LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Nigerian singer Rema (actual name: Divine Ikubor) was born and raised in the country's Benin City, where he grew up surrounded by both Afrobeat and mainstream rap.
Rema and American singer-actress Selena Gomez worked together to remix Rema's song 'Calm Down', which was released in February 2023 and was an instant hit.
The 'Wolves' singer has acknowledged that she is a huge fan of Nigerian Afrobeat artist Rema.
Gomez claimed in a recent interview that she first became enamored with Rema's song 'Runaway' and has been listening to his music ever since, as per The Guardian.
Rema began his career with a social media post
Nigerian musician and rapper Rema, 23, accidentally started his career by uploading a song to social media, which led to a Mavin Records deal. The highlight of several commercial releases throughout 2019 was 'Dumebi', which showcased his gentle, flexible voice.
Rema started a rap group with friends from his church, but his passion for music unexpectedly changed in February 2018 when he released a video of himself freestyling to an acoustic version of D'Prince's 'Gucci Gang'.
Rema went on to sign with Mavin, the Lagos-based label controlled by Don Jazzy, D'Prince's brother, after D'Prince watched the video and approached him.
In 2022, Rema released his debut album, 'Rave & Roses', with guests including 6LACK, Chris Brown, and AJ Tracey, changing his style to what he calls Afrorave.
The album spent some time in the rankings, peaking at number five on Billboard's World Albums chart and making it all the way to position 196 on the Top 200 chart.
A Gomez cover helped one of the album's songs, 'Calm Down', become an unexpected blockbuster success the following year.
Both versions reached the Billboard Hot 100's Top Ten, surpassing one billion streams in total, and becoming the highest-charting African song to date.
In April 2023, a deluxe edition of his debut, 'Rave & Roses ULTRA', was released to capitalize on the success of that ground-breaking track.
Rema gained greater fame after another song, 'Iron Man', was added to Barack & Michelle Obama's Summer Playlist 2019, which was shared on Twitter by the former president in August.
Selena Gomez wants to 'take care' of Rema
Rema and Gomez's collaboration 'Calm Down', which was released in February 2023, gained popularity and spread awareness of Rema's music.
During an appearance on the most recent VA 100 New York Podcast, Gomez, 31, disclosed her feelings for the Nigerian rapper.
Gomez stated in the interview that she was moved by Rema's behavior when they first met and that she "just wanna take care of him."
She said, "I actually fell in love with the song ‘Runaway’ before I fell in love with ‘Calm down'. I literally was a fan of his. But it [remixing ‘Calm Down’] was all like kind of his idea."
The songstress further added, "When I met him, I honestly was so impressed by his demeanor, how humble and how grateful he is for every moment. And, I just couldn’t pick someone else who deserves all this success in the world. He is so kind. I don’t know, I just wanna like take care of him [laughs]."
Speaking of Gomez, Rema previously said, "It was not on some label vibe. She’s been rocking with my music for a while. I dropped the offer and she embraced it," as per Guardian.
The original song, he noted, had been "going No 1 in countries I didn’t even know about" for six months prior to the remix's release. "But Selena opened doors for it, she took it further than I could."
