Afrobeats hit ‘Calm Down’ used in new Beaches Resort TV ad

Earlier this month Beaches Resort premiered a new 30-second television commercial, using the song Calm Down by Nigerian Afrobeats rapper Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema.

The television spot with actor Carlos Everette first aired nationally on US televisions on April 6, with additional spots on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The road to success for Calm Down, however, began a year earlier, on March 7, 2022, when Cameroon-born, Montreal-based Loïc Ngumele Sipeyou, the now-famous choreographer for Calm Down first posted a TikTok video with himself dancing with five students using his handle Loïc Reyeltv. The video started gaining traction and inspired the Calm Down Dance Challenge that began attracting social media users worldwide on Instagram and TikTok reels.

Loïc’s video was not just shared, but social media users began recording and uploading videos of their own performances.

In September 2022, US pop star Selena Gomez joined Rema on a remixed version of the song. The new track was a musical masterpiece that instantly gave it a new lease on life, topping European and US charts.

Rema is not new to the limelight. He first tasted success with his 2019 song, Iron Man. A self-titled debut EP followed and sprinted to the number-one spot on Apple Music Nigeria.

The success of Afrobeat stars Rema, Whiz Kid, Burna Boy, Yemi Alade and Davido has morphed into a global movement. Their success is reminiscent of the wave of success that reggae/dancehall enjoyed in the late 1990s, early 2000s by Shabba, Super Cat, Stitchie, Sean Paul, Shaggy and TOK, who ruled the Billboard charts with massive cross-over airplay on BET, MTV, WBLS, KISS FM and Hot 97.