We Ranked All 5 Of Burna Boy’s Grammy Nominated Albums

Nigerian superstar Burna Boy has once again etched his name into history. The self-acclaimed ‘African giant’ just became the first Nigerian artist to earn five career Grammy nominations in album categories, a remarkable feat that firmly cements his dominance on the global stage. 

His latest project, No Sign of Weakness (2025), is the newest addition to this elite list, nominated for Best Global Music Album at the upcoming 68th Grammy Awards. 

Competing against established global giants like Youssou N’Dour, Anoushka Shankar, and Shakti, Burna Boy is now a perennial fixture in the international music conversation.

This streak of nominations shows Burna Boy’s consistency, ambition, and vision. His Grammy-nominated albums now include: African Giant (2019), Twice As Tall (2020), Love, Damini (2022), I Told Them… (2023), and No Sign of Weakness (2025).

This achievement is huge and can’t be ignored.

In this article, we break down all five albums, ranking them by cultural impact, critical praise, commercial power, and pure artistry.

African Giant is not just an album. It is a cultural manifesto and a declaration of intent.

Released in 2019, this project was the initial spark that truly transformed Burna Boy into a global entity, earning him his first Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album. The album's justification for the top spot is rooted in its unparalleled impact.

Critics widely agree African Giant remains Burna Boy's best album of all time. The album re-launched Burna’s career onto a scale of epic proportions. The album set a new, towering standard for project quality in the genre and immediately forced his peers to elevate their own artistic ambitions. Some commentators even argue that the sheer creative dexterity displayed on this album instantly pushed Burna into the conversation among Afrobeats' "Big Three" artists. It was perfection. 

Tracks like ‘Anybody,’ the cultural juggernaut ‘Ye,’ the infectious groove of ‘Gbona,’ the soulful ‘On The Low’, amongst others – showcase the album’s full mastery. The project redefined Afrobeats on the global stage, fusing traditional rhythms with hip-hop, R&B, and reggae, acting as a crucial bridge between Nigeria and the Western mainstream.

To this day, the Afrobeats community still feels robbed that the album ultimately did not win the Grammy, given its groundbreaking quality and undisputed role in changing the global narrative around African music.

Following the critical and cultural explosion of its predecessor, Twice As Tall was the album that delivered the ultimate validation: a Grammy win for Best Global Music Album. Released in 2020, some call it ‘the Ballon d’Or of Burna Boy’s albums’. 

Twice As Tall successfully refined and expanded the initial blueprint set by ‘African Giant’. Its ranking at number two is justified by its seamless, high-production execution and its pivotal commercial strategy.

Co-produced by American hip-hop mogul Diddy and Burna Boy's mother, Bose Ogulu, the album was meticulously tailored for global appeal without sacrificing its African core. 

Records like the inspiring collaboration with Stormzy "Real Life," the confident proclamation "Way Too Big," the Afropop ballad "Onyeka (Baby)," and the reflective "23" showcased refined global production. Its victory at the Grammys was a watershed moment, officially breaking the glass ceiling for a new generation of West African artists. While ‘African Giant’ was the groundbreaking declaration, Twice As Tall was the undisputed, historic execution that secured the industry’s highest honour.

Love, Damini (2022) holds the middle ground, comfortably sitting at number three. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Global Music Album, and was his most successful commercial launch to date, driven by the colossal global hit “Last Last.”

This album saw Burna Boy at his most personal and reflective, offering a deeper dive into his identity, Damini Ogulu. The justification for its third-place ranking lies in its unmistakable commercial peak. To date, Love, Damini is the most commercially successful Nigerian album of all time.  The album became the highest-charting Nigerian album of all time on the Billboard 200, debuting at number 14. It set multiple new records by achieving the highest debut position for an African album in the United Kingdom, peaking at number two. The album's lead single, “Last Last,” was the driving commercial force, peaking at number 44 on the highly competitive Billboard Hot 100 chart. Other singles such as “Common Person,” and collaborations “For My Hand” (feat. Ed Sheeran) and “Different Size” (feat. Victony) drove its immense commercial success. 

Furthermore, Love, Damini was certified 5x Platinum in Nigeria, awarded by TurnTable Charts – making it the highest certified album in Nigerian history. The project was also certified RIAA Gold in the United States, signifying 500,000 units sold, an achievement few African albums reach, and it became Burna Boy’s second album surpass the 1 billion streams milestone on Spotify, after African Giant.

However, artistically, the overall project cohesion occasionally felt slightly fragmented compared to the tight vision of the first two, as it balanced deeply personal tracks with tracks clearly designed for international radio play and trending sounds. Still, it was a high point commercially and culturally, but not his most narratively complete, Grammy-nominated work.

Released in 2023, I Told Them... earned four nominations at the 2024 Grammys. This project was a conscious tribute to the golden era of hip-hop.

Burna channels 90s rap legends, drawing parallels between their grind and his own. The ranking at number four is primarily due to its comparative artistic distraction.  'I Told Them' was nominated for the Best Global Album. The album’s lead single 'City Boy' was nominated for Best African Music Performance, 'Alone' was nominated for Best Global Music Performance, and he earned a nomination for Best Melodic Rap Performance for 'Sittin' On Top Of The World' featuring 21 Savage. While the album delivered stellar tracks, the heavy emphasis on 90s American rap nostalgia sometimes blurred his unique Afro-fusion identity. 

Critics and fans often argued that the thematic focus occasionally leaned too much on legacy-brag energy rather than pushing new boundaries. It proved his immense versatility and deep love for hip-hop, but ultimately represented a slight detour from the potent Afro-fusion sound he perfected, landing it just below his major commercial peak.

The 2025 nominated album, No Sign of Weakness, must, regrettably, be placed at the bottom of this esteemed list.

It is not because the album is weak, but because Burna’s standard is astronomical. Generally speaking, his four nominated predecessors almost completely obliterate ‘No Sign of Weakness’ in terms of…well, everything! 

Songs like the Best African Music Performance nominee “Love,”  and tracks such as :Bundle “By Bundle” and “Update” anchor the album's high production value and familiar Afro-fusion framework. 

However, while it is a good album, it is arguably his weakest project in six years when measured against the sheer quality and innovation we have come to expect from Burna Boy. 

No crazy risks, no cultural revolutions, no cohesiveness. In fairness, 2025 was generally considered a mediocre year for Nigerian album releases, and while No Sign of Weakness was better than most, it was just good, and nothing more.

It is undeniably a quality record from a hitmaker and a decent contender in the Global category, but when stacked against a personal catalogue of such monumental masterpieces, No Sign of Weakness is the least essential and least exciting entry in Burna Boy’s incredible run of Grammy-nominated projects.

The most recent nominated work lands at the bottom here, a reflection of the impossibly-high standard Burna Boy has set for himself, especially in a year where the wider music scene played it safe.

Nevertheless, Burna Boy’s five album nominations are an undisputed triumph for Nigeria and the continent. The consistent recognition across these five diverse, decade-spanning projects is definitive proof that his work is a sustained, dominant force in modern music.