Popular Nigerian singer Rema’s remix of ‘Calm Down’ featuring American singer Selena Gomez has reached 1.1 billion views on YouTube.
This makes it one of the most streamed songs by a Nigerian artiste on the platform.
The remix, released in 2023, is part of Rema’s Rave & Roses (Ultra) album. The original version was already a hit, but the remix with Selena Gomez took it to a new level, making it a global success.
It was one of the songs that helped introduce Rema to larger audiences around the globe and pushed his brand even further.
The original version of Calm Down was released in March 2022 as the second single from Rema’s debut album.
Related stories
The song, produced by Nigerian producer Andre Vibez, has mixes of afrobeats with elements of hip-hop, lo-fi, and alternative music, a style Rema calls Afro-rave.
The song talks about him trying his best to convince a girl at a club to trust him and give him a chance.
After seeing the song rise on local and international charts, Rema decided to collaborate with Selena Gomez to push the song even further.
The remix helped the song peak at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stay at No. 1 on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for 23 weeks.
Rema has continued to grow since then. A recent report from Nigerian music chart platform The Debut Hub named him the most-streamed Nigerian artiste on YouTube for the first quarter of 2025.
Between January and March, Rema’s channel recorded 223 million streams. His latest hit, ‘Is It Crime’, contributed 14 million streams on its own.
