When a Benin City boy like Nigerian Afrobeats sensation Rema rises to global stardom, selling out international shows and recording the first song led by an African-artist to surpass a billion streams on Spotify, what does he do next? He returns home for a victory lap. <\/p>\n
\u201cI already have the biggest song from Africa. I can continue chasing that or just do what I need to do for myself, my culture, and my family.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rema, whose real name is Divine Ikubor, found international stardom in 2022, with his smash hit \u201cCalm Down.\u201d A <\/strong>subsequent remix featuring Selena Gomez became the first African song to spend a year on the Billboard Hot 100. <\/p>\n Having made a name for himself with his brand of Afrobeats called Afro-rave, blending Afrobeats, dancehall, R&B, hip hop, and house sounds, the star is celebrating his fifth year in the industry by returning to his roots and amplifying his heritage, which he says is the foundation for his meteoric rise to the top. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been five years of global expansion,\u201d the 24-year-old singer explained. \u201cI just feel like I needed to have a good body of work tied to my roots.\u201d <\/p>\n This year, the musician has been celebrating his heritage, infusing cultural references to Benin City \u2013 such as the bats that are a frequent sight there \u2013 into his promotions, performances, and the artwork for his latest album, \u201cHeis.\u201d The album is a nod to his Nigerian roots, deeply percussive with a taste of rock, and its Greek title means \u201cnumber one\u201d in English. <\/p>\n In June, Rema dropped his lead single from the album, a collaboration with another Benin City native, Shallipoppi, called \u201cBenin Boys,\u201d a tribute to their hometown. Shortly after, Rema staged a homecoming show in the city, about 186 miles (300 kilometers) east of Lagos. <\/p>\n \u201cThe most exciting part of my show would be getting to sing the songs that my people have been listening to for years now and getting to share that experience with them in person,\u201d the singer said. <\/p>\n \u201cI just want to feel the love in the room,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n On August 30th, fans lined the streets outside the 12,000-seat Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, some camping out the night before in anticipation of Rema\u2019s performance. <\/p>\n The opening acts were upcoming artists from the city, each chosen to showcase their different talents. They included the popular Nigerian rapper and singer Zerry DL, as well as Rema\u2019s Mavin Records label mates Magixx, Ladipoe, and Crayon. Later, Rema dueted with OdumoduBlvck and Shallipoppi, with the event celebrating success and uplifting Nigeria\u2019s homegrown talent. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel like that is something we should do constantly,\u201d the singer said. <\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re doing this for them [the fans], we love them, we appreciate them, and we appreciate the hardship that we all went through together – and I excelled, and you can do it too.\u201d <\/p>\n Lamide Akintobi contributed to this report.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a Benin City boy like Nigerian Afrobeats sensation Rema rises to global stardom, selling out international shows and recording the first song led by an African-artist to surpass a billion streams on Spotify, what does he do next? He returns home for a victory lap. \u201cI already have the biggest song from Africa. I <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}