Rema’s Calm Down cannot stop making music history - the latest accolade for the hit by the 24-year-old Nigerian star is that it is now the most-streamed Afrobeats song in the US.
It has become “the first Afrobeats song in history to earn over one billion on-demand streams in the US”, the music monitoring platform Chart Data has said on X.
Last year, Chart Data had already described the track as the “most successful African song of all time”.
Billboard magazine music analysts put its success down to its “melancholy slow jam with a subtle hypnotic draw”.
“[It’s] the kind that gets stuck deep in the back of a listener’s mind, prompting them to return again and again.”
The song was released in February 2022 as a single off Rave and Roses, Rema’s debut album.
Rema, whose real name is Divine Ikubor, partnered with the US singer Selena Gomez a few months later for a remix of the song, which hit the billion-plays mark on the streaming app Spotify.
It became the first African song to spend a year on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number three, making it the highest-charting song which an Afrobeats musician was the lead artist.
The remix, which has nearly 894 million views on YouTube, is currently the most-watched music video by a Nigerian artist.
It has thrust Rema into the ranks of prominent Nigerian Afrobeats artists such as Burna Boy, Wizkid and Davido.
Rema says he has his own style of Afrobeats, which he has dubbed "Afrorave".
Latest Stories
-
One collapses, properties destroyed in Tuesday’s rainstorm in Damongo
5 minutes -
Sudan army accused of killing hundreds in airstrike on Darfur market
41 minutes -
Trump signs order aimed at overhauling US elections
2 hours -
Top cocoa producer Ivory Coast to slash exports from smaller upcoming crop, sources say
2 hours -
2026 World Cup qualifying: Brazil humiliated 4-1 by bitter rivals Argentina
2 hours -
Trump signs order aimed at overhauling US elections
3 hours -
Sussex university fined £585k in free speech row
3 hours -
KIC partners with FDA to support Food Innovation start-ups in Ghana
3 hours -
Nigeria’s Trans Niger oil pipeline restored after blast, Renaissance says
4 hours -
Global child mortality hits record low, but progress threatened by funding cuts – UN IGME Report
4 hours -
Harry leaves African charity he co-founded
4 hours -
Djokovic beats Musetti to reach Miami quarter-finals
4 hours -
Joey Barton guilty of kicking wife in the head
4 hours -
US jet fuel imports surge as Nigeria’s Dangote refinery pushes barrels west
5 hours -
No one can export gold except GoldBod – Sammy Gyamfi
5 hours