Grammy award-nominated artist, Burna Boy, recently made his debut appearance at the NPR Music-Tiny Desk Concert in Washington DC.
The 28-year old singer and songwriter Afro-fusion pioneer, with the aid of a 6-man band, delivered some hit singles off his African Giant album like“Gbona”, “Wetin Man Go Do”, “Dangote”, and “Ye”.
Sandwiched between two sold-out concerts in Washington D.C., his Tiny Desk performance offers something relatively different from what we’re used to seeing at his rowdy stage shows. He’s more reflective here and restrained, allowing his songwriting to shine. In the spirit of one of his heroes, Fela Kuti, he weaves through highlights from his breakout album, African Giant, that are liable to move your body as much as your social consciousness.
Burna Boy has been touring the world for the majority of 2019 and has at least 10 songs in the current nightclub rotation. This caught the attention of Beyoncé which led to her offering him a place on The Lion King soundtrack, The Lion King: The Gift.
Tiny Desk Concerts is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of “All Songs Considered” host, Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C. As of August 2018, the series included more than 800 concerts viewed a collective 2 billion times on YouTube.
Laura Gibson, Lila Downs, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Chance the Rapper, Afro Blue, I Wayne, Run the Jewels, Carly Rae Jepsen, ALA.NI, Ben Folds, Blue Man Group amongst others, are some of the artists and bands that have performed at the NPR-Tiny Desk Concert.