the music industry on the continent and should inspire other African artists never to give up.
“What a journey,” Burna Boy wrote. “Glory to God.”
And, there is also another important lesson for African artists – discipline is everything and respect for the fans should always be a priority.
By the time he appeared on the Citi Field stage in Queens, to the screams of thousands, flashing his flirtatious grin before launching into a two-hour set, he had been at the venue for six hours.
In that time, he had done two sound checks: the first as soon as he arrived, and the second to double-check he could be heard above the bangs and booms of a pyrotechnics rehearsal.
A friend drove Burna to the stage — in a golf cart stuffed with five other people — where they remained for a total of ten minutes for each check.
That’s enough time, Burna’s cousin Shawn Ogulu said, because Burna knows the show backward and forward.
Ahead of his sold-out show, he showed no sign of being nervous, smiling with the dozen or so friends and family he had brought with him, some of whom couldn’t be squeezed into Burna’s golf cart and had to navigate Citi Field in separate, similarly packed carts.
Burna spent the rest of his preshow ritual tucked away in a dressing room in the basement of the stadium, his multiple security guards swiftly closing a curtain blocking the room from the hallway each time someone walked into his space.
His inner circle — the folks who, according to Matthew “Baus” Adesuyan, co-founder of the label Bad Habit and one of Burna’s closest collaborators, “keep the vibes up and keep Burna happy” — includes some cousins, uncles, and, most notably, his younger sister Ronami Ogulu, who creative-directs her brother’s concerts and weighs in on everything from Burna’s wardrobe to the movements of crew members backstage.
“The team here is new and there are many moving parts, so I have to make sure that all the Ts are crossed and Is are dotted,” she said, striding from the stage to a room across the hallway from Burna’s dressing room, which she’s claimed as her office.
For most of the day, she had been speed-walking around the stadium with a stack of documents and a pen.
When 9:15 rolled around, Burna was wheeled to the stage dressed in a silver-pleated Robert Wun ensemble.
Moments before he stepped in front of the audience, he sat in his golf cart listening closely as his mother (known on set as Mama Burna) cradled his head and whispered to him while an uncle (who goes by Uncle T) attempted to shield them from view.
The Citi Field concert — the 32-year-old’s biggest in the United States — was the first time a Nigerian artist was headlining a stadium show in the United States.
Last year, Burna made history when he became the first Nigerian artist to headline Madison Square Garden, a venue that can contain just half the audience that was at Citi Field.
His rise to MSG and Citi comes after years of steady work and smaller New York shows.
In 2017, he played at the Palladium Times Square (which holds just over 2,000 people), in 2018 at the Gramercy Theater (just under 500 people), and in 2019 at the Apollo Theater (around 1,500 people). – Vulture/The Source.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter