*Whenever Burna Boy performs his “Ye” song amongst many of his other hits of his, on stage, you can always hear the crowd sing along with him, singing Ye, Ye, Ye, Ye, Ye, Ye, uh-uh, Ye, Ye, Ye Ye, Ye, Ye, Ye, Ye, YeYe, Ye, Ye, Ye to his mega-hit song. The most recent was his performance at the London Stadium formerly called the Olympic stadium for the 2012 Olympics.
TAYO Fatunla says that each time he hears the song in shops on television, on the radio, or Burna Boy himself singing it on stage, he thinks of his drawing used in the video, and gives him great joy to have made his contribution to the success of the song and the millions of views of the “Ye” video on YouTube with his drawing of Afrobeat King the late legend, Fela Kuti featured prominently in the video. The Ye video has also been featured on other websites such as the BBC and MTV Base Africa.
Fela Kuti (1938-1997) created Afrobeat and gave to the world his style of music just like Bob Marley (1945-1981) gave Reggae music to the world. It is interesting to know that Burna Boy is the grandson of Odion Iruoje, a veteran music producer, sound engineer, and former Area Manager of EMI Records, Lagos, Nigeria. He is known to have signed Fela Kuti to major label, EMI, and acted as his producer through the early ‘70s.
Afrobeat music is a global phenomenon and the likes of U.S. artists and producers tapping into American musicians such as Michelle Williams, Chris Brown, Rick Ross, Kanye West, P Diddy, Beyoncé, French Montana, Dr. Dre, Drake (who is Canadian) and more have collaborated with Afrobeat artists including with Burna Boy.
TAYO through his OUR ROOTS series continues to document black history as well as successful Afrobeat musicians who have made their mark. His first Afrobeat musician drawing he featured in OUR ROOTS, which he remembers very well is Fela Kuti.
Having followed Fela through the years till he passed, TAYO has been inspired to draw Fela more than once including his sorrow, tears, and blood Fela animation as he did during the End Sars protests (2020) in Nigeria. He drew Burna Boy to feature in OUR ROOTS in 2019 and four years later, he has just been able to feature the Grammy award winner, first here on EURWEB. Why not? The Nigerian Superstar has taken the world by storm and has put his style of music which he’s called Afro-Fusion, on to the world’s stage.
TAYO Fatunla whose work has been featured on MSN.com via EURweb.com is an award-winning British-Nigerian Comic Artist, Editorial Cartoonist, Writer, and Illustrator and is an artist of the African diaspora. He is a graduate of the prestigious Kubert School, in New Jersey, US., and recipient of the 2018 ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrated OUR ROOTS creation and series – Famous people in Black History – He participated at UNESCO’s Cartooning In Africa forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the Cartooning Global Forum in Paris, France and has held a virtual OUR ROOTS cartoon workshop for SMITHSONIAN- National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C. His Fela Kuti image is prominently featured in Burna Boy’s mega-Afrobeat hit song “Ye”. – https://www.instagram.com/tfatunla123
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