Don Jazzy reveals he spent $5 million to make Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ a global hit

Mavin Records boss, Don Jazzy has revealed that the label spent between $4 million and $5 million to promote Rema’s hit song Calm Down.

In a recent interview with Bounce FM, the producer explained that pushing a single track can cost anywhere between $100,000 and over $1 million, depending on the scale of the release and the audience it is intended to reach.

Using Rema’s global hit Calm Down as an example, Don Jazzy detailed how the song showed strong promise from its February 2022 release, prompting the team to steadily increase their investment.

He explained that promotion costs vary depending on whether the release is a single, an EP, or an album. Two singles alone can require up to $300,000 just for promotion in Nigeria.

For Calm Down, the team reportedly spent close to $4–5 million to push it to a global audience.

The song later received a remix with Selena Gomez in August 2022 and went on to break several records, achieving platinum status in the United Kingdom by March 2023. It also became India’s second-longest-charting number one African song, among other notable accolades.

Don Jazzy added that some songs can go viral with as little as 10 million naira, highlighting that success isn’t always proportional to spend.

Rema, whose real name is Divine Ikubor, was signed to Jonzing World, a Mavin subsidiary, in 2019, quickly gaining attention for his unique sound and energetic performances.

Since then, he has become one of Africa’s fastest-rising music stars, with hits like Dumebi and Calm Down cementing his status as a global Afrobeats sensation.

Don Jazzy’s revelation offers fans a rare glimpse into the true cost of turning African music into worldwide hits.

Watch video below…

“We spent 4-5 million dollars to promote Rema’s “Calm Down” to where it got to”

– Don Jazzy pic.twitter.com/dRqgenFUPU

— BASITO (@itzbasito) December 11, 2025