Over the past year, Nigerian afrobeats star Rema has exploded into a global star.
While he was already a popular figure on the music scene with fans across the world, it was his collaboration with American singer Selena Gomez for the remix of his hit single “Calm Down” that took him to the next level.
“Calm Down” originally dropped as one of the lead singles to Rema’s debut studio album “Rave & Roses” in February 2022.
As the song exploded into a global hit single, Rema approached Selena Gomez for the remix which would eventually drop a few months later in August of 2022.
In the year since, the “Calm Down” remix has become the most streamed song ever to come out of the continent with over two billion streams worldwide. It’s also been one of the most streamed songs across the globe since it’s release.
As the song inches closer to being one of the biggest songs of Gomez’ career, too, she took to Instagram over the weekend to share her gratitude towards Rema.
“This man has changed my life forever. Rema, thank you for choosing me to be apart of one of the biggest songs in the world. Love you forever. @heisrema”
Rema responded in the comments, “Love you too queen”.
Recently, “Calm Down” broke the record for longest charting African song on the Billboard Hot 100.
Wizkid's “Essence” featuring Tems and Justin Bieber previously held the record having spent 35 weeks on the prestigious chart.
With over 490 million views on YouTube, it’s also now the most viewed afrobeats video on the platform.
Rema will surely now have his sights set on hunting down Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode’s “Jerusalema” for the record of most viewed African music video ever.
“Jerusalema” is currently on 566 million views.