He has just celebrated his 23rd birthday and is preparing to join the very closed circle of Nigerian artists capable of filling this 20,000-seat stadium. Further cementing the global success of 'made in Nigeria' pop, known as 'afrobeats', Rema – real name Divine Ikubor – is set to perform at the O2 Arena in London at the end of the year. .
At the beginning of May, the singer also presented the "deluxe" version of his first opus, Raves
Calm Down is part of a successful trilogy for afrobeats, after the title Essence, by Wizkid and Tems, and the essential Last Last, by Burna Boy. “Of course, there had already been hits from Nigeria, but these hits were mainly carried by the diaspora, notes Rima Tahini, of the Nigerian label Mavin Records. With Rema, we immediately moved up a gear: as early as 2020, Spotify displayed it on a giant screen in Times Square! Things have really accelerated for afrobeats over the past three years. »
Un gamin in Benin City
But before getting close to the stars, he first had to get spotted in an increasingly competitive Nigerian music industry. "Today, almost everything is played on social networks, from discovery to success," says Rima Tahini, who has been following Rema's career since 2018. At the time, he was still just a kid from Benin. City, a city in southeastern Nigeria known for its rich pre-colonial history and gangs that specialize in online scams or human trafficking. Daily life has been difficult for the Ikubor family since the father, a local politician, was found dead in a hotel room in 2008.
Rema, who has already had some musical successes within his church, regularly posts videos of himself rapping, usually in a stationary car. But Benin City seems far from Lagos and success is slow in coming. Until that day in February 2018 when the ambitious teenager put his words to the music of the tube Gucci Gang, by singer D'Prince, whom he "tagged" on Instagram. Impressed, he invited Rema to join him in Lagos, before signing him to his label, Jonzing World, a sub-division of Mavin Records.
The record company was founded by renowned Nigerian producer Don Jazzy, a pioneer of Afrobeats and one of the first to have had the idea of infusing Nigerianness into London hip-hop beats laced with electro. . Under his influence, Rema gradually abandoned rap for singing and it was Dumebi, a sugary hit with inconsistent lyrics, which finally opened the doors to glory for him.
“Some of the early fans were a bit disappointed by this rather commercial change of direction and even resented Don Jazzy for his intervention,” recalls journalist Oris Aigbokhaevbolo. But few artists know fame so young and Rema's journey is already reminiscent of that of his eldest, Wizkid, who was barely 20 years old when he recorded his first album in 2011. "Like him, Rema is the first of a new generation of Nigerian singers. But its success was much faster,” remarks Oris Aigbokhaevbolo.
In 2019, the young man chained successful EPs and rubbed shoulders with American show business, while his title Iron Man ended up on Barack Obama's famous playlist. The following year, he recorded a remarkable piece for the Colors channel, on YouTube, and appeared in one of the trendy magazines in the United States. "We built all of this at a time when the whole world was starting to take a more serious interest in Afrobeats," says Rima Tahini.
In 2022, the song Calm Down was already a great success when the Rema team approached actress and singer Selena Gomez to offer her to work on a remix of this title. Nigerian artists have always multiplied international collaborations, first on the continent and then in the rest of the world, these "featurings" allowing them to widen their audience and monetize their work in hard currency. But recently, the trend has increased with covers of already existing hits, reissued with the participation of world-famous stars.
"Choosing Selena Gomez was obviously a very good choice, since she is the woman with the most followers in the world on Instagram", comments Oris Aigbokhaevbolo. Calm Down's August 2022 remix quickly topped charts around the world, smashing all records for an Afrobeats song.
Message of hope
"It's a genre with many possibilities. It can be afropop, afro-R
Calm Down has also been a hit in India and the Middle East, according to Mavin Records. To the point of serving as a soundtrack to the rebellion of five young Iranian women who filmed themselves dancing in a crop top and their hair down on this Nigerian hit that has become universal. Their arrest moved the whole world and made the young Rema react. "To all the beautiful women who fight for a better world, you inspire me, I sing for you and I dream with you," he posted on Twitter.
The success of Rema, who will soon begin an international tour, is enough to make more than one young Nigerian in search of escape dream. Now, sometimes all it takes is for a song to go viral on TikTok to get off to a good start. "It's certainly easier to see a title become very popular in a short time, but it's also harder to last. The system is becoming increasingly saturated and many artists lack a solid fan base,” warns specialist journalist Melody Hassan.
Nevertheless, Rema's lightning rise is an extraordinary message of hope, according to Davido, one of the first artists to give Afrobeats a reputation: "To see a kid from Benin City live this genre of success, it really makes you believe in miracles,” he recently said.
