Rema at Ballon d'Or 2023: Performance and What He Earned
Rema sang Calm Down at the 2023 Ballon d'Or in Paris. His fee was never disclosed; here is what is confirmed and what was only reported.
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Quick answer Rema performed "Calm Down" at the 2023 Ballon d'Or ceremony at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 30 October 2023. His fee for that night has never been made public by Rema, his team or France Football. Any exact figure you see online is a guess. Reported figures for his general show fee around that time ranged from $200,000 to $1 million.
The 2023 Ballon d'Or was the night Lionel Messi won the award for a record eighth time. Rema was the music act, and Nigerian and Ghanaian media reported him as the first African Afrobeats artist to perform at the ceremony.
Below is what is confirmed about the performance, what has been reported about his pay, and what is only speculation.
What did Rema perform at the Ballon d'Or 2023?
He performed one song: his global hit "Calm Down". Reports describe a mid tempo version with dancers on each side of the stage, and Rema dressed in black.
- Date: Monday, 30 October 2023 (one outlet wrote 31 October, but most reports and the event itself give 30 October).
- Venue: Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, France.
- Organiser: France Football, the magazine that founded the Ballon d'Or in 1956.
- Song: "Calm Down", from his 2022 debut album Rave & Roses. The remix with Selena Gomez was reported as the first African artist led song to pass 1 billion Spotify streams.
- Timing: reports say he came on after Manchester City were named Club of the Season.
The moment that went viral
Midway through the song, Rema walked down from the stage into the front rows and shook hands with players. Reports named Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior, Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva among them.
Clips of players smiling and nodding along spread fast on social media in Nigeria and Ghana. Rema later posted on Instagram that he was truly grateful for the chance to bring Afrobeats to the Ballon d'Or.
How much was Rema paid for the Ballon d'Or performance?
Nobody knows publicly. No fee was announced, and none of the main reports on the night, from Music in Africa, Citi Newsroom, ICIR or Vanguard, gives a figure.
Event organisers and artist managers rarely disclose these deals. For a global broadcast like the Ballon d'Or, payment can also include travel, staging and exposure value, not just a cash fee, which makes any outside estimate even less reliable.
Here is how to read what is out there:
| Claim | Status | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Rema performed "Calm Down" at the 2023 Ballon d'Or | Confirmed | Video of the ceremony and wide media coverage |
| Rema's Ballon d'Or fee | Not disclosed | No official or credible report |
| Rema charged about $200,000 per show as of May 2023 | Reported claim | Music executive Sola Adefuwa-Cole, quoted by Vanguard in November 2023 |
| Rema "now charges" about $1 million internationally | Reported claim | Same executive, same Vanguard report |
| Rema was paid about $3 million to perform at Anant Ambani's wedding in India (2024) | Reported claim | Hindustan Times, repeated by ThisDay; a different event, a year later |
So the fair answer is: his fee for the Ballon d'Or is unknown, and his reported asking price at the time sat somewhere in the $200,000 to $1 million range, based on one industry source. Treat even those numbers as claims, not records.
Do artists get paid to perform at the Ballon d'Or?
France Football does not publish what it pays performers. It is also not known whether any artist has performed there for free.
Some people compare it to the NFL Super Bowl halftime show, where headline acts are widely reported to receive little or no fee and earn from the exposure instead. There is no public evidence that the Ballon d'Or works the same way, so the comparison is not proof either way.
What the performance did for Rema
The clear gain was visibility. The ceremony is broadcast around the world and filled with the biggest names in football, many of whom already played "Calm Down" in dressing rooms and on social media.
- It put an Afrobeats act on a stage usually given to European or American pop stars.
- It created shareable clips with famous players, which travelled far beyond music fans.
- Within a year, Rema was reportedly booked for Anant Ambani's wedding celebrations in India, one of the most talked about private events of 2024.
We cannot measure how much the Ballon d'Or moment alone added to his income, and no credible source has tried.
Nigerian artists at big global sports events
Rema's Ballon d'Or show is part of a run of Nigerian acts on sports stages. Davido performed "Hayya Hayya" at the 2022 FIFA World Cup closing ceremony in Qatar, and Afrobeats songs are now common in stadiums and football broadcasts across Europe.
For more music explainers, see our meanings section and our guide to Nigerian slangs and their meaning.
Frequently asked questions
How much did Rema earn from the Ballon d'Or?
It has not been disclosed. Rema, his management and France Football have not shared any figure, so any number online is a guess.
What song did Rema sing at the Ballon d'Or 2023?
He sang "Calm Down", his biggest hit, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 30 October 2023.
Was Rema the first African to perform at the Ballon d'Or?
Many African outlets reported him as the first African, or first Nigerian Afrobeats, artist to perform at the ceremony. France Football has not published an official list to confirm it.
Which players did Rema shake hands with at the Ballon d'Or?
Reports named Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior, Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva among the players he greeted in the front rows.
Who won the Ballon d'Or the night Rema performed?
Lionel Messi won the 2023 men's Ballon d'Or, his eighth.
How much does Rema charge per show?
A music executive told Vanguard in November 2023 that Rema charged about $200,000 as of May 2023 and later about $1 million internationally. These are reported claims, not confirmed by Rema.
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