Buju, who now goes by the pseudonym BNXN (real name: Daniel Benson; born on 14 May 1997; Age: 26 years old), is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, rapper, and producer. The Akwa Ibom State native rose to fame after releasing songs like Spiritual (2019) and L’Enu (2020), where he featured artists like Zlatan and Burnaboy, respectively.
Buju has added greatly to the emergence of uniquely and interestingly modern Afro-fusion music. Little wonder he continually works with top musicians in the industry and is now considered one of the most featured singers in Nigeria. For his performance in the industry, he has received several awards, such as The Headies Award for Next Rated 2022, among others.
Summary of Buju’s Biography
- Full name: Daniel Benson
- Nickname: Buju or BNXN
- Gender: Male
- Date of birth: 14 May 1997
- Buju’s Age: 26 years old
- State of Origing: Akwa Ibom
- Nationality: Nigerian
- Zodiac Sign: Taurus
- Sexual Orientation: Straight
- Religion: Christian
- Marital Status: Single
- Buju’s Parents: Mr. & Mrs. Benson
- Siblings: Anita Benson & Deborah Benson
- Buju’s Height in Inches: 5’10
- Height in Centimetres: 177.8cm
- Buju’s Weight: 95kg
- Buju’s Net worth: $2 Million
- Famous for: Musician, Rapper, and Record Producer
- Education: Emerald High School, Babcock University, Ogun state
- Buju’s Instagram: @BNXN FKA BUJU
- Twitter: @Benson
- Facebook: BNXN
How Old is Buju?
Buju is 26 years old. He was born Daniel Benson on 14 May 1997 to an average Nigerian family with a regular upbringing.
He is from a family of three children, including Anita Benson (elder sister) and Deborah (younger sister). Buju lost his mother to cancer and hardly talks about his father in social scenes.
Where is Buju From?
Buju is from Akwa Ibom, a state found in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. He, however grew up in the Lagos suburb of Gbadaga.
Growing up, Buju attended schools in different parts of Nigeria. The Afro-fusion artist went to Emerald High School, Lagos, with his siblings. After obtaining his first school leaving certificate, Buju later moved on to study theatre arts at Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, where he obtained a degree.
Currently, he lives on Victoria Island in the big city of Lagos and commutes between states in Nigeria and international countries frequently due to his fast-paced music growth.
Is Buju a Yoruba?
There are popular opinions that the Nigerian singer is of Yoruba ethnicity. However, Buju is not Yoruba. He is from full Akwa Ibom, with both parents from the South-South state. His exact ethnicity is not known as there are many ethnic groups in Akwa Ibom, such as Ibibio, Anaang, Oron, and Obolo major ones. Therefore, Buju could be from one of these ethnic groups. Other popular musicians from Akwa Ibom are Nathaniel Bassey, Sugarboy, and MC Galaxy.
Despite the fact that Buju is not Yoruba, he speaks fluent Yoruba. This is due to his exposure to the language since childhood as he grew up in Gbadaga, Lagos. Also, his mother taught him some aspects of the language.
What is Buju’s New Name?
Buju’s new name is BNXN. The singer officially changed his stage name on 18 February 2022. Buju’s new name, BNXN, is coined out of his original surname -Benson- and references how the pronunciation of his surname sounds when spoken out. Buju changed his name due to the continuous confusion of identity and trade name between himself and the famed Jamaican reggae dancehall musician, Buju Banton.
This is not the first time that Buju changed his name. Starting out as a teenager thirsty for music and rap, he was called and generally addressed as Drizzle among his peers.
The name, however, has never been used officially on stage. In 2018, the music industry witnessed the coming of a fresh Afro-fusion artist who called himself Buju, which is an acronym for ‘Beauty Underneath Just Understood’ or ‘Buju To Your Ears- Buju TYE’. The name stuck and became an identity for the artist.
Buju’s Music Career
The velvety-voiced artist has had a long history with music. Buju started out by writing rhymes and lyrics, singing and rapping among the school choir, and valedictory services when he was 11. At the earliest phase, and while he was trying to find his footing in music, Buju was called Drizzle.
His rise to stardom traces to when he started posting his music on his social media handles whilst in school. In 2017, whilst still a 300Level student undergoing IT, the musician began to work on polishing his music and works. His first music record was, Catch a Vibe in February 2018.
At the time, BNXN was not signed to any label but only worked as a single entity with his Producer, Stephanas Boman. The song did fairly well. He gained more recognition when he dropped a second track called A Day in Lagos on various platforms like Twitter and Soundcloud.
One would say Buju’s breakthrough came after his Tweet captioned, ‘I would love a verse from Zlatan’ went viral. With some stroke of luck, Zlatan, a Nigerian musician and rapper, contacted him three weeks, and they worked together on the song titled Spiritual. Zlatan did not charge Buju for the song and was always at his shows to support his growing music career.
From then on, Buju’s music began to gain a lot of acceptance and attention, with over four million streams of his song as well as a Headies nomination. Before long, he dropped L’enu, which had him performing at Davido’s concert and Starboy Fest. The song also caught Burna Boy’s attention.
A highlight of Buju’s career was when Burna Boy proposed a song collaboration on a remix for the song L’Enu. The video, which Burna Boy funded, became almost an anthem among the youth and music lovers.
Buju’s type of music is inspired by artists like Burna Boy, Buju Banton, Lil Wayne, and Drake
Who Signed Buju?
Buju was signed by Burna Boy’s record label, Spaceship Collective, on 16 April 2020. This was only about a month before his 23rd birthday. The one-year contract elapsed in 2021, and to the public’s shock, the Afro-Fusion artist did not renew the contract. Instead, he decided to try out on his own and exploit other options in the field.
Presently, Buju owns his record label called ‘To Your Ears Entertainment’, which was established in 2018. Under his record, he has released songs like; Sorry I’m Late (2021), Never Stop, Outside (2021), Kilometer, Italy Refix (2021), To Your Ears (2019) and Catch a Vibe (2018)
The L’Enu crooner is signed to a management company called Orb-Bayarn management service.
Buju’s Songs
- Finesse with Pheelz (2023)
- Kenkele ft Wande Coal (2022)
- Better Days with Sarkodie (2022)
- Hustle with Reminisce (2022)
- Modupe with Olamide ( 2022)
- Ocean (2022)
- Kilometer (2022)
- Loose Emotions (2022)
- For Days (2022)
- Lay Low (2022)
- Many Ways (2022)
- Omo Elewa (2022)
- Cold Outside with Timaya (2022)
- For Here (2021)
- Outside (2021)
- Feeling (ft. Ladipo (2021)
- Testimony (2021)
- Italy ft Blaq Diamond (2021)
- So Lovely (2020)
- L’enu Remix featuring Burna Boy (2020)
- Spiritual ft. Zlatan (2019)
- L’enu (2019)
- Ohema & TMXO (2019)
- Catch a Vibe (2018)
- Wahala (2018)
- Energy (2018)
- Commander (2018)
Musical Awards and Accomplishments
BNXN has become one of the most accepted and celebrated artists in Nigeria since his ushering into the country’s competitive music industry. He has received enormous praise and positive reviews for his unique sound.
One of his major accomplishments was when he asked to play at London’s O2 Arena in 2021 for Wizkid’s three-day concert. This added to his international stardom.
Here is a List of Buju’s Other Accomplishments:
- Despite being in the industry for only a minute, Buju won The City People Entertainment Award of Revelation in 2021
- His collaboration with Wizkid, Mood, was on UK Afrobeat Singles Chart in 2021.
- He won the Best Rap Single at The Headies Award for Feelings by Ladipoe ft. BNXN (2022)
- He won the Next Rated award at The Headies Award (2022)
- He received a nomination in the category of Best Promising Artiste at AFRIMMA for Outside (2021)
- Buju was nominated as a featured artist for Best African Rapper or Lyricist for Feeling by Ladipoe Ft. Buju (2021)
- In 2021, he receive an African Fan Favourite nomination at AFRIMMA for his song Outside
- The Headies nominated the singer as Rookie of the Year in 2019
Buju’s Net Worth
Buju’s net worth is estimated to be $2 million, which is an equivalent of over ₦900 million. While this may not be entirely accurate, there is no doubt that he must be wealthy.
The artist has recorded most of his wealth from his thriving career as a singer, songwriter, and music producer. Tracing his music career, which professionally started in 2017, he has released over 30 songs, and quite a number of them have become hits.
His first official hit song Spiritual has about 1.2 million views on Youtube. The remix of L’Enu, which was released on 16 April 2020, also hit a milestone with more than 2 million streams on Spotify and 17 million streams on Audiomack.
How Buju’s Net Worth Accumulated
As mentioned earlier, Buju has gained his wealth mostly from his career in the music industry. Here’s a breakdown of how he achieved this wealth.
Streaming Platforms
He Earns from Youtube
Buju joined Youtube in 2019, about the time he was 22. So far, he has at least 124,000 subscribers and 56 million views in total. In monetary conversion, a rough estimate of Buju’s income from Youtube alone is about $168,000 in total if the claims are correct that one gets $3 for every 1,000 views on Youtube.
There are also other reports that YouTubers can earn up to $5 per 1000 views. If this is the case, then the Akwa Ibom native may have earned about $280,000 on the platform.
One of Buju’s best-performing songs on the platform is Outside. The song has over 7 million views at the time of this writing. Other most streamed songs of the artist are In My Mind, Kilometer with Zinoleesky, and Kenkele with Wande Coal.
Buju’s Royalties On Audiomack
On Audiomack, a platform with heavy followership, Buju has over a million followers with a million monthly listeners. The earnings are calculated based on the content he releases on the platform and the streams he garners with it.
Audiomack pays artists on a month-to-month basis. The calculation for the payment is done by dividing the number of total streams by the revenue made through adverts and subscriptions.
Despite this, Audiomack has no fixed per-stream rate, making it difficult to calculate Buju’s exact income rate from the platform. Nonetheless, it is not farfetched that his over one million streams make him thousands of dollars monthly.
Moreso, the platform allows fans to support musicians through badge purchases which are from ₦130 to ₦6,500. As of the time of this writing, Buju has over 60 supporters on the platform, and a part of their contributions will go to him.
How Spotify May Have Added to His Wealth
Buju and his songs seem to reverberate on all social media scenes. Spotify is one of the places that he has taken by storm. In total, he has over 179 million streams with 14 million listeners in over 180 countries of the world.
Based on sources, Spotify pays artists as low as $0.0033 per stream, or sometimes a little over this amount.
Endorsements and Partnerships
Buju has bagged an endorsement deal of an undisclosed amount with Chivas Regal Nigeria. Chivas Regal Nigeria is an alcoholic drink brand. The company is a subsidiary of the Pernod Ricard Group that deals in Wines and Spirits and boasting of about 18,000 staff. Chivas Regal has also worked with stars such as Falz TheBahdGuy, DJ TGarbs, and Zeebeibe(Zoro SwagBag).
Formerly, the brand worked with the celebrity stylist Swanky Jerry on a multimillion-Naira endorsement deal. It is, therefore, possible that Buju’s deal is also a multimillion-Naira one.
Concerts and Normal Show Earnings
According to sources, Buju charges $4000 to $7000 for a show. Based on this analysis, BNXN (formerly known as Buju) has attended at least 15 shows within Nigeria and abroad, making it an estimated total of about ₦27 million to ₦51 million if he attended about 15 shows.
Furthermore, Buju has had a number of concerts to his name. Some of these are the 2021 ‘Sorry I’m Late Concert’ at Balmoral Convention Center in Lagos and Indigo at The 02, London, in 2022. The venue has the capacity to carry 4,600 people, and all tickets were sold out, meaning good money for the artist.
Buju’s Cars and House
Buju may not be an overly lavish person, but he, however, likes the good things in life. In 2021, he bought himself a Mercedes Benz C300, which is worth ₦11 million naira. In addition, he won a 2022 Bentley Bentyaga at the 15th Headies award night held in the United States.
So far, there is no available information with respect to whether he owns a home. Yet, it is certain that he resides in Lagos, Nigeria.