Rema’s hit song, “Calm Down,” continues to make history in the music industry.
The 24-year-old Nigerian star’s song has now become the most-streamed Afrobeats song in the United States, surpassing one billion on-demand streams.
Chart Data, a music monitoring platform, confirmed this milestone, making it the first Afrobeats song to achieve such a feat in the US.
Last year, Chart Data had already hailed “Calm Down” as the “most successful African song of all time.” Billboard magazine attributed its success to its “melancholy slow jam with a subtle hypnotic draw,” describing it as a song that captivates listeners and keeps them coming back for more.
The track was released in February 2022 as a single from Rema’s debut album, Rave and Roses. Rema, whose real name is Divine Ikubor, later collaborated with American singer Selena Gomez for a remix of the song, which reached one billion plays on Spotify. The remix also spent a year on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number three and making history as the highest-charting song by an Afrobeats artist.
With nearly 894 million views on YouTube, the remix has also become the most-watched music video by a Nigerian artist, propelling Rema into the ranks of celebrated Afrobeats musicians like Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido.
The success of “Calm Down” has solidified Rema’s unique style of Afrobeats, which he refers to as “Afrorave.”
