Mavin Records signee and singer, Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema, has made history as the first African act to hit the number one spot on the Billboard Global chart.
The Mavin/Jonzing World star, will be adding his latest achievement to his voice being featured in the trailer of the sequel to Marvel Studio’s iconic movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” in 2022.
Rema tops the Global Excl. U.S. in his first appearance on the chart and Gomez also landed her first lead among the two top 10s since the chart began, after “Ice Cream,” with BLACKPINK, ranked at its No. 6 high on the inaugural list in 2020.
The only seasonal songs on the newest survey are Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which tumbles from No. 1, where it has spent eight total weeks over the last three holiday seasons, to No. 169, and Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” down from its No. 2 high to No. 190.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, began in September 2020.
It ranks songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate.
The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” jumped from No. 8, besting its prior No. 4 high set in September, to No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, with 53.3 million streams (essentially even week-over-week) and 4,000 downloads sold (up 18%) in territories outside the U.S. December 30-January 5.
The Nigeria music star, Rema, whose real name is Divine Ikubor, released the original version of the song last February as the second single from his debut solo LP, ‘Rave & Roses’.
Its remix with Gomez was released on 26 August, 2022, and the music video was premiered on 7 September.
