Burna Boy Certified Gold In The United States

Grammy Award-winning singer Burna Boy's single “Ye” was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His mother and manager, Ms Bose Ogulu, revealed it on her Instagram handle Thenamix . With this new achievement added to her outstanding international achievement, "Ye" becomes the fastest Nigerian song to be certified "Gold."

Burna Boy's song "Ye" joins the list of Nigerian records to be certified as gold in the United States. The list includes Davido's “If” and “Fall” as well as Wizkid's “Come Closer”, all of which have already achieved the tremendous feat. In the United States, certification of RIAA awards is based on the number of albums and singles sold at retail and other ancillary markets.

A gold record is a single or an album of which 500,000 units have been sold (records, cassettes or compact discs). “Ye” was released on August 6, 2018, as the sixth single from their third studio album “Outside”. The song was produced by Nigerian record company Phantom. It peaked at numbers 26 and 31 on the BillboardMainstream R&B / Hip-Hop and R&B / Hip-hop Airplay charts, respectively.

“Ye” gained around 11 million streams in 7 months on major US streaming platforms after its release. The official music video, which Burna Boy says "essentially shows the relentless nature of Nigerians" is viewed over 137 million times on YouTube, one of his most streamed songs on the platform.

The single saw a 200% increase in release numbers after searches for Kanye West's album "Ye" unintentionally had listeners deceived. A delighted Burna Boy then thanked Kanye West for the confusion on Twitter .

Note that “Ye” won Song of the Year and Listener's Award at the Soundcity MVP Awards 2019. He also won Song of the Year and was nominated for Best Pop Single and Best Record of the Year at Headies 2019.