Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ is first Afrobeats song to hit one billion on-demand streams in US

‘Calm Down’, the hit track by Rema, the Nigerian singer, has broken another remarkable record in the United States.

On Sunday, Chart Data disclosed that ‘Calm Down’ has become the first Afrobeats song to secure over one billion on-demand streams in the US.

“Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ becomes the first Afrobeats song in history to earn over 1 billion on-demand streams in the US,” the post reads.

REMA’s “Calm Down” becomes the first Afrobeats song in history to earn over 1 billion on-demand streams in the US. pic.twitter.com/K29GwYULZI

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— chart data (@chartdata) June 16, 2024

‘Calm Down’ was released in February 2022 as a single off ‘Rave and Roses’, Rema’s debut album. The singer later partnered with Selena Gomez, the US songstress, for the remix of the hit track in August of the same year.

Since its release, the song has generated massive numbers on streaming services, broken records, and earned Rema awards.

‘Calm Down’ went platinum in the United Kingdom in March 2023, and by April, it became India’s second longest-charting no 1 African song.  It was named the longest-charting African song on Billboard Hot 100 in June.

In August, ‘Calm Down’ became Billboard’s longest-charting US Afrobeats song with 52 weeks while in September, the song hit one billion streams on Spotify.

With over 894 million views — as of June 17 — the song’s remix is the most-viewed Nigerian music video on YouTube.

Rema, born Divine Ikubor, got signed into D’Prince’s Jonzing World, a subsidiary of Mavin Records in 2019.

Since then, he has firmly established himself as one of the prominent names in the African music industry.

Rema won the ‘Best Male Artiste’ and ‘Digital Artiste Of The Year’ at 16th Headies.

In December 2023, he was listed as one of the singers who dominated the year’s charts of most exported artistes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) on Spotify.