Who Is Rema? Exploring The Young Musician’s Biography And Rise To Fame

Rema (Real Name: Divine Ikubor, born 1 May 2000) is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and rapper who gained international fame with his song “Iron Man”.

Rema has proven that it’s possible to bring the good life which most people only get to live in their forties to one’s teens. The young artist is currently dominating the music scene and driving the conversation, hitting millions of streams, and reinvigorating Afrobeats with his music. He is currently cruising through the industry, both locally and internationally and there is seemingly nothing to hold back since then. But how did he get to where he is today? We’ll be taking an in-depth look into the artist’s success story, as well as everybody and everything that contributed to making him what he is today.

Rema Was Born And Raised In Benin 

Famously called the future of Afrobeat, the singer who burst onto the scene in 2018 was born on 1 May 2000. Although very little is known about his background, we know he hails from Benin kingdom of Edo state, Nigeria. It was there he completed his primary and secondary school for his first school leaving certificate and WAEC respectively.

Rema didn’t have it all as a child but he definitely didn’t rise from the rags. His dad was a judge and supported his family substantially. As a child, he occupied himself with performing in church and street programs, little did he know that not before long that he’ll be performing on the biggest stages in the country and beyond. However, things changed for the lad when his dad and brother died just a few years before he hit the big stage. His mom and sister became his solace besides music.

He Chose Music Over School

As Rema dealt with the death of his dad and brother he focused on building his musical career. On this note, he isn’t known to be a graduate of any Nigerian university and hasn’t been associated with education since he finished his secondary school education. He once revealed on his Instagram page in a post that he later deleted that he was supposed to be in school but he chose music. This had his fans consoling him that school could be achieved at any age. Well, indeed, it’s never too late to start school. Besides, Rema is still very young and has plenty of time to get back to school.

His First Music Breakthrough Came In 2018

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Rema spent more than three years making low-budget music productions but nobody cared about his work. This continued until 2018 when he first caught the attention of Jonzing world record boss, D’Prince who happens to be big in the Nigeria music industry. This was when he did an explosive freestyle of D’Prince’s Gucci Gang, and the social media post went viral. D’Prince flew Rema into Lagos and in 2019 he was offered a life-changing record deal with Mavin Records. Mavin Records had popular acts such as Korede Bello, Dija, Dr. Sid, Poe, Jonny Drille, D’Prince, and Tiwa Savage (who would later leave the label)

In 2019, Rema Released A Hit That Placed Him On The Spotlight

When it became obvious that young Rema was here to stay was after the release of his single “Iron man”. The song after breaking the local scenes back in 2019 went international as well, it appeared in the USA’s 2019 summer Playlist, and from this point, it was just uphill for the young star.

He supported that massive hit with the release of his first EP that same year, and songs like “Dumebi” and “Corny” were on it. In fact, anybody who is a fan of Nigerian music knows how big these songs are. The EP went on to be number 1 on apple music, Nigeria with all the songs in the top 10 chart in 6 days on apple music.

The same year, he released several other EPs including “Rema Freestyle” (2019), and “Bad Commando” (2019). He also dropped many single hits that became club staples including “Rewind,” “Lady,” and “Trap Out The Submarine.” In 2020, he released his EP; “Rema Remix” which came with many single hits such as;

• “Dumebi Remix” (featuring Becky G)
• “Beamer” (Bad Boys)
• “Rainbo”
• “Fame”
• “Ginger Me”
• “Alien”
• “Woman”

Does Rema Have A Twin?

Rema has managed to keep his immediate family away from the press. His mom and his sister are the only members of his family that the media has gotten wind of at this time. As stated earlier, he lost his dad who was a judge, and his elder brother in quick succession back in 2017. There was a very brief scandal late last year when he accused the PDP of having a hand in his father’s death through a social media post but since no legal actions followed, it just fizzled out within a short period of time.

Circling back to the issue of whether he has a twin, we know for a fact that he has a sister but she isn’t his twin, she is in fact two years older than the young star. Her name is Ani Ikubor and she is an undergraduate at the University of Benin. The media started following her after she wished her kid bro a happy birthday, and enumerated how blessed their family was to have him.

Talks of him having a twin sister only started flying around after a picture of a young lady identified as Remitta that looked exactly like Rema had circulated on the internet. Sadly, her real name or social media handle wasn’t made available to the public, maybe for security reasons. The two supposed “identical twins” later met up, took a couple of pictures, cleared the air on their different origins, and hopefully remained friends up till this day. Apart from that incident, there is no evidence or indication that Rema has a twin.

His Awards and Nominations

Wins:

• Next Rated Award – 19 October 2019
• Soundcity MVP for Best New Artist – 12 January 2020.

Nominations:

• Rema was nominated for Viewer’s Choice at the 13th edition of The Headies.
• The singer was nominated as Best Viewers Choice: International Act on the 2020 BET Awards on 15 June 2020. This award placed him as the only Nigerian artist alongside Burna Boy and Wizkid nominated for the awards edition of 2020.