Burna Boy cancels US tour and issues apology after backlash over sleeping woman incident

A couple of weeks ago, Burna Boy went viral after kicking out a fan who had been sleeping at his concert. Now, the afrobeats artist has had to cancel the rest of his tour dates in the US as ticket sales were too low.

Burna Boy, real name Damini Ogulu, has gotten a lot of negative attention recently after he kicked out a sleeping woman from his concert. The woman, Chaltu Jateny, then made a statement on TikTok revealing she fell asleep because, after the death of her daughter’s father, she’d been struggling with sleep deprivation.

Videos from Burna Boy concerts across the US after the incident show how many people chose to skip the show based on his behaviour towards Chaltu. At one concert in Dallas, Burna performed at what looked like a half-empty arena. People in the comments clarified that the arena did end up quite full. A video from that same night also showed Burna Boy apologising to his audience for the sleeping woman incident.

@jocysoyfeliz

#dallas #burnaboy

♬ original sound – Jocelyn

“Slip of tongue, I apologise, slip of tongue,” he said.

The musician made a longer statement on Instagram.

“My shows have people who have beaten cancer and or overcame something very serious and none of them ever slept lol,” he said. “I will gladly be cancelled if we are now in a world where you can treat me like a stripper, slap my ass and tell me to keep dancing because you throw £100 at me.”

Burna Boy apologizing to the Black community just proved it: life will humble you 💔 And if life takes too long, America will rewrite your whole story in 24 hours. 🙈 source @burnaboy pic.twitter.com/DrcW467OJE

— Kish❄️ (@Kishozzy) November 24, 2025

He added: “I sincerely apologise if I’m wrong. I’m not always right, but I feel right about this. Anyways, I’m just human.”

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Lots of his listeners have rushed to his defence and forgiven him – but it looks like it wasn’t enough. The rest of Burna Boy’s US tour has now officially been cancelled.  This includes shows in Boston, Washington, Atlanta and Orlando.

“Whether people like Burna or not, this shows why accountability is important early, before things get out of hand,” one person on X said.

“A fan falls asleep at a concert, and the response is public humiliation? The real problem isn’t the sleeping it’s a lack of empathy,” said another.

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