AYRA STARR: IT GIRL
Ayra Starr is as ‘it girl’ as they come. Battling a cold as she poses for photos for her inclusion in the GAFFER 100 – wearing everything from a biker look evoking Christina Aguilera’s ‘Dirty’ music video to an elegant red latex dress - her aura shines through with poise. Her eyes pierce with an aura that leaves you in a trance, a dreamlike state dragging you closer to her orbit. She knows how to turn it on for the camera; its second nature to her. Whether she’s answering interview questions or meeting her idol, Rihanna, confidence is a default setting in her world.
“I had so much confidence as a child but growing up, you start to hear what people think about you,” she tells GAFFER. “I always try to tap into my childlike self and that unwavering confidence. Even if I know I might not be good at this thing, I’ll get better. It’s about experience and choice. You can choose to be confident or not and if you choose to, everything else doesn’t matter. And you can only get there through experience, so be patient with yourself, love yourself and you’ll get there.”
Over the course of this decade so far, Starr’s rise has been nothing short of mesmeric. A legit record breaker and history maker, the world has gravitated to the 22-year-old from Nigeria, born Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe. One look at her Instagram page, boasting 5.7 million followers, and one could assume she’s fairly popular, but it goes deeper than that. Her 2022 single ‘Rush,’ with its celestial Afrobeat vibrations – fitting for an artist who calls herself the ‘Celestial Being’ – stands one of the biggest singles of the last few years, with over 400 million Spotify streams and earning her a Grammy nomination for Best African Music Performance. Her latest album, 2024’s The Year I Turned 21, was the first by a Nigerian female artist to chart in the Billboard 100. Meanwhile, Stormzy and Wizkid have tapped her up for a feature, and former US President Barack Obama has been so enamoured he included ‘Rush’ and ‘Sability’ in his official ‘Favourite Music of 2022’ and ‘Summer 2023’ playlists respectively.
Starr’s ascension is timely, given the corresponding prominence of African female artists such as fellow Nigerian Tems and South African Tyla, propelling continental voices and sounds in a world ready to receive them. But Starr’s success was all a matter of timing in her mind, brought about by her relentless desire to make something of herself. “I’ve always wanted to be a superstar,” she proclaims. “I sang and danced when I was younger and did a lot of competitions and won a couple. So, if it was a dance artist or music artist, I just liked performing and it’s now manifesting itself as I’m growing up.”
One listen to Starr’s music and it’s not hard to see the appeal. To simply reduce it to Afrobeats would do it a disservice; it lingers between amapiano, R&B, afropop and alté for a fresh and modern sound for the young African in Nigeria and beyond. Her vocals smoulder with richness and texture as she croons about falling in love, family and her identity as she gets older. She brings you into her highs and lows while making you dance at the same time. Age is an important motif in her milieu: all of her projects contain her age at the time of their release – the other being 2021 debut album 19 & Dangerous - each symbolising her growth. “It’s me finally allowing myself to experience life,” she told The Guardian in 2024. “I’m literally a superstar! At 19! At 20! We’ve never had that in Africa.”
Starr was born in Cotonou, Benin to Nigerian parents and moved frequently from the place of her birth, Lagos and Abuja. The unsettled nature of her upbringing didn’t curtail her artistic dreams or those of her younger brother, Milar, a writer and producer who’s worked with her since the beginning of her career. “He’s my partner in crime,” she says, her mint-white teeth gleaming as she praises her sibling. “He was making music before I was. He’s super talented, he wrote half of my first album with me. Having someone like that in the studio with me or even send music to, who will tell me the truth, really keeps me grounded.”
"...sometimes I know something is perfect and that I’m transcending.”
Taking the plunge after graduating from university, working as a model and sharing cover versions of her favourite songs on her Instagram page, 2019 saw Starr post her first original track, ‘Damage’ which generated an online buzz. One person watching is a man intrinsically linked with the rise of modern Nigerian music: Don Jazzy. Having worked D’Banj and Wande Coal - the previous generation of stars from the country before the likes of Wizkid, Burna Boy and Rema - Don knew a (pun-intended) star when he heard one and quickly signed Ayra to his Mavin Records label. He even has ‘Jazzy’s Song’ from The Year I Turned 21 named after him, a sign of his importance to her early career. Her self-titled debut EP and debut album 19 & Dangerous soon followed in 2021 and Starr marked herself out as a promising young player in a bright music scene.
The rate at which she releases music – a project roughly every other year – emphasises Starr’s quest for perfection in what she creates, not always ready to rest on her laurels and be content with the result. “Sometimes I never think a song is ready until people in the studio tell me, ‘Ayra, let it go, it’s fine’ but I’m like ‘It’s missing something,’” she shares. “Then two years later I’ll work out what was missing and think I should’ve added it. And then sometimes I know something is perfect and that I’m transcending.”
“I always try to tap into my childlike self and that unwavering confidence."
‘Transcending’ is an appropriate epithet for The Year I Turned 21, a project where Starr’s creativity flies into exciting new territory. Featuring the likes of Asake, Giveon and Coco Jones, it brims with expansive sounds as Starr comes into her own artistically. ‘Control,’ with its R&B inflections, is seductive and sexy; ‘21’ channels the spirit of S.O.S.-era SZA in its wonk and bounce, yet pensive as Starr outlines her life with piercing detail. “It’s almost like an autobiography for me,” she quips. “There wasn’t a single personal experience, it’s more my life story. I’m narrating my life.” Meanwhile, ‘Santa,’ with assists by Jamaican dancehall producer Rvssian and Puerto Rican reggaeton maestro Rauw Alejandro, is a sultry combination of all three worlds.
Starr was meticulous with her new album, all the way down to who would make an appearance. She breaks down her creative approach to features: “It’s all about sonics, so for me it was about bringing people that would sound sonically just as good together. I don’t just want to collaborate for a certain audience, I consider if their voice would be good with mine and if it would make people happy. I always think about the music first.”
“Being the first African artist to perform on the Pyramid Stage was such a privilege, but I know there are so many talented Afrobeats artists to come after me, so why not.”
Anchoring the album is ‘The Kids Are Alright,’ a beautiful reflection of her family. A unit so tightly knit, Starr reveals, that they fast during the first three days of every month without fail, a spiritual undertaking that they embrace as a team. “I recorded [The Kids Are Alright] three days before we started picking songs for the album,” she remembers. “I went to my family group chat and asked everyone to give me a life update to share with my dad and added it to the song. They were very cooperative! I played it for my mum who was with me when we were in the studio picking songs and she just started crying immediately. Everyone was, and I feel like I really did something there.”
Just weeks after the album’s release, Starr’s status as a generational talent gained more weight when she became the first Afrobeats artist to perform at the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s oldest and prestigious musical showcases. Among many things, it represented the power of the changing tide of music towards artists of African origin, but also to the dynamism and popular appeal of Starr’s music. “I didn’t know I was the first until someone told me,” she reminisces. “It’s such a privilege but I know there are so many talented Afrobeats artists to come after me, so why not.”
She continues, reflecting on the performance: “It wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I imagined. I had prepared myself so much for it, so I was more excited. I had so many issues that no one even knew, but it ended up going really well. I can’t wait to come back and give my all again. You never know what God has planned for you, you just keep trying and doing things.”
While she’s been conquering the world with her music, Starr has cultivated an eye-watering sense of fashion along the way. She can always be found in increasingly daring and audacious fits that speak to her quest for self-expression. “The world around me inspired me,” she says on the origins of her passion. “We keep forgetting that fashion is literally art. I’m at a point now where I want to do everything, hair, nails, colours. Rihanna has been my number one fashion icon. I love the way she expresses herself, but I don’t think I’m there yet. But I’m going to get there. I’m loving Doja Cat’s style at the moment too.”
Starr is also unwavering in her support of her fellow female artists. During her conversation with GAFFER he shouts out Rihanna a number of times; she would be a guest to a dinner party, a festival headliner and lend her wardrobe to Starr if she had her way. There is a namecheck for SZA; “She’s the Shakespeare of our generation! A true poet. I wish I had made her album S.O.S.” Her support of women is far from a grand gesture, but more an innate urge. “There’s no specific reason [for me to uplift women],” she says. “Women need more credit than they get, so why not?” She then goes on to namecheck female artists in her rotation, including Bloody Civilian, Lifesize Teddy and Adanna Duru, sharing the wealth of her fame by spotlighting African artists of the future.
After her triumph at Glastonbury, Starr is not stopping short at this dalliance with destiny; she wants to bring more history back to Nigeria, including a number one song on the Billboard 100, her ultimate goal. It speaks to her supreme confidence and trust in herself that her dreams are more than attainable, having come so far in such a short space of time. As she gears towards the next chapter of her young career, Starr’s sonic world will expand and burn bright, taking her on journeys unimagined as her promise continues to grow in front of all of us.
