By Benjamin Njoku

Burna Boy made another history Friday becoming  the first international Afrobeats artist to secure a number one album in Britain with “I Told Them.’

The 32-year-old also known as Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, shot straight to the top spot in the British charts with his fifth full-length release.

He had come close to earning the accolade with last year’s “Love, Damini”, which climbed to second in the UK album rankings.

Homegrown British talents making Afrobeats music, such as J Hus, have enjoyed chart-topping success but Burna Boy is the first foreign artist to do so.

The feat marks the continued rise of the Afrobeats genre in Britain and around the world, as artists like Wizkid and Davido also enjoy mainstream success and increasingly shape segments of popular culture.

Martin Talbot, Chief executive of the Official Charts Company, paid  tribute to Burna Boy for “blazing the trail” and landing a “fantastic achievement”.

“British music fans have always been renowned for their love of new music and embracing cultures from around the world, and the explosion of interest in Afrobeats’ musical culture over the past decade has been a concrete example of this,” he said.

Meanwhile , reacting to the development via his Instagram page,  Burna Boy thanked his UK fans for this great feast. “I Told Them is Number 1. Thank you, Thank You, Thank you honestly” he wrote.

Western audiences have enjoyed the Afrobeats sound since  2016 thanks to the hit “One Dance”, featuring Canadian superstar Drake and Wizkid.

The tune soared in popularity to secure a place as the most-played song of all time on Spotify, surpassing one billion streams.