‘Rihanna Loves Me!’, Ayra Starr On Fame And Her Famous Fans

Everyone has their bad days, even someone as talented and successful as Ayra Starr. But the Nigerian singer-songwriter has a pick-me-up method unavailable to most of us. On one of her phone lockscreens she’s set a photo of herself embracing a fan. Not just any fan, but Rihanna, the best-selling artist of the 21st century. “If I’m worried and tired, or I feel a type of way, I just open my phone and I’m like, wait, why am I sad? Rihanna loves me,” says Starr, real name Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe.

Rihanna has been spotted back in the recording studio after an eight-year hiatus, could they work on something together? “Obviously, I would love to. Who doesn’t want a song with Rihanna?” exclaims Starr. “She’s one of the greatest artists to ever make music and is such a big inspiration to me. If I get to even be in the studio with her, bet you that song is gonna be amazing.”

At just 22, Starr has had enough pinch-me moments to fill several phone wallpapers. Last year she was handpicked by Chris Martin to join Coldplay on their Music of the Spheres world tour. “That Chris wanted to make music with me is the most mind-blowing thing,” she says. “We became friends and I started playing him music and he was giving me advice. He just supports me and he supports the type of music I make, and he understands. I make very high vibration music, and that’s what Coldplay is all about too. Music that touches your soul and makes you feel good.” Did she have any advice for Martin in return? “Chris is a good dancer, but he can give us a bit of one-and-two, you know, more legs! He’s got it in him,” she laughs.

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If a career co-signed by Rihanna and Coldplay wasn’t enough, Starr just won two Mobo Awards for best international music act and best African music act — becoming the first woman to win the latter category in 16 years. Then she walked for Di Petsa autumn/winter 2025 at London Fashion Week, closing the show in a white two-piece flanked by an angel. Anyone might want a bit of a lie-down after all that, but Starr is immediately back in the studio laying down tracks. When I meet her at Runway Recording Studios in east London, she’s taking a break between recordings. Discovered singing covers on Instagram at 18, she’s already had two critically acclaimed albums — 19 & Dangerous and The Year I Turned 21 — and only just released her latest single, All the Love.

“IF I GET TO BE IN THE STUDIO WITH RIHANNA, BET YOU THAT SONG IS GONNA BE AMAZING.”

AYRA STARR

Does this mean there’s another album in the works? “You’re trying to know the tea, girl,” jokes Starr, a self-confessed “snitch” and lover of gossip. “I used to be obsessed with being an album artist,” she explains. “Now I’m trying to give myself a bit less pressure and just make music for the sake of making music, and we’ll see where that takes me.”

Where it takes her could be anywhere. “I never make the same type of song twice,” she explains. “I get bored and I want to create something new.” She credits her willingness to expand her musical horizons with her peripatetic upbringing. Born in the Republic of Benin, she grew up between the Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja. “I got to meet a lot of different people and adapt to a lot of different cultures,” Starr says. “I feel like that shaped me and the type of music I make.”

MIKEY OSHAI

That type of music is mainly Afrobeats, the umbrella term for popular music from West Africa that blends soul, funk and politically aware lyrics. Starr is clear that it’s so much more than that. “People think it’s just a genre you can replicate with a certain pattern of beats, something that’s trending,” she says. “It’s way more than that. It’s political. It’s mental. It’s emotional. It’s psychological. This is a whole culture, a movement that has been there since before me and it’s way bigger than me.”

The one constant, though, is her voice — an incredible silky low alto. “My sound is my voice,” says Starr. “When I was younger, it was so hard to understand the type of voice I had. Even my choir master would ask, ‘Why are you singing so low?’ Making music now, people are like, ‘Who’s that singing? A girl or a guy?’” It’s the curse of the alto in a world of sopranos. But like Cher and Sade, she’s learned how to rock that lower register. “I used to hate it, but now I see it as a superpower. It’s not my fault if you can’t tell who sang it. You just know that my voice is unique and it sounds beautiful.”

“I ENJOY BEING FAMOUS. I LIKE BEING SEEN. I LOVE BEING A MUSE”

AYRA STARR

Starr has an infectious brand of self confidence. Effortlessly stylish — her currently copper-toned pixie crop is hidden under an oversized hoodie paired with snakeskin trousers and heeled mules — she owns her spinning chair throne in the recording studio. “I enjoy being famous. I like being seen. I love being a muse,” she says. I love being art, I love making art. I love being an inspiration to people.” We’re in a golden era for women making music, but artists including Charli xcx and Chappell Roan have been outspoken about their conflicted relationship with fame. But for Starr, it’s been a net positive. “I did find it hard at some points, where I felt like I had no privacy or personal life, but I’ve learned how to work with that,” she says. “My fans are very respectful of my private life.”

But fame and fans means she’s had to adapt when she’s in London; she’s no longer free to cycle around the city and visit her favourite restaurants. “I had my Lime bike era. It was fun and I enjoyed it, but now I can’t,” she says. “I wear a mask and a hoodie and everything ’cause you get recognised. I’ll just see myself on TikTok.” When she goes for hot pot and karaoke (Adele is her go-to, Rihanna is “very hard to sing”) at her favourite spot in London, Haidilao, she has to hustle into a private booth to escape selfie hunters.

MIKEY OSHAI

Perhaps it helps the adjustment that Starr has been on both sides of the celebrity/fan divide. When she was about 12, she discovered Nicki Minaj. “I was trying to find my confidence. Minaj just gave me that. So, I used to ride for her, like Twitter fan page, Instagram fan page,” she remembers. “Nobody knew, ’cause I was not supposed to be on social media till I was 16. So they didn’t know I had all of that. I mean, they know now that I just told you. I just snitched on myself!”

While sneaking around online she also engaged in another teenage right-of-passage — writing “smutty” fan fiction on Wattpad. She won’t snitch on the fandom — too recognisable, and she’s since taken her work down — but spending time in the fandom trenches has inured her to how unhinged people can be on the internet. “When you see people getting into flame wars online, I get it,” she says. “I have had some Twitter crash-outs, when people were hating me for no reason.” A crash-out, in Gen Z parlance, is to publicly lose your temper, but Starr has had a fairly controversy-free career.

“HAVING LGBTQ+ KIDS IN NIGERIA SEND ME MESSAGES SAYING I MAKE THEM FEEL CONFIDENT, I MAKE THEM PROUD? IT’S THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD”

AYRA STARR

One slight exception was some grumbling from her Nigerian fan base when she publicly embraced her LGBTQ+ fandom in Brazil. She was delighted when fans turned up to a concert holding placards calling themselves “Sabigays”, in reference to her nickname Sabi Girl (sabi, in Nigerian pidgin, is “to know”, while her chosen stage name Ayra means “open-minded”). “I love my fans, and I’m a chill girl,” she says of the incident. “My culture is very different and they have a different mindset. I’ve always been a maverick and I’ve always had a mind of my own to think how I want to think. I support who I want to support; nothing can change that.”

Same-sex relationships are illegal in her home country, but Starr is proud to be an icon for the gay community. “When I met my fans and they are calling themselves Sabigays, I was like, this is the most iconic thing to ever exist from a Nigerian artist ever,” she says. “Having LGBTQ+ kids in Nigeria send me messages saying I make them feel confident, I make them proud? It’s the best feeling in the world.”

AYRA STARR PERFORMING ON THE PYRAMID STAGE WITH COLDPLAY

BEN BIRCHALL/PA

Starr is able to hold both her love for her queer fans and love for God close. “He’s my father, and I’m a daddy’s girl,” she shrugs. She wakes up each morning with “a Bible thing” on YouTube before catching up on entertainment news. She considers her career in his hands. “Wherever God is willing to take me, I’m just here for the ride, and I’m here to enjoy it while I do,” she says. “I’m literally surrendering myself to God and the music.”

Still, she’s not fully absorbed her latest triumphs. “It still feels very fresh,” she says. “I always have delayed reactions to everything. Maybe by next week, when I’m back home on my bed, I’m gonna be like, wait, two Mobos?” Bed is important to Starr. It’s where she creates her best work and where she indulges in her favourite hobby: sleeping. She has an iconic-sounding routine for it, full of lavender sprays and pink pyjamas. It’s a great way to stay grounded, along with regular FaceTimes with friends and contributions to their WhatsApp group chat (currently named: Hoe Avengers Assemble). “It’s very hard not to be grounded because I’m surrounded by people that ground me all the time,” she says.

Although, she jokes, “it’s hard to stay humble!” Frankly, if Rihanna’s your number one fan, humility probably isn’t in order.

Credit: The standard.co.uk