Popular Nigerian singer Divine Ikubor, aka Rema, has stated that for award shows, all of his colleagues' musical styles will cohere under the afrobeats label, regardless of what genre they choose to label them.

The ‘Calm Down’ crooner stated this while receiving his award for Best Male Artist of the Year at the 2023 Headies Awards in Atlanta, USA, on Sunday.

Rema said, “I must say it is very important that I let everyone know that I’m not here because of the awards. I’m here because it is important to support our institutions. And when I said institutions, I meant the bodies that support you to be able to achieve these major successes—the media houses, award organizers, you know.

“We are in a very sensitive period, and if we don’t give our attention to our institutions, we will miss this chance that we have. And we will never have this chance again.

“Be it afrorave, afro this, afro that, or last last, we go jam for the afrobeats award. So, this is our chance. We [afrobeats artists] are not the first to do it. Reggae has done it before.”

His comment is against the backdrop of Burna Boy and some of his colleagues denouncing the afrobeats tag on the grounds that they don’t want to be “boxed”, and that it (afrobeats) “lacks substance.”