The Benin state-born Divine Ikubor is no stranger to being a star. Right from earlier years as a teenager in the church, his music-performing ability was one to look forward to witnessing every week; at 13, he formed a music group with the bright star, Alpha P, making use of the first name in their initials—RnA.
If you do not know by now, Divine Ikubor is none other than the brilliant young star terrorizing the global music scene with hits and raves. His name is Rema.
2022 was a year of ‘dreams come true’ for many individuals including Rema. He finally put out his long-awaited debut album (“Rave & Roses”) which contained the phenomenal “Calm Down” record.
By August 2022, Calm Down had received enough attention to secure a remix with the Latin-American pop superstar, Selena Gomez. That remix would go on to become a monstrous hit record!
Much has been said about the beautiful duet that is Calm Down. The streams and accolades complement it just like butter do bread.
The current year calendar shows humans to be living in 2023, but that monstrous hit record is determined to be everything but calm.
Let us preview some of the feats Calm Down has collated so far in January of 2023:
#1: No. 1 Indian Song; No. 1 Billboard Global 200
Any time India comes up in conversation between Nigerians, it is their entertainment, movies (Bollywood), and their corresponding scoring that comes to mind. But Rema’s “Calm Down” is here to change that narrative.
Calm Down by Rema is officially the No. 1 song (as of the time of writing). For the week ending January 9, 2022 (the first complete week in the new year), Calm Down rose to pole position on the Indian Music Industry (IMI) International Top 20 Singles.
Number 1 in India🚶🏿♂️🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/N5rWxYQ3oD
— REMA (@heisrema) January 9, 2023
By doing so, Calm Down becomes the first song by an African artiste to reach No. 1 on the IMI chart, making Rema the first African artiste to achieve such a feat.
Away from the Indian chart, Calm Down also became the first-ever song of African origin to top the Billboard Global 200 (a list of chart-topping singles excluding U.S-released hits).
.@heisrema is the first African act in history to reach #1 on the Billboard Global 200 Excl. US singles chart.
— chart data (@chartdata) January 9, 2023
#2: 1 of 2 African Acts With 30M Monthly Spotify Listeners
Thirty million is not a little figure. Rema, however, is reaching what many might previously have considered uncharted territory by becoming the only pair of African acts to receive 30M Monthly Listeners on Spotify.
CKay was the first to sit on that high table, and now, his Nigerian contemporary, Rema, joins him as they become the first set of African artistes to ever amass such listeners on an average monthly basis.
Ckay and Rema are the only African Musicians to exceed 30 million listeners on Spotify. pic.twitter.com/FcuF9zYQT5
— TXT (@txt_mag) January 6, 2023
Yes, Rema is an incredible talent, but special thanks go to Calm Down, the original, and Selena Gomez’s version.
#3: 300M Streams on Spotify for “Calm Down”; 1B Streams As the Lead Act
The sky, they say, is the limit, but Rema makes the godly blue sky appear as just a tipping point to his unexplainable greatness.
Gathering 1,000,000 is a career milestone for many upcoming singers; that joy easily transfers to wanting 5M, then 10M subsequently, once the initial goal of 1M is achieved.
Now imagine 1,000,000 streams being multiplied 300 times. That gives us a whopping 300,000,000 streams! Well, as you might have guessed, such is the grand number of streams for Calm Down with Selena Gomez on Spotify.
“Calm Down” by @heisRema & @SelenaGomez has reached 300 MILLION streams on Spotify.
It’s Rema’s 1st and Gomez’s 21st song to achieve this. pic.twitter.com/vjyMbxnyot
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 9, 2023
This makes Rema’s Calm Down the fastest song by an African act to collect such numbers.
Adding a leaf to Rema’s colourful hat, he also has been able to garner a career cumulative of 1,000,000,000 (one billion) streams on Spotify as a lead act (excluding features).
Rema has accrued 1 BILLION views on YouTube 🦇🚀 pic.twitter.com/Sah7amR1NA
— MediaNaija (@themedianaija) January 3, 2023
That makes Rema the youngest act to do so, the only U-25 act on the list of African artistes with 1B+ streams on Spotify.
https://twitter.com/ThompsonMachala/status/1611290300193931264?t=ptcOBj0p1ERI76OB6dY4GA&s=19
#5: 1B Total Youtube Views
Since his car freestyling era, Rema has always been a joy to watch. It is no wonder it took him just 4 years since his unveiling to the mainstream media to amass a billion views on YouTube.
Coupled with the well-directed visuals of Rema’s music videos, and his impressive on-screen personality, 1B total views on Youtube is fathomable.
At such a young age of 22, Rema is truly making history right before our eyes!