EXCITING NEWS: TNG WhatsApp Channel is LIVE…
Subscribe for FREE to get LIVE NEWS UPDATE. Click here to subscribe!
Bose Ogulu, manager and mum to Burna Boy, has recounted how she started managing her son.
The astute entrepreneur spoke of her dealings with the Grammy-winning Afrofusion star in a chat with Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, TV host.
“Burna Boy started in 2010 from Port Harcourt. Even before he took the name, he asked me to manage him. So, I’ve always managed him. It just wasn’t a full-time thing because I was raising kids and had bills to pay,” Ogulu said.
“He couldn’t pay me so I had to do my work. I signed the first deal on his behalf; handled most of his bookings. I’ve always been there but I hadn’t been involved in the day-to-day [tasks]. He was with the label; they had a road manager.
“And he seemed on top of things. So I was just managing him and protecting his interest. I think I went full-time in 2017 because it just became evident that the day-to-day and other things I wasn’t handling were not going as well.
“And I had more time, fewer kids going to school that I had to pay bills for. And his business could evidently grow to pay me. It was a question of, ‘this guy is honestly the most talented person I’ve met in the last decade or more.’”
Asked why she didn’t manage Burna Boy from the outset, she said:“I just thought, ‘I can’t help you with talent, but I can help with everything else.’ Fortunately, that scene is not new to me. I’ve done business for most of my life. I’ve been touring for language immersion most of my life,” she added.
“There was a lot I could bring to the table. I thought, ‘if you work hard at this, it will pay you and your son gets to grow to his highest potential.’ It’s a win-win. Managers don’t get salary but commission on what the artiste makes.
“And hopefully grow more talents. My real focus is on catalogues belonging to us being [the] Spaceship [label].”
Ogulu is a daughter of the popular music critic Benson Idonije, who was the manager of Fela Kuti, the late Afrobeat legend.