At the 2023 VMAs which were held on September 12, 2023, Rema won the award for the Best Afrobeats after fending off heavy competition from Davido, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Ayra Starr, Libianca, Fireboy, and Asake.
During his acceptance speech, Rema gave shout-outs to the musicians whose work has contributed to the evolution of Afrobeats.
“This means so much seeing Afrobeats grow this big and me representing Afrobeats tonight,” Rema said.
“I am so happy… shoutout to the people who opened the doors for me. Big shoutout to Fela who started Afrobeats in the first place. 2Baba, Don Jazzy, D’Banj, D Prince, Runtown, Timaya, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido. And I want to give a huge shoutout to the new generation of Afrobeats. We are here to take it to the rest of the world.”
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Rema’s celebration of the Afrobeats forerunners at the VMAs comes after his memorable speech at the 16th Headies Awards which held on September 3, 2023.
‘Calm Down’ which is the first Afrobeats song to surpass a billion streams on Spotify rocketed Rema to global fame and positioned him as a front-runner to take Afrobeats to greater heights internationally.
