The duo won the award for their song, “Calm Down”, and are the first-ever winners of the award category.
By Hope Ibiale
Nigerian artiste, Rema, and American musician, Selena Gomez, have been announced as the “Best Afrobeats” category winners at the 2023 MTV VMAs. The duo won the award for their song “Calm Down”, and are the first-ever winners of the award category. “Calm Down” was also nominated in the “Song of the Year” and “Best Collaboration” categories.
Other artistes who won at the VMAs include Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, SZA, Doja Cat, Ice Spice, Anitta, Stray Kids, and others.
In his acceptance speech, Rema thanked his fans, his team, Selena Gomez, and Nigerian music icons 2Face Idibia, Don Jazzy, D’Banj, D’Prince, Runtown, Timaya, Wizkid, Burna Boy, and Davido, for pioneering Afrobeats and taking it to global stages. He also thanked the new generation for their efforts in continuing the mission to take Afrobeats to new heights.
(Read also: Tems Bags Songwriter of the Year Accolade at the 2023 BMI Hip-Hop Awards)
This win follows Rema’s historic achievement as the first African artiste to reach a billion streams on Spotify with the same song.
Now in its 39th year, the American cable channel MTV’s Video Music Awards, popularly abbreviated as the VMAs, is an award show to honour the best music videos. It is popularly called the Grammy Awards for music videos, and has continued to recognise quality music videos and artistes.
Check the full list of winners here.