Burna Boy gets all the support after Grammy nod: 'Africa is behind you'

Nigerian rapper Burna Boy had the last laugh on Wednesday when he earned a Grammy nomination hours after being dropped by the Africans Unite concert organisers, and the shows cancelled.

The On the Low hitmaker has been nominated for his African Giant album in the Best World Music Album category.

The Grammy nomination is for albums containing at least 51% playing time of new vocal or instrumental world music recordings.

Taking to social media, Burna Boy said he was grateful for the nod.

“Special [shoutout] to everyone on the album, from the producers to co-producers to featured artists to engineers.

“I appreciate all your input to making the album. We should all be very proud,” he said.

For weeks on end, Burna Boy has been the talk of the town on social media, after many made a collective call to have him dropped from the Africans Unite line-up.

Burna Boy's inclusion was widely criticised after he took to social media in September to urge foreigners living in SA to defend and protect themselves against xenophobic attacks.

In a now-deleted tweet, he also told rapper AKA to beef up his security, before giving him the middle finger.

He promised to never set foot in SA again until the government “wakes the f*ck up and really performs a miracle”.

In a media statement on Wednesday, organisers of the event said that after extensive engagement with Burna Boy’s management team, they had decided to withdraw the Nigerian artist from the concert and cancel its shows.

They said the decision to cancel the shows came after alleged warnings of a shutdown from a group of artists and event organisers under the umbrella of Tshwane Entertainment Collective.

“The decision to cancel the Africans Unite Concert comes after the call from the Tshwane Entertainment Collective to boycott the Africans Unite concert in Tshwane.

“With the increasing threats of violence from other unfortunate segments of the public and without any government intervention, Phambili Media and Play Network Africa were prompted to take the threats and warnings seriously, as the safety of all artists and attendees could not be guaranteed.

“We then decided to cancel the concert. The safety of all attendees, artists and crew comes first.”

Reactions:

On social media, fans of Burna Boy celebrated with the artist over the nod.

Here is a snapshot of the reactions.