Nigerian superstar Rema has set a new record with his sophomore album ‘HEIS’, which has achieved the biggest opening week streams on Spotify Nigeria in 2024, garnering 12.3 million streams. This impressive feat surpasses Olamide’s ‘Ikigai’, which had 7.92 million streams in its opening week.
Released on July 10, 2024, ‘HEIS’ ranks second only to Davido’s ‘Timeless’, which holds the record with 14.4 million streams. Prior to the album release, Rema’s single ‘Benin Boys’ featuring Shallipopi set a new record for the most first-day streams for a song on Spotify Nigeria.
‘HEIS’ also broke the record for opening day streams on Spotify Nigeria and recorded an impressive 1.99 million streams on the second day. These achievements underscore Rema’s status as a global superstar, following his groundbreaking success with ‘Calm Down’, the first Afrobeats song to surpass 1 billion Spotify streams.
Despite the mixed reactions to his debut album, with some considering it a bold experimentation and others critiquing its quality, Rema aims to take Afrobeats back to its roots. At the London listening party for ‘HEIS’, he emphasized his desire to preserve the authenticity of the genre amidst its growing global influence.