Selena Gomez and Rema on Winning the First Ever Afrobeats Award at the 2023 MTV VMAs

Afrobeats’ breaking new ground, Witnessing the dawn of a new generation of African Music.

Tuesday night at the MTV  VMAs, the world witnessed new history going down in the world of African music as Rema and Selena Gomez bagged a Video Music Award (VMA) for Rema-led hit song “Calm down” selected and nominated in the Best Afrobeats, Best Song and Best collaboration category. Even though the hit-song seemed to perform well in all these categories, the endowed Rema and his counterpart Selena bagged the well-deserved award in “Best Afrobeats” category.  Amidst the electrifying noises in the room, Rema applauded other great African artistes such as Davido, Burna Boy and Wizkid for their contribution to the genre and promised that the award was only the beginning for the young talented African Artistes from. “And I wanna give a shout out to the new generation of Afrobeats; we are here to take it to the rest of the world” Rema added.

The graceful Selena Gomez thanked Rema for the opportunity to collaborate and create such an amazing blend of cultures that has been streamed to levels none of the artistes could fathom. The first African-Led song to make Spotify’s Billion’s Club left the crowd shouting praises to the two artistes. From his 2022 album Rave and Roses, Rema’s “Calm down” that was released on the 11th of February gained one of the wildest airplays in afrobeats last year. The masterpiece co-produced by Andre Vibez and London was a cocktail blend of mid-tempo R&B/Soul, Afroswing, Nigerian Alte, Afropop, and chiefly Afrobeats. The song stands out in the album as an intoxicating club banger moreover even when it comes to personal listening pleasure; the track has gained applause and swung its way into multitudes of playlists on Apple Music and Spotify, billboard top –charts and radio.

Upon its release in August 2022, the Remix that features American songstress Selena Gomez even soared higher and spread to cover more ground and blew up the airwaves even more as Conchita added a new flavor of versatility connecting the soul of afrobeats and R&B vibes to the avid listeners all over the world.

This award comes as the well-deserved accolade to not only elevate afrobeats listenership masterminded by Rema and Selena Gomez but also as a sign that African music is growing and transcending boarders, revolutionizing the art of  genre fusion and cultural expression and creating a refreshing combination of Culture and Music.

As we celebrate these wins at the VMAs, we applaud the hardworking artistes and music production teams that rigorously create and perfect the craft of Afrobeats and Afrofusion styles that are connecting Africa to the world through music and entertainment.