Afroraving Around The World With Rema

As quickly as a pop song can go viral, sometimes it’s fascinating to see one do a slow burn. A prime example of this would be Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts,” which was originally released in 2017, blew up in 2019 (partially thanks to a placement in the Netflix movie Someone Great), and then spent another 17 weeks climbing the Billboard Hot 100 to #1. Nigerian performer Rema (real name Divine Ikubor) hasn’t had to wait quite as long with his swaying Afrobeats single “Calm Down,” which was released in early 2022 as the second single from his debut album Rave & Roses — but a little more than a year later, Rema’s “Calm Down” remix featuring Selena Gomez has become his first Hot 100 top-10 hit.