Rema sets Billboard record no other African artist has ever achieved
Rema has broken a new record by becoming the first African artist to have his album appear on the Billboard 2023 end-of-the-year chart
Billboard 2023 end-of-the-year chart are out and Mavin-signed Nigerian Afrobeat star Divine Ikubor popularly known by his stage name Rema is the African star of 2023!
Yet again, Rema has broken a new record by becoming the first African artist to have his album appear on the Billboard 2023 end-of-the-year chart with his debut album 'Raves & Roses' finishing the year at No. 157.
As an artist Rema was ranked at No. 41 on Billboard's 2023 end-of-the-year artist chart this was greatly influenced by the huge commercial success of his hit single 'Calm Down' which mega blew up following him collaborating with American pop sensation Selena Gomez for a remix of the already global hit song.
Speaking of his Guinness World Record-breaking song 'Calm Down' the mega smash hit featuring the former Disney actress (Selena Gomez)closed the year at No. 3 this is after it spent the better part of the calendar year on the chart at number one, which is unprecedented for an African artist.
The 23 year old singer also finished the year as the second-ranking Afrobeats artist behind Burna Boy.
After becoming the youngest African artist to sell out the O2, the Nigerian artist was honoured by Spotify for his phenomenal achievement with the music streaming app revealing that Rema's hit song had amassed astonishing 1 billion streams on the music streaming platform.
It’s a blessing. It’s not just a big win for me, my team and family, it’s also a big one for the culture. I feel really happy and I’m really proud of the fans as well for going back to the song and putting people on the song. Shout out to the DJs and everyone who made this possible,” said Rema when he heard the news from Spotify.
He isn't Kenyan but boy is it a breath of fresh air seeing Africans (not black Americans) smash ceilings and break records, taking the world by storm! To more wins, for artists across the African continent.
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