BurnaLive at the Eko Convention Centre was worth all the hype to say the least.
The Convention Centre for the first time this December experienced a massive shutdown by Burna Boy who was having his headline concert for the first time in Nigeria.
The show which was billed to start on the 26th of December it started very late with the headline artiste showing up on stage on the 27th at about 2:30 after the once excited crowd was already booing and raising their voices to call out for Burna who seemed to be taking all the time in the world.
While the crowd expected Burna to come up after midnight, the show started with opening acts from rising Nigerian artistes such as Oxlade, L.A.X,Pretty Boy, Soft Attitude, Nissi, Kida Kudz, King Perryy,Airboy, rap duo Show Dem Camp who also brought some members of their tribe such as Funbi, Poe and BOJ during their performance.
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The concert had skilled hosts, Jimmie and Shody, who hyped the crowd all through the way as DJ Consequence does what he knows how to do best, make the crowd high on good music.
All these distraction did not deter fans from their mission of the day, to see Burna perform and from the murmurs and complain that the music couldn’t suppress, one could tell they were already impatient from waiting for Burna boy.
At 2:00 am, Olisa Adibua was welcomed on stage with a hype that made the crowd thought it was Burna that was being introduced. Their boo and disappointment showed they were interested in seeing nobody but Burna who didn’t come out until after 30 minutes and all the while, the camera of the phones of these loyal fans stayed on, waiting to capture that moment where Oluwa Burna will bounce out with one of his hit tracks.
He did bounce out at exactly 2:30 am with the sound of Heaven’s Gate and all the complains of the impatient crowd died immediately and resurrected into cheer and unmatched excitement as they screamed “Burna!!!”
Before continuing with the performance, he apologized saying; "ladies and gentlemen I'm really sorry for the delay. I was supposed to have a video and the whole entrance thing playing but we’re in Nigeria so they f**ked it up as usual...”, that was none of the fan’s business, all they want was to see him perform, so guess what? They did not reason the matter again.
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The rendering of the songs performed was full of the right energy as he takes his fans through tracks from his Outside Album.
It was surreal watching thousands of music lovers who filled the Eko Convention Centre for the love of one artiste and his music. This crowd could care less if another artiste made it to the stage, all they wanted to see if possible was Burna and they got it with a plus of performances from other legendary acts like 2Baba, Larry gaga and of course D’Banj who gave a worthy performance that was trending many hours after the show was done.
The initially planned entrance video was later played for his second entrance. This video showed Burna as NARCOS that encapsulate his Life on the Outside tour. It showed him in the different cities, him being kidnapped, a plane crash that supposedly led to the faux smoke on stage that leads to Burna’s entrance in a spaceship. This 2nd entrance would’ve been more effective for his first entrance as planned because it didn’t evoke the expected response of surprise; at that point, fans weren’t looking forward to anything that’ll take more time if it wasn’t Burna’s performance on stage, so the energy came back as Burnajumped back on stage with this time a black leather trenchcoat and pants.
He went on to perform his new record Killin Dem released on the 27th of December with Zlatan Ibile who thrilled fans with his Zanku-legwork moves. Wande Coal also came on stage to perform Amo Ra Wa with Burna while DJ Spinall jumped on stage for a brief appearance for Serious. Duncan Mighty also came on stage to support his fellow Port Harcourt boy with Jamz such as PortHarcourt 1st son and Fake Love while Dammy Krane showed up with Amin as he uses his song to pray for Burna and the crowd.
DMW made an organized entrance with Mayorkun performing first, then followed by the crew’s performance of Mind, Mayor left the stage after that as Peruzzi took over with Amaka and Davido ended the DMW performance with One Ticket. The energy DMW crew was impressive considering the fact that they have their own concert to prepare for later that same day.
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The last set of performers were Wizkid who briefly gave the crowd Ojuelegba and Soco while Timaya and Patoranking came on stage, not to perform but to show their support for Burna Boy. Burna ended the show with On the Low and of course "Ye” which has been the record that took him from Underrated to Number 1 and of course the show wouldn’t be complete without the performances of these songs.
Burna Live since its announcement has garnered a lot of momentum that made it the most anticipated concert of the year. As a first and most anticipated, it didn’t disappoint and judging from all concerts so far in December, Burna is not just Nigeria’s best artiste of the year 2018, but his show is also the best so far in the year with great performances from the artiste, great lineup that gave their best and of course the excited crowd whose excitement never dropped. Well done Burna, you brought the crowd in, kept them glued and excited every moment of the way. Aside from the lateness and a few technical issues, in terms of performance, this is one of the best concerts we’ve experienced in Nigeria in the year 2018.
