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Image caption: Rema has been catapulted to stardom with the success of Calm Down. Article informationAuthor: Basil LukangaPosition: BBC News
49 minutes ago
Rema’s “Calm Down” continues to make music history, with the 24-year-old Nigerian star’s hit receiving the latest honor of becoming the most-streamed Afrobeat song in the United States.
Last year, ChartData had already described the song as “the most successful African song of all time.”
Billboard music analysts attributed the song’s success to being a “languid slow jam with a subtly hypnotic effect.”
“[It’s] It’s a song that will imprint itself deep in the hearts of those who listen to it, and you’ll want to listen to it again and again.”
The song was released in February 2022 as a single from Rema’s debut album, Rave and Roses.
Rema, whose real name is Divine Ikbor, teamed up with American singer Selena Gomez a few months later for a remix of the song that has garnered over 1 billion plays on streaming app Spotify.
The song became the first African song to spend an entire year on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number three and becoming the highest-charting song with an Afrobeat musician as the lead artist.
The remix has been viewed approximately 894 million times on YouTube, making it currently the most viewed music video by a Nigerian artist.
This puts Rema in the company of notable Nigerian Afrobeat artistes such as Burna Boy, Wizkid and Davido.
Rema says he has his own style of Afrobeats which he calls “Afro-rave.”
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Image credit: Getty Images/BBC
