CNN
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The stars were on display at Sunday’s NBA All-Star game in Salt Lake City, Utah – from basketball legends LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo to Nigerian musical titans Burna Boy, Tems and Rema.
The trio gave a halftime show full of Afrobeats, a sign that the global rise of the genre will continue in 2023.
Grammy-winning Burna Boy was the first to perform, tell the crowd“I’m about to take you on a journey across Africa without even getting on a plane.”
Read more: Burna Boy has a complicated relationship with Africa
It wraps up a whirlwind month for Tems, as she did recently made history by being the first Nigerian artist to receive an Oscar nomination for her work on Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” – a song from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”. She also won her first Grammy on Feb. 5 for her collaboration with Drake and Future on “Wait For U.”
Meanwhile musician, rapper and singer Rema enjoys chart topping success with his hit “Calm Down”, featuring Selena Gomez.
“Nigeria is a soccer-dominated, soccer-dominated country,” Burna Boy said in a video posted Monday by the NBA All-Star Twitter account. “But at the same time, we still have some of the best basketball players around here.”
“This is a dream,” he added in another clip. “This is amazing. As a kid I dreamed of playing in the NBA, but you know I have to perform in the NBA [All-Star game]so i think i made it anyway.
Look through the gallery at the top of the page for images from the performances.
