Having already seen ‘Calm Down’ become the highest streaming African song ever over the past few months, Nigerian afrobeats star Rema is now celebrating the single becoming the first African song to reach the exclusive billion streams club on Spotify.
‘Calm Down’ originally dropped as one of the lead singles to Rema’s debut studio album ‘Rave & Roses’ in February 2022.
Then, as the song exploded into a global hit single, Rema approached Selena Gomez for the remix which would eventually drop a few months later in August of 2022.
A year later and the song has broken numerous records.
Not only has it broken the record for longest charting African song on the Billboard Hot 100, ‘Calm Down’ is also the most viewed African song ever on YouTube having recently surpassed Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode’s ‘Jerusalema’.
Spotify Africa shared, “We can't Calm Down, @heisrema has entered the #BillionsClub with the first African artist-led track to hit a billion streams on Spotify! Congratulations to Rema and @SelenaGomez! 🖤 spotify.link/billionsclub”
We can't Calm Down, @heisrema has entered the #BillionsClub with the first African artist-led track to hit a billion streams on Spotify!
— Spotify Africa (@SpotifyAfrica) September 10, 2023
Congratulations to Rema and @SelenaGomez! 🖤 https://t.co/WvCOjSnE3w pic.twitter.com/KFMjjHVSNl
In a video celebrating the achievement, Rema said, “The first afrobeats song to ever reach a billion streams. That’s huge. I’m grateful to God, you know, for the inspiration, for the grace, for the favour. Big shout out to everyone who worked hard with this one.
“Big shout out to Selena and her team and everyone who supported us to get this far. It’s a blessing. It’s not just a big win for my team, my family, it’s also a big win for the culture. I feel really happy and I’m really proud of the fans as well for going back to the song, for putting people on the song.”
Back in July, Gomez took to Instagram to share her gratitude towards Rema. “This man has changed my life forever. Rema, thank you for choosing me to be a part of one of the biggest songs in the world. Love you forever. @heisrema”