Rema Makes History at the 2023 MVAs

Ferdinand  Ekechukwu

It’s another win for Mavin youngster Rema and American singer, Selena Gomez as their smash hit single ‘Calm Down’ again broke another international record. ‘the chart topping song won the inaugural Best Afrobeats category at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), which took place last Tuesday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Rema and Selena Gomez’s ‘Calm Down’ had already made waves by earning three nominations in the award categories of Best Collaboration, Song of the Year, and Best Afrobeats. However, it was in the Best Afrobeats category that this remarkable duo left an indelible mark, making history as the first winners in this newly established category.

Recall that Rema, born Divine Ikubor, at the 16th Headies Awards ceremony held on September 4, 2023, in Atlanta, won the Male Artiste of the Year ahead of strong contenders— Asake, Kizz Daniel, Ruger, Omah Lay, and Burna Boy. He also won the Digital Artist of the Year Award and left the audience talking about his speech on the need to support Afrobeats and the Nigerian music industry.

‘Calm Down,’ at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), was nominated alongside Burna Boy’s ‘It’s Plenty,’ Davido feat Musa Key’s ‘Unavailable,’ Ayra Starr’s ‘Rush,’ Libianca’s ‘People,’ Wizkid feat Ayrra Starr’s ‘2 Sugar,’ and Fireboy DML’s ‘Bandana. The song which was originally released on August 25, 2022, garnered attention for its unique fusion of Afrobeats and pop elements.

The remix of the song achieved incredible success, becoming the first-ever track to maintain a position on the Billboard US Afrobeats Songs chart for an entire year. Additionally, it secured the coveted spot of being the First No.1 Hit on The Official MENA Chart. Meanwhile, “Calm Down” also recorded one billion streams on Spotify, a global online streaming platform.

Prior, ‘Calm Down’ reached the Top 10 Hot 100 chart and eventually peaked at an impressive No. 3 in June 2023, making it the highest-peaking Nigerian song on the Billboard Hot 100. Similarly, the video of the remix has garnered over 619 million views on Youtube.