LAGOS, Nigeria – Nigerian singer Rema continues to break new ground with his hit song “Calm Down.” The track has become the most-streamed Afrobeats song ever in the United States, according to music data platform Chart Data. This achievement adds another milestone to “Calm Down’s” impressive list of accolades.
“Calm Down” has surpassed one billion on-demand streams in the US, a historic first for an Afrobeats song. Chart Data previously hailed the song as the “most successful African song of all time” last year.
Music analysts at Billboard magazine credit the song’s success to its unique blend of melancholic slow jam with a captivating, almost hypnotic quality. They describe it as a song that “gets stuck deep in your head, making you want to listen to it again and again.”
Released in February 2022 as a single from Rema’s debut album “Rave and Roses,” “Calm Down” gained further momentum with a remix featuring American singer Selena Gomez. This remix reached one billion streams on Spotify, another first for an African song. It also spent a full year on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number three – the highest position ever achieved by a song with an Afrobeats artist as the lead performer.
The “Calm Down” remix’s music video has also garnered nearly 894 million views on YouTube, making it the most-watched video by a Nigerian artist. This success has propelled Rema into the ranks of Afrobeats giants like Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido.
Rema himself describes his sound as a unique spin on Afrobeats, which he terms “Afrorave.”
