Nigerian singer Rema continues to break records.

Africa is standing tall and proud as Rema became the first African artiste to win the prestigious Best Afrobeats Award, which was introduced this year at the MTV VMAs.

The Nigerian singer won with his hit single “Calm Down” which features Selena Gomez and was nominated in the category alongside Burna Boy’s “It’s Plenty,” Davido’s “Unavailable” featuring Musa Keys, Ayra Starr’s “Rush,” Libianca’s “People,” Wizkid’s “2 Sugar” featuring Ayrra Starr, and Fireboy DML’s “Bandana” featuring Asake.

Rema got on stage with Gomez to accept his award during the star-studded event at the Prudential Center in New Jersey and paid tribute to many Afrobeats figureheads from Nigeria.

He said “Africa in the house tonight! First of all, I wanna give a big thanks to God. I wanna give big thanks to my fans. I wanna give big thanks to my team. Big shout out to Selena, I wanna say I love you from the bottom of my heart. This means so much seeing Afrobeats grow this big and being here on this stage representing.”

The original version of “Calm Down,” which was the second single from Rema’s debut album, Rave & Roses, was first released in February of 2022. The remix with the former Disney Channel star was released in August of that year and it’s been a global hit ever since. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and it also became the first-ever track to lead the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a record-setting 52 weeks.

However, he told PEOPLE how the collaboration came about