21st November, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Nigerian singer, Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema, is set to make his debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2025.
Afrobeat star, and band leader of Egypt 80, Seun Kuti will also be returning for the festival.
Ghanaian singer, Amaarae and South Africa’s Tyla are the other African artistes billed for the event, according to the recently released digital flier by the organisers.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, commonly known as Coachella is a yearly festival in California, USA, with over 125,000 thousand people in attendance.
It is dubbed the world’s biggest music and arts festival.
Seun Kuti was the first Nigerian artist to perform at the global music festival in 2012, followed by Mr. Eazi and Burna Boy in 2019, Ckay in 2022, and Tems earlier this year.
Calm Down remix by Rema featuring Selena Gomez, recently made history as the first Afrobeats song to hit 1 billion views on YouTube.
The music video, which was uploaded on Gomez’s YouTube, attained 1 billion views, making it the first Nigerian song to achieve the milestone.
‘Calm Down Remix’ is also the fastest African song to reach 1 billion views on YouTube, achieving the feat in just two years.
The original version of the song has garnered over 619 million views on the platform.
In August last year, ‘Calm Down remix’ with Selena Gomez became the first African song to hit the billion mark in Spotify’s history.
‘Calm Down’ also made history as the first African song to earn 1 billion on-demand streams in the United States.
According to American Music Stats Company, Chart Data, ‘Calm Down’ has earned over 1 billion on-demand streams in the US.
“REMA’s “Calm Down” becomes the first Afrobeats song in history to earn over 1 billion on-demand streams in the US,” Chart Data tweeted.
In August last year, ‘Calm Down remix’ with Selena Gomez became the first African song to hit the billion mark in Spotify’s history.
Selena Gomez went on to shower appreciation on Rema, for changing her “life forever.”
The duo teamed up on the remix of Rema’s global hit ‘Calm Down.’
The original version of ‘Calm Down’ was recognised by Guinness World Record as the first number one song on the world’s first regional streaming chart, MENA.
In November 2023, Rema shuts down his “Ravage Uprising” 02 Arena show in London. The sold-out show of 20,000 capacity saw the likes of Nigerian celebrities and fans traveling all the way to London for the show that can described as yet another celebration of Afrobeats.
Rema joined other award-winning Nigerian artistes like Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, and Asake who have already sold the arena.
