Rema sends message to artistes dissociating selves from Afrobeats

Divine Ikubor, aka Rema, a popular Nigerian singer, has stated that regardless of what genre he and his colleagues call their musical styles, they will all come together for award shows under the afrobeats umbrella.

On Sunday, the ‘Calm Down’ crooner accepted his award for Best Male Artiste of the Year at the 2023 Headies Awards in Atlanta, USA.

Rema said, “I must say it is very important that I should let everyone know that I’m not here because of the awards. I’m here because it is important to support our institutions. And when I said institutions, I mean the bodies that support you to be able to achieve these major successes; the media houses, award organisers, you know.

“We are in a very sensitive period if we don’t give our attention to our institutions, we will miss this chance that we have. And we will never have this chance again.

“Be it afrorave, afro this, afro that, last last, we go jam for afrobeats award. So, this is our chance. We [afrobeats artists] are not the first to do it. Reggae has done it before.”

His comment is against the backdrop of Burna Boy and some of his colleagues denouncing the afrobeats tag on the grounds that they don’t want to be “boxed”, and it (afrobeats) “lacks substance.”