Global Sound: Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ Now Most-Streamed Afrobeats Song in the US
Nigerian music star Rema’s “Calm Down” has become the first Afrobeats song in history to earn over one billion on-demand streams in the US, according to the music monitoring platform Chart Data on X (formerly Twitter).
The song was released in February 2022 as a single off Rema’s debut album, Rave and Roses. A few months later, the 24-year-old (whose real name is Divine Ikubor) collaborated with US singer Selena Gomez for a remix of the hit song, which now has over one billion-plays on the streaming app, Spotify.
‘Calm Down’ also made history as the first African track to spend a year on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number three, making it the highest-charting song with an Afrobeats artist as lead singer.
The remix with Gomez, which now has over 894 million views on YouTube, is currently the most watched music video by a Nigerian music artiste.
