Nigerian singer Rema walks off stage in US over poor sound quality

 

Divine Ikubor, nicknamed Rema, a well-known Nigerian rapper and singer, walked out the stage of the 2024 Dreamville Festival in North Carolina, United States, on Sunday.

This occurred almost halfway through his performance.

He was playing his hit song ‘Calm Down’ on Day 2 of the event at Dix Park in Raleigh, but stopped to protest about the bad sound before storming off the stage.

While voicing his discontent, Rema emphasized the need for African artistes to receive the same standard of sound production as their Western counterparts when performing on international platforms.

He said: “Hold on, there are too many sound issues. It’s messing up my whole performance. I’m seriously not feeling this sht. I’m representing Africa, this is too messed up. If the sound cannot be perfect for every artiste that get on this stage… Africa is in the house and you are messing sht up?”

Rema gained initial recognition with the release of his 2019 song “Dumebi”.

That same year, he signed with D’Prince’s record label, Jonzing World.

He received wider recognition for his 2022 single “Calm Down”.

The song spawned a remix with American singer Selena Gomez that peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, leading the United States Afrobeats Songs chart for a record-setting 58 weeks.