8th April, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Multiple award-winning singer, Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema, walked off the stage of the 2024 Dreamville Festival in North Carolina, midway into his performance on Sunday.
Rema was performing his hit song ‘Calm Down’ on Day 2 of the festival at Dix Park in Raleigh, but stopped midway to complain about the poor sound before walking off the stage.
The “Calm Down” crooner advocated for the same sound quality for African artistes as their Western counterparts on international stages.
He said, “Hold on, there are too many sound issues. It’s messing up my whole performance. I’m seriously not feeling this sh*t.
“I’m representing Africa, this is too messed up. If the sound cannot be perfect for every artist that get on this stage… Africa is in the house and you are messing sh*t up?”
Dreamville Festival was created by American hip-hop superstar, J. Cole.
Rema’s latest EP, Ravage, is also a testament to his success, as it debuted on the charts in over 50 countries a few hours after its release on Friday, October 26, 2023.
This is coming after the singer made history as the first African artist to win a Chinese Music Award.
The singer achieved the feat after his song ‘Calm Down’ remix with American superstar Selena Gomez won the Best Collaboration of the Year at the 2024 Hito Music Award in the Republic of China.
Rema joined D’Prince’s Jonzing World, a subsidiary of Mavin Records, in 2019.
He has been enjoying a massive reception from music lovers since he came into the limelight.
The singer released his eponymous debut EP ‘Rema’ in 2019.
His hit single ‘Calm Down’ has continued to amass massive numbers on streaming services, break records, and earn awards.
In December 2023, Rema was listed as one of the singers who dominated the year’s charts of most exported artistes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) on Spotify.
He also made history at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards (BMAs) alongside Burna Boy, the Afro-fusion star; the duo became the first winners of the newly created Afrobeats Awards.