Rema is now one of the biggest Afrobeats exports and unarguably the leader of his generation of artists. With records of hits and numbers to back it up, we look at all the times he proved that he’s the HIM of his era.
Winning the Headies Next rated award at 19
In 2019, Rema won the Next Rated award category at the 13th edition of Headies. While receiving his award on stage, he called himself the future of Nigerian music. Fast-forward to this moment, it’s fair to say his prophecy is manifesting.
Raves & Roses success
In April 2023, Rema became the most streamed Afrobeats artist on Spotify with the deluxe edition of his debut album, Raves & Roses. The album hit one billion streams, making it the highest streamed African album of all time; this was the first of its kind on the digital platform.
Nigeria’s most exported on Spotify
In June, Raves and Roses broke its record and set a new one after hitting 1.5 billion streams. By July, Raves & Roses (Deluxe) became a two billi baby.
In August, Spotify named Rema as the most exported Afrobeats artist, which puts him on the same global demand scale with Nigerian jollof and Nigerian men.
Calm Down (both original and the remix) are top two on most exported Afrobeats songs list.
Performing at Lollapalooza 2023
In August, Remy Boy joined a large number of musicians from all over the world to perform at the 2023 Lollapalooza edition in Chicago. His performance and crowd engagement skills are highly captivating — a superstar doings.
Sitting pretty on Billboard
Rema first climbed the Billboard chart in 2020 with his jam, Woman, peaking at number 15 on the World Digital Sales. His consistency and strategic collaboration pushed him further to the Billboard Hot 100 with Calm Down featuring Selena Gomez on April 22, 2023. The same song also catapulted LONDON and Andre Vibez to the highest charting Nigerian music producers on the Billboard Hot 100 Producers. He’s also the second rated artist on Billboard’s U.S Afrobeats Songs chart.
Headies’ speech and wins
During the Headies’ 16th music award ceremony on September 4th, 2023, Rema delivered a solid speech, charging the Nigerian music industry to unite and show more regards to their fans and the music institutions. On the same night, he went home with three awards (Best Male Artist, African Artist and Digital Artist of the Year). The guest artist on his Calm Down remix, Selena Gomez bagged the International Artist of the Year while the director of the music video of the song (Director K) won the best music video award.
A winning circle.
1 billion Spotify streams
When Rema released the smashing remix to his hit Calm Down in 2022, reviews and opinions ridiculed his choice of guest artist. Some even said (and still does) that he was desperate for foreign acceptance. But now, the song has hit one billion streams, becoming the first African single to do so.
Rema and Afrobeats are the rave of the moments. So are these stars too. All Afrobeats moments are curated for you here.
