Divine Ikubor was born on 1 May 2000, he is known popularly as Rema. Rema is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and rapper. He rose to stardom after releasing the song “Dumebi”. In 2019, he signed a record deal with Jonzing World, a subsidiary of Mavin Records.
Divine Ikubor was born into a Christian family. He grew up singing and rapping while he was in secondary school. He attended his primary and secondary school education at Ighile Group of Schools, Edo State. His father and elder brother are deceased, and Rema is left to look after his mother.
He started his music career in churches with Alpha P. In 2018. Rema posted a viral freestyle on Instagram to D’Prince’s track “Gucci Gang”. The post caught the attention of D’Prince who flew him to Lagos to offer a record deal to the young talent. Rema signed a record deal with D’Prince’s Jonzing World, a subsidiary of Mavin Records owned by record producer Don Jazzy, in 2019. He went on to release his self-titled debut EP “Rema” in 2019, which peaked at number 1 on Apple Music Nigeria. On 21 May 2019, Jonzing World, and Mavins released the music video of “Dumebi”, a major breakout song from his self-titled EP, featuring a cameo appearance from Diana Eneje. The video was directed by Ademola Falomo and currently has 60 million views on YouTube. Later that summer, In 2019, one of his other most popular songs from the EP gained more popularity when it was placed on the former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama’s summer playlist.
In May 2021, Rema announced he will be calling his sound “Afrorave”, a subgenre of Afrobeats with influences of Arabian and Indian music which has led to him having one of the strongest fanbases in the country known as Ravers.
In September 2021, Rema was unveiled as a brand ambassador for the popular soft drink Pepsi alongside his label mate Ayra Starr.[15]
On 7 November 2022, Rema received an award on stage during his London concert as his songs achieved 1 billion streams worldwide.
After Rema signed a record deal with Jonzing World in 2019, he released his debut, EP Rema. After two more EPs, he released his debut album Rave & Roses on 25 March 2022. The album includes 16 tracks and features from 6lack, Chris Brown, AJ Tracey, and Yseult. The album charted 10 songs on the US Billboard Afrobeats Chart following its debut week. His single “Calm Down”, including a sample from fellow Nigerian artist Crayon’s track “So Fine”, then began charting five months after its official release. It then became the most-viewed Afrobeats video on Youtube. On August 26, 2022, he released a remix of his song “Calm Down” with Selena Gomez which debuted at number 91 on Billboard Hot 100.
On February 2023, Rema received the Digital Artist of the Year award at the Soundcity MVP Awards which were held at the Eko Convention Centre in Lagos.