Rema triumphs at 2024 London Music Awards

The recipients of the London Music Awards constitute the UK-affiliated awardees of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ (ASCAP’s) most prestigious honours. 

Rema, signed to the Don Jazzy-led Mavin Records, won the coveted Song of the Year and Top Streaming Song awards for his global hit ‘Calm Down’, alongside fellow award winners and co-writers Michael ‘London’ Hunter and Andre Vibez. 

‘Calm Down’, co-produced by Andre Vibez and London and off Rema’s debut album Rave & Roses, tells the tale of a couple’s initial romantic sparks, inspired by the artist’s personal journey of discovering love at that moment. 

Last year, a Selena Gomez-assisted remix became the first Afrobeats-led record to achieve 1 billion Spotify streams. In April, at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards, the remix, which is currently Billboard’s highest-charting Afrobeats song, won the Collaboration of the Year Award. It currently boasts 894 million views on YouTube, making it the most-watched music video by a Nigerian artist. 

According to music monitoring platform Chart Data, ‘Calm Down’ has also become “the first Afrobeats song in history to earn over 1 billion on-demand streams in the US.”

Meanwhile, South Africa-born British singer-songwriter and producer Kenya Grace won the 2024 ASCAP Global Impact Award, in recognition of her “viral skyrocket to the top of the dance music world.”