Burna Boy has been nominated for the 2020 Grammys and Nigerians are very excited about this.

In the recently released list on Grammys.com website, Burna’s African Giant album is nominated for “Best World Music category.” What followed the announcement were congratulatory messages directed at the singer.

Even though many people already knew Burna Boy would be nominated, especially as the Grammys official handle posted his music following the release of the album, it still didn’t tame people’s delight.

The excitement has gotten to the point where people are ignorantly erasing history: they think Burna Boy has done what no other Nigerian artist has done before.

However, it’s important note that King Sunny Ade, Wizkid, Femi & Seun Kuti were all nominated for the coveted music award. Even in the same “Best World Music Category”.

Burna Boy’s African Giant is nominated alongside Angelique Kidjo’s Celia, Altin Gün GECE; Bokanté & Metropole Orkest Conducted By Jules Buckley What Heat and Nathalie Joachim With Spektral Quartet Fanm D’ayiti.

African Giant was released on the 26th of July months after his Coachella outburst.

“I am an AFRICAN GIANT and will not be reduced to whatever that tiny writing means,” Burna Boy had written on Instagram following the announcement of his name on the lineup of the 2019 Coachella Valley Music festival.

His comment was met by mixed reactions. Some people say Burna Boy wasn’t the biggest name on the list. Some said, and so? What if he’s not? The whole incident then snowballed into a Twitter trend that people called “Big Font Energy”, a mindset for people who won’t be relegated to the low-tiers.

In the wake of the incident, the artist went on what he called “The African Giant Returns” tour. After that, he announced that he’d be releasing an album titled African Giant.

Burna Boy would later admit that he had spent minutes and extra brain time trying to locate his name on the poster. The frustration led to him speaking out like that.

Meanwhile, African Giant became one of the best projects released this year. Some of the world’s biggest media outfits reported the release and reviewed the project.

Rating it 8.6, Pitchfork described the album as a “more cohesive, more robust in sound, and significantly broader than his previous music. He siphons external sounds to enhance the shape and texture of his homegrown slappers.”

For Spin, the album is Burna Boy’s crossover to a global artist and he’s doing so without any drastic corruption of his sound.

“As Burna Boy’s profile has risen, he has avoided the mistakes that plague so many genre-blurring breakouts, which is thinking that one’s style needs to be sanitized in order to cross into the mainstream.”

Even though The Guardian UK rated the album three stars, they believe the project was still a sound one. But they did so with a visible caveat:

“That unfamiliarity, and his sensual, even rather muted music, may make it hard for him to cut through the noise of western pop culture – but this makes for a classy summer soundtrack.”

“Burna’s ability to mix signature Afrobeat, dancehall, pop, and hip hop sounds all on one album makes him a standout artist that should be on everybody’s radar,” an EarMilk review said of the album.

There are a couple of other writings scoring Burna high on critical and commercial fronts. It showed how excellent the project and how it managed to impress, even the newest listeners.

This Grammys nomination for the artist is well-deserved.