When Rema announced his arrival in the afropop arena five years ago, he stepped onto the scene with a multi-layered skill level that meshed the frenetic urgency of trap music, the reflective catharsis of neo-soul, and the infectious groove of afropop music into a generation-resetting sound that hinted at the future of our music. Straddling all of these gifts necessitated his acknowledgement as the prince of Afrobeats and a future torchbearer for Nigerian culture. In the years since then, Rema has crafted a path to the pinnacle of the genre, and 2023 has borne witness to his public coronation as an Afropop royal.
Fresh off the release of 2022’s Rave & Roses, Rema has continued to set a gold standard for himself and his peers with a series of seismic achievements that are reflective of his frontline status. The Selena Gomez-featuring remix of his global hit, “Calm Down,” became the first Afrobeats song to join the Spotify Billon Club and spawned the special performance catchphrase, “Everybody say yellow,” as Rema took his music across the world from Mumbai to Melbourne on the Rave & Roses Tour which climaxed with a deeply culturally-resonant performance in front a soldout audience at the 02 Arena in London in November.
