First No.1 hit on The Official MENA Chart

First No.1 hit on The Official MENA Chart
Who
Rema
What
/ first
Where
Not Applicable ()
When

On 29 November 2022, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced that “Calm Down” by the Nigerian rapper Rema (b. Divine Ikubor) had become the first No.1 on The Official MENA Chart – the world’s first regional music streaming chart and the first-ever official chart in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The weekly Top 20 collects data from the major streaming platforms across 13 MENA countries, covering a population of more than 300 million people combined: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.


The Official MENA Chart monitors streams from Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, YouTube and Anghami – the Arab world’s first legal streaming/download platform, which was initially launched in Lebanon in 2012. The first Top 20 featured tracks by Egyptian vocalists Farid and Ahmed Saad, Saudi Arabia’s Ayed and K-pop phenomenon Jung Kook (of BTS fame) in addition to internationally renowned artists such as Ozuna, Sam Smith, Shakira, Drake and Taylor Swift.

As of the latest chart announcement, for the week ending 29 December 2022, “Calm Down” was still the most streamed track across MENA.