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Seven Burna Boy’s Songs That Will Get You Emotional
Probably due to his energetic stage performances and giant look, Burna Boy doesn’t appear emotional to many. However, in some of his songs, we have deduced that he might be an African giant, he also has emotions to nurture, silent questions he answers and deep thoughts to process. From his recent albums – African Giant, Twice As Tall, Love, Damini and I Told Them – he has spilled his heart out, narrating the depth of how he feels inside.
Behind his swagger, there’s a man reckoning with fame, betrayal, longing and legacy. You hear it in the way he sings about home and identity, in the ache of lost friendships, and the sharpness of his reflections on life and death. He makes music to move crowds, and also makes music that moves through him.
What’s your favourite Burna Boy’s emotional song?
Alone
Alone was released as part of Black Panther‘s playlist, but it’s definitely a song that stands alone and reveals something different about Burna Boy: nfiltered, unguarded and raw. The song might have been purposefully released for the movie, but it allows us to experience on a deeply raw level. The lines, “Don’t let them take my head, and dance over my dead body. I’m weak, I’m blind, give me the strength I need for my body, eh,” read like revelations in the ears. It’s a song that makes us reach for the spiritual side of you, to believe that there’s a higher being capable of strengthening us when we seem to be weak. “When my whole world is set on fire, don’t leave me alone,” the song closes, soulfully.
If I’m Lying
If I’m Lying comes in the pack of “I Told Them”, Burna Boy’s seventh studio album and a project considered bold and confrontational because it includes some songs that are actually confrontational, like Thanks and City Boys. But If I’m Lying is a song from the pack that says that behind the boldness and confrontations, there is also the man who understands what it means to be heartbroken. “Won’t be the only time/ That you’re gonna get heartbroken/You got to learn how to write the motion.” The song narrates that life simply continues after a heartbreak.
Level Up
Burna Boy’s Grammy-winning album, Twice As Tall, is full of songs with heavy drums and sounds. In the album’s opener, Level Up, Burna sings about his struggle with giving up, but swiftly had to level up to achieve his dreams. Despite the heavy drums and sounds, Burna becomes emotional in the song, singing about how the journey didn’t start with the dream to sell out arenas or fill out wide and big venues. When he realised he had to dream bigger, as he sings in the song. Collaborating with Youssou N’Dour to balance the emotional movement in the song couldn’t have been better.
23
Sometimes, as we journey through life, life teaches us some lessons that, in hindsight, we might struggle to accept. And the fascinating thing about life is that you can simply wait; if you don’t die, everything will unfold before your eyes. It is exactly what Burna Boy realises about life in 23, off his Twice As Tall album. Life made him realise that “Hypocrite plenty gan, wey dey prented gan” and they are identical to the devil, as he sings. This is a song of surrender, a surrender to the complexity of life and the multifaceted people we are.
Higher
Similar to Alone, but different in delivery. Higher was released in 2024, and it’s a song that battles with the reality of existence. It’s a song that jolts any human to realise that existence is fickle, that enemies do exist, and also acknowledges the differences privileges make in our lives. “Some people dey for mortuary, some people dey for hospital. Count your blessings, one by one,” the lyric reads. The closing of the song holds the depth that the artist hopes to achieve with the song, as the voices of children echo and fade out.
Bank On It
On this song, Burna Boy reckons with the inevitability of death and how no one is saved from an evil that befalls anyone. ” He also battles with the concept of trust because no one, no human, not even your neighbour, can be trusted. He sings, “Always looking out my window, paranoid and confused. I’m not sure anyone, who is knocking at my door.”
How Bad Could It Be
This won’t categorically count as his emotional, but Burna Boy dips his hands into the hearts of his listeners. One of the most powerful narrative techniques is the second-person POV, and Burna Boy employed it in How Bad Could It Be, purposely, I think, to make listeners realise that the song is exactly for them. “When you’re feeling mad and you’re angry, when you feel like you’re lonely, when you feel as sad as you can feel, say, “how bad could it be?” The song is particularly for anyone going through unspoken struggles inside or who is in a bad mood. Burna Boy wants you to remember to ask yourself, “How bad could it be than it is?” In summary, it will get better, eventually.
What other songs would you consider as Burna Boy’s emotional songs?
