It was a lifelong dream for Nigeria’s Burna Boy to finally earn himself a Grammy - an award show that he was enamoured with as a child. In March last year, that dream finally became reality when he scored his first-ever win for Best Global Music Album.
To Burna Boy, it wasn’t just a victory for himself but also a sign that the richness of his people’s cultures were finally being noticed on an international level. Standing at the forefront of this movement, Burna Boy’s artistry is undeniable as he continues to reach peak after peak.
He's just released his new album, Love, Damini, and it's a star-studded project befitting Burna Boy's status as one of the biggest stars in the world. The 19-track album features collaborations with the likes of Khalid, Kehlani and J Balvin, a co-write with New Zealand's own Rory Noble on How Bad Could It Be, as well as For My Hand, a team-up with fellow global star Ed Sheeran.
To celebrate the release of Love, Damini, we've taken a look back at some of Burna Boy's best party tracks. Burna Boy makes music for every occasion, and if you're looking to get the party started, then he's got you covered.
1. Kilometre
Following his Grammy win, Burna Boy’s 2021 single Kilometre doubled as a victory lap, while also giving him the chance to reflect on his career to date. The track features on Love, Damini, and it's one of the highlights from the album. Kilometre will get your hips moving.
The track channels the same infectious joy found in a lot of his music, serving us up with a banger that’s designed to keep us dancing. As he told Zane Lowe in his Apple Music interview, “When the song drops, start running around, wherever you go. Just start running around. It doesn’t need an explanation.”
2. Anybody
There’s a cocky swagger to Burna Boy’s music that makes his music an absolute pleasure to listen to. So it makes sense that Anybody - the fifth single off his stellar African Giant album, sounds exactly like summer.
The intoxicating horns and grooving drums all gravitate around Burna Boy’s charismatic performance. Leaving us with an earworm of a hook that’s impossible to forget. No wonder it was one of Obama’s favourite songs of 2019.
3. Real Life (feat. Stormzy)
A more lowkey track compared to the rest of this list, Burna Boy’s calibre had risen to the point where a collaboration with the UK’s biggest rapper, Stormzy, wasn’t out of the question.
“I just wanted to really bridge that gap, and have Stormzy here to really represent himself and what he brings,” Burna Boy told Apple Music. It’s a uniting of worlds and the result is a track that succeeds at appealing to both artists’ strengths.
4. Tonight
Commonly seen as his first song that commanded the world’s attention, Tonight is a saucy club banger that holds a lot of the same elements that makes his music such a global crowd-pleaser - from the bouncy production to his catchy as heck melodies.
The purpose of the track is a fitting beginning to his undeniable success as well, which celebrates the spirit of ‘faaji’ - a Yoruba term which translates simply as ‘enjoyment’.
5. On The Low
It’s hard to talk about the best Burna Boy tracks without mentioning On The Low, a track that encompasses everything there is to love about Afrobeat.
With a career as eventful as Burna Boy’s, this song is an almost essential place to start. His most popular solo song on streaming services so far, trust in the public’s love for this irresistible stunner and lose yourself to his magnetism.
